Good morning, welcome to the Jadestone Energy plc investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted at any time via the Q&A tab situated on the right-hand corner of your screen. Simply type in your questions and press Send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. The company will review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it is appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to Paul Blakeley, CEO. Good morning, sir.
Very good. Thank you indeed, Lily, and ladies and gentlemen, good morning or good afternoon, thank you for joining this presentation on the Investor Meet Company platform. I'm Paul Blakeley, Jadestone's CEO. I'm joined today by our CFO, Bert-Jaap Dijkstra. It's been a while since we hosted an event directly focused on the retail and private investment community. Our apologies for that. We're committed to get back to a more regular dialogue with you going forward. In particular, I know that many of you listening in today, along with the wider retail community, have been focused on the events of recent months, which have reached ahead in last month's equity placing.
This has raised a lot of questions which I hope we can address during the presentation and the subsequent question and answer session as we look to reset the investment case after a very difficult period for Jadestone. First, we'll just take you through a presentation which has been uploaded to the IMC platform, and which you can all now hopefully see on the screen. We'll take questions, starting with those which were submitted through the platform over the past week, followed by those which are submitted during the presentation. As Lily suggested, I mean, we're going to do our best to answer all the questions within the scheduled 60 minutes, but if we run out of time, we'll follow up with written responses. Just moving on to slide two, which really lays out the standard disclaimers.
Just a quick reminder about the cautionary remarks regarding forward-looking statements and non-IFRS measures that are used in the presentation. With that, let's move on to slide three. This is just an introductory slide for myself and Bert-Jaap, emphasizing our experience, but I'd also like to make the point that there is a lot of talent and experience within the organization in each country where we operate. We seek to attract local talent where possible and have been successful in retaining very high caliber individuals from larger companies for whom E&P growth has become increasingly de-emphasized. We bolster this with some global expertise, more deeply skilled in our second phase or mid-life operation strategy, some from Talisman Energy, my former company, but particularly sourced from more mature hydrocarbon provinces, such as the North Sea, Canada, and elsewhere.
We also announced at the end of June, an intent to add a Chief Operating Officer to the senior management team. This responds to the continued growth of the business, and a greater need for more detailed oversight and management as the portfolio expands, centralizing responsibility for operational delivery. I honestly believe we have a team capable of taking on most asset opportunities and successfully delivering value upside through both investment activity and efficiency initiatives, and we hope over the years ahead, we'll prove that to you all. Okay, now let's move to slide four. We're going to put this on full screen to make it easier for you to see. This highlights the growth of the business with some key statistics on reserves and resources. A key near-term objective is to significantly diversify our asset base and geographical concentration.
Also diversify the oil and gas mix and price exposure. This will de-emphasize the importance of Montara, especially once Akatara is on stream next year, when we'll have seven producing assets across four countries. Combined with our discoveries in Vietnam, this represents a total 2P reserves and 2C resource base of 175 million BOEs a day. It feels pretty clear that the value of this reserves and resource base, and the potential growth it implies and value it creates, is simply not reflected in our current market valuation. Of course, that's what we now need to address.
Turning to slide five, which sets out the thesis for our investment case in the near term, and how we plan to deliver short-term growth in production and cash flow, de-leveraging the balance sheet and returning to a net cash position as quickly as we can. The immediate production growth comes from the restart and stable production at Montara, a full year of production from the Stag wells, which were drilled late last year. The initial equity interest in CWLH and the subsequent purchase of equity in Sinphuhorm, plus the upcoming East Belumut infill drilling campaign, which starts next month. This increase in production will be further bolstered next year once the Akatara development comes on stream in the first half. You can also expect further drilling in Malaysia going forwards, as well as at Stag, Montara, and more through 2025 and into 2026 as well. While not yet a promise, there are other potential organic development projects like PNLP in Malaysia, which is the former OBO assets, within the OMV, SapuraOMV asset acquisition we made in 2021.
As well as gas developments in Vietnam, which could drive further growth in the out years. While being especially careful in the short term with cash balance being a critical factor, we can still enhance this growth through acquisitions, which can potentially be funded through the RBL. Though conservative, the banks also want to see us grow, and with careful planning, acquisitions such as CWLH and Sinphuhorm, for example, can be funded through the RBL. Sinphuhorm, for example, adding more borrowing base than we paid for the asset at closing. Finally here, we're also want to point out we're working to do all of this in a responsible way, with a focus on safe operations while reducing our environmental footprint to as low as we reasonably can, while working hard to maintain our current clean HSE scorecard.
Slide six briefly showcases some of the investment options as we search out for compelling acquisitions and then find ways to add reserves, add value and extend field life. Typically, we look for 30% returns at acquisition or more, and the following investments are often 100% IRRs as they pay back within months rather than years. Cash generation is significant, and it's a business model which is predisposed to shareholder returns. Importantly, the broadening portfolio will in turn place far less reliance on Montara and events, of course, such as the recent extended shutdown. This provides resilience, reduces the risk of being knocked off course. That's why portfolio expansion into multiple jurisdictions, and with the addition of fixed price gas streams, such as at Sinphuhorm and Akatara, provide increasing diversity, which in turn adds far greater business strength, a key short-term objective.
Now moving on to slide seven, where this and the next few slides provide some select highlights on assets where current activity is driving growth. I haven't included details on Stag or Sinphuhorm, largely because they're delivering to expectations. Let's just start with Montara, where after securing Tank 2C, we completed an early phase of tank restoration, an extensive four-yearly maintenance campaign, and now production has been restored broadly to pre-shutdown levels. The tank reinstatement activities shown on the bottom signal a measured approach with a thorough tank-by-tank visual inspection program. With phase 1 now complete, we're focused on water ballast tanks, which is a current priority activity for class recertification, in parallel with crude oil storage Tank 1C.
The latter is expected on stream by the end of this month. Systematically, we'll just work our way to returning to a six or seven crude oil tank operation, which will restore full-size parcels of crude for offload. In the meantime, we're selling smaller volumes and have used a standby shuttle tanker as a temporary storage facility to ensure no disruption to production operations. This has now been taken off hire, by the way, with a recent offload cargo. We're still working on the options for the remainder of the year, aimed at maximizing flexibility and minimizing cost. The operations team's objectives here are pretty clear. It's a constant focus on safe production operations, along with high uptime and a ruthless control of costs. We'll do all we can to support their delivery in this.
Moving to slide eight, this provides a summary of the Peninsular Malaysia-operated assets which were acquired in August 2021. The team have been working hard to reduce downtime and decline rates of the fields with our first infill drilling campaign on East Belumut, scheduled to start next month. If successful, we'll likely see production restored back to the level at the time of the acquisition. As part of our emission strategy, these assets have also been identified as candidates for effective investments to mitigate greenhouse gases. The right-hand side of this slide sets out some of the initiatives that are currently underway. The Akatara project, now shown on slide nine, is currently, have I moved one slide too far? Slide 10. Okay, they're reversed. Let's talk about Akatara first. Thanks very much, on this slide.
It's currently just over 40% complete, and we've summarized the economic return of what is our first new development within Jadestone. The team carrying out the project, though, has many years of experience of this type of activity in Indonesia from past Talisman Energy days, but it still represents a really exciting milestone for us. Costs are largely constrained through a fixed price, lump sum contracting strategy, and with up to 750 people on site, progress has been good, while achieving over 1.9 million man-hours of safe working. Long lead items, such as compressors and generators, are usually the high-risk items that can impact schedule, but these are all well under control following factory acceptance testing, and they are expected to be delivered two months early into the region.
The economic summary on the left reinforces the significant early cash generation, which under the PSC regime, Production Sharing Contract regime, allows recovery of all costs, both past and current project costs, to be recovered on an accelerated basis. This drives high IRRs and is a big contributor to a very rapid deleveraging of Jadestone's balance sheet. We're also excited by potential subsurface upside in the Akatara reservoir beyond the current contracted volumes, and we're working towards an incremental sales contract over the first few years. I think now let's just pause, and perhaps we can watch a short video clip of progress at site today. Okay, thanks. The full version of that clip is already on our website, and we do provide monthly updates.
I recommend that you can keep tabs on progress on the project by viewing those from time to time. Can we move back to CWLH now? Thanks. This is just a recap of the Cossack, Wanaea, Lambert, and Hermes fields, which were acquired from BP. Strategically, this is a very high-quality asset, with nearly 900 million bbl of oil originally in place and with low decline rates. To put that in context, that's almost 6 x larger oil in place volume than at the Montara fields. There's significant upside through further infill drilling, and our focus is on addressing the current partnership structure to give us the best chance of allowing that to happen.
The potential upside led to a net 6.5 million bbl or around 40 million bbl of gross contingent resource booking at the year-end 2022, which, if we can deliver that, could double the 2P reserves. The transaction was completed in November last year for a net receipt of $6 million, plus an immediate 650,000 bbl crude oil parcel, which was sold for proceeds of $56 million net to Jadestone. This covered the first 50% of decommissioning security and more. Following closing of the RBL, we have now paid the second 41 million of decommissioning trust funding to complete the entire funding of decommissioning.
This results in a forward cash flow stream from CWLH, which is unencumbered by decom costs, and therefore generating a very high forward valuation, which translates to a high borrowing capacity, which is very helpful in the context of the RBL structure. We'd very much like to do more here and are working hard to expand our position in the asset. Now moving on to the next slide, which is the Peninsular Malaysia assets. The former non-operated assets, which were acquired in 2021 as part of the overall SapuraOMV package. At the time, they did not have much value attributed to them due to their non-operated and very late life nature, and with the PSC expiry due in 2024.
At acquisition, they were producing approximately 1,000 bbl a day net to Jadestone, and of course, as you know, were shut in since February last year following the class suspension of the Bunga Kertas FPSO. The operator has recently decided to withdraw, and we have assumed operatorship of the interests for continuity and efficiency with our existing neighboring operated portfolio. Based on our internal studies, we believe there may be a very attractive redevelopment opportunity, and last week, we submitted a proposal to the Malaysian upstream regulator. This is the beginning of a negotiated process over a redevelopment plan and fiscal terms. There's potential for significant value generation, but there are a number of hurdles, and we would expect to have more to say later in the year.
In the meantime, the previous operator is responsible for removing the FPSO and towing it to a shipyard in Malaysia next month. Once there, it will undergo repairs before being handed back to its owner later in the year. The net share to Jadestone of this work is around $15 million, although we expect to recoup a lot of that through existing decommissioning cess funds, which would likely pay out in 2024. Now to the next slide, which illustrates the potential production growth and diversification from both committed investments and opportunities in our portfolio over the next two to three years. It also shows the shift from a very limited asset base on the left to a much broader portfolio on the right.
With a further small, strategically targeted M&A opportunity, which should fit well within the borrowing base, currently in the partner consent phase. In addition, there's the possible redevelopment of PNLP, as I've just described. There's the potential in Vietnam, where we see some momentum on the Nam Du and U Minh gas development. Overall, in summary, following a very difficult period for us, the outlook for short-term growth, increasing diversity within the portfolio, and growing cash flow is a very positive outlook overall, we're working hard to deliver on all of this in order to restore investor confidence. With that, now I'm going to hand over to Bert-Jaap to talk you through the RBL and the financial projections. Bert-Jaap.
Thank you, Paul. Good morning or afternoon to all of you. On this slide, I would like to discuss the RBL because its structure and temporary dip in availability at the beginning of next year, based on the current banking model, has been a focus for many of you listening in today. First and foremost, we were very pleased to close the RBL with four international banks for a total of $200 million in support of Jadestone's growth ambitions. The RBL banks see us as responsible operator, likely taking a lead role in consolidating mid-life assets in the region. They also like our commitment to transparency, high standards of governance, and our ESG positioning. The RBL supports Jadestone's significant investment program, including funding the acquisition of producing assets. Total debt capacity is established in biannual redeterminations and is initially $200 million.
This capacity is projected to decrease to around $90 million at the start of the second quarter of 2024. In the third quarter of that year, assuming a successful completion test, Akatara would be integrated in the borrowing base as producing asset, with availability increasing again to $200 million. Akatara's contribution is constrained at 40% of the total producing assets contribution until that completion test is passed. Closing of the RBL occurred days before the 2022 results were due to be published. The RBL was, of course, an important element for the auditor's going concern statement. The RBL closed much later than we planned, due to the continued slippage in the restart and stabilization of Montara, which was a milestone required by the banks to be able to close the RBL. This slippage significantly eroded our liquidity position going into the RBL.
Also, in the final run-up to closing of the RBL, oil prices had come down, which decreased the borrowing capacity at the low point in the second quarter of 2024, and as such, increased the forecasted temporary liquidity shortfall in our final banking model. This shortfall was not unexpected, and management believed, and still believes, that we have mitigants to close this gap, especially given its temporary nature. However, executing these mitigants will take time for assessment, and most require bank approvals. This work today is underway, but could, of course, only start after we had closed the RBL. The board took the decision to be proactive and raise additional financing before finalizing the 2022 audited results, and as such, avoid language in the draft going concern statement, which would likely have had a significant negative impact for all stakeholders.
We prioritized equity over debt to avoid over-leveraging the balance sheet. To ensure protection against the tested downside scenarios, in addition to the $50 million equity raise, we have also put in place the up to $35 million working capital facility, which we don't expect to draw. This combined equity and debt funding, in addition to the existing RBL, provides financial flexibility to bridge across the temporary debt availability shortfall into the fast improving liquidity position following Akatara's first gas. Next slide, please. The chart on this slide illustrates the debt availability over time from our current banking model. This banking model calculates present value of future cash flow using third-party verified production profiles, reserves, OpEx, CapEx, and AbEx estimates.
The oil price currently used in the banking model is $67 per barrel for 2023, $62 for 2024, and $58 per barrel for later years. This accelerates forward field abandonment in the banking model. A 33% discount is then applied to the result to arrive at the borrowing base. The RBL facility requires that we hedge 50% of our production over the fourth quarter, 2023 to the third quarter of 2025 period. To date, around 90% has been hedged at a weighted average price of around $70 per barrel, which is in line with the RBL banking model. We expect to finish the program over the coming weeks. Going forward, the present value reduces with production and the abandonment timing coming closer, mostly for Montara and Stag, using the banking oil price deck.
As mentioned earlier, there are options to mitigate the temporary dip in Q2 2024. We have started that process with the RBL banks, which will take time, as most options, again, require bank consent. Two examples here are opportunistic additional hedging and a CapEx add back feature, which we have in the RBL's facility agreement. The key conclusion is that Jadestone is looking at a temporary dip in its RBL borrowing base, which we are looking to improve going forward, using various options, with progressively more certainty around outcomes in the future. In summary, the additional funding with the RBL bridges Jadestone into a period of operating cash flow growth, significantly increasing RBL debt capacity and a rapidly deleveraging balance sheet.
On slides 15 and 16, I'd like to put Paul's earlier comments around the growth in the business over the next two years into the context of financial performance. The year-on-year reduction in cash flow in 2023 is mainly caused by lower forecasted revenues, caused by lower oil price realizations across the three scenarios in this chart compared to 2022. On current assumptions, we also expect to lift fewer barrels at Montara than last year, primarily reflecting that the first lifting of the year from Montara only occurred in May. The $160 million operating cash flow in the base case forecasted for 2024, is based on the $75 per barrel oil price.
The recovery in 2024 is driven by growth in revenues from increased production with a full year of contribution and liftings from Montara, the positive impact of the [Penmor] infill wells, and of course, the start of production from the Akatara gas field in the first half of 2024. Into 2025, operating cash flow is projected to increase further to around $190 million in our base case, mostly due to the full year contribution of Akatara, which brings high margin production and also incremental production from the forecasted Stag infill drilling campaign, which we have planned for the second half of that year.
These operating cash flow forecasts, combined with the impact of our record investment program in 2023, are the main drivers of converting our 2023 projected net debt position into a net cash position on the next slide in the near future, under the base case. On slide 16, we show the history of the company's financial position and forecasted evolution of the company's net debt and cash, which illustrates that we are expecting a short-lived funding requirement to finance our operations, and more importantly, our record investment program. Under the stated assumptions, we project to return to a significant net cash position by 2025. Do note that these predictions were made prior to the impact of the successful placing we've done in early June.
In the period from the first half of 2022 to the year-end 2023, Jadestone moves from a net cash of $160 million to a net debt position of around $100 million. This $260 million variance over the period is mostly driven by the company's $300 million investment program. Of the $300 million investment, $190 million is CapEx, covering around $70 million for the second half of 2022, mostly due to Stag drilling, and around $120 million at the midpoint of this year's CapEx guidance. The other $110 million is acquisition-related and includes around $80 million for all of the CWLH abandonment fund payments, and the Sinphuhorm acquisition for around $30 million, completed early in 2023.
During 2024, the company expects to reduce its net debt by around $65 million at year-end in the base case. This is driven by operating cash flow of around $160 million, as explained on the previous slide, partly offset by planned CapEx. This is most notably Stag drilling and the last Lemang expenditure. Into 2025, the net debt position is forecasted to improve further. This is driven by operating cash flow for 2025 of around $190 million, with significantly lower CapEx projected. Note, the net debt position is presented as said before the equity placing, so following the successful raise and all else being equal, this position in the base case is projected to be around $50 million better.
On slide 17, we just reiterate the guidance for the full year 2023, which we have reported on earlier. We are looking to provide a regular update together with our 2023 mid-year results presentation, which is planned for September. With that, I'll hand back to Paul. Go ahead, Paul. Your lights are-
Sorry. Thank you. Sorry, my microphone was off. Thank you so much. Yeah, let's move to the final slide. With the balance sheet and liquidity underpinned by the RBL, the recent placing and the standby facility, and with Montara operations restored, also backed up by an increasingly diverse production portfolio and with Akatara on plan, the Jadestone equity story feels to be somewhat revitalized, with a clear line of sight to significant cash flow generation and a rapid deleveraging of the balance sheet. In some ways, I have to say, it almost feels like a relaunch of the business from a very low valuation, rapidly returning to healthy cash generation and a strong balance sheet, which has always been a key hallmark of our investment thesis.
Ladies and gentlemen, look, this has been a very difficult period, with the Montara incident being completely unpredicted and unpredictable, and restoration was unquestionably hampered by limited to access to the facility. However, we now find ourselves with a tremendous opportunity, and looking forward, we feel far more energized. We have baked in short-term growth from an expanding and diverse portfolio, an environment with opportunity to further deepen the business with increasingly high-quality assets, and a significant financial capacity, largely backed by the highest quality international banks who've endorsed our business with their significant capital commitments. In return, if we are to draw a line here, going forward requires a doubling of our focus on operating excellence, absolute confidence in delivering work programs safely and on time. I believe the addition of a chief operating officer will help here.
Akatara first gas is on schedule, adding significant production and cash flow in 2024. This does support the rapid deleveraging of the balance sheet. As we've shown, this will return us to a net cash position, most likely in early 2025. It could be earlier. With a strengthened balance sheet, this can lead to restoring shareholder returns. We will commit to communicate progress on all this to the market more effectively than we have. With the aim of seeing this delivery reflected in our share price as soon and as much as possible. With that, may I offer my thanks for your attention. Now let's move to the Q&A.
Paul, Bert-Jaap , thank you very much for your presentation. If I may just bring back up your cameras. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the Q&A tab situated on the top right-hand corner of your screen. Just while the company take a few moments to review those questions submitted today, I'd like to remind you that a recording of this presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q&A, can be accessed via your investor dashboard. As you can see, we have received a number of questions throughout today's presentation. Could I please ask you to read out the questions and give responses where appropriate to do so, and I'll pick up from you at the end.
Very good. Thanks a lot. Let's start with the pre-submitted questions. I'm going to read the first one. The last few months have been very tough to be a Jadestone shareholder. As recently as February this year, the share price was 90 p, and from the current 35p , would need to rise by 160% to get back there. What are management planning to do to bring confidence back to the market and ensure the market fully reflects the asset base and value of the business? Well, I mean, let me say a few words. I mean, first and foremost, I can only agree, this has been tough. The board and management team all recognize that the last several months have been disappointing for all our stakeholders.
We've already announced a number of changes: director and management, refreshment of the board, the hiring of a COO, all aimed at improving performance and delivery and providing stronger governance. We have to improve our performance with much greater focus on operations delivery, though. We continue to diversify and grow the business. We also recognize a need to take more care to communicate clearly and more regularly to all shareholders, including retail investors, starting with this presentation today. Then it's down to delivery. As you will have seen, you know, Montara production is now stabilized. Akatara is moving ahead on plan. Diversification of the portfolio is delivering clear benefits. We've had, you know, an incident which has significantly upset the business, but now we move forward.
You know, one of the slides that Bert-Jaap showed demonstrated that, you know, the underlying thesis for cash generation from this type of portfolio is strong and is there. We will bounce back fast, as he has shown, with, you know, with the financial cashflow delivery. We're now funded to deliver this program that we've outlined and produce the cashflow from a whole pipeline of high internal rate of return projects. Of course, that's what it takes. Over time, we hope that investor confidence is restored once we deliver on all of those aspects at an operational level.
The second question that we have is over the past few weeks, there have been days with very large transactions. The suspicion is Odey have capitulated in recent lows. Can management confirm, have other institutions been selling also? Jaap, would you like to take that question?
Sure. Sure, Paul.
Thanks.
Phil, if you don't mind moving to the appendix, we have a slide which we created on our top holders, recent and more recent, if you will, so end of April to the end of June. What you can see here is that Odey shows a position of 6.6% at the end of April, which is now below 3%. They're not in our top five shareholding anymore. Bottom line is that there's a lot of press coverage on Odey's, let's say, sudden divestments made, and we believe that these redemptions were not unique to the Jadestone case. What you can see here is that some shareholders also in top of our register, decided to increase their stakes. As always, there's buyers and sellers. Odey has sold most of this. There's a small belief, still in position that for sale is this portion. Yeah, for sale. Thanks, Paul.
Good. Thank you, Bert-Jaap. Third question: The recent transaction with Tyrus, whilst understandable from a financial support perspective, was very generous to them. The issuing of warrants at 50 p, significantly below intrinsic value, dealt a very nasty blow to existing shareholders. Can management explain why this was seen as the preferred method? Let me say a few words here. I think, you know, through the discussion earlier with Bert-Jaap, what you can see is we were faced with some very difficult decisions in a very, very short timeframe. This, to some extent, significantly limited our options. Debt, for example, wasn't really an option in that timeframe.
Testing the debt market for unsecured second lien debt, to be delivered $85 million within days, you know, is an impossible ask, and under any circumstances, with difficult consequences and conditions, which would have been incredibly restrictive to the business. So, you know, equity was really the only way we could solve this problem in the timeframe. Turning to Tyrus, you know, they've been Jadestone's largest shareholder and a key supporter since the company's inception back in 2015. Tony Chedraoui, who is the Founder of Tyrus, is personally very committed to the success of Jadestone. As the largest shareholder, it was obvious and logical to approach them first.
You know, as I've just said, we already set out the chain of events that led to the June financing transaction, which of course, you know, as has been discussed, you know, in summary, were due to last-minute changes in the RBL banking model and the auditor's interpretation of a temporary liquidity shortfall very early next year, which we had a number of options to manage, but given no time to implement, management was faced with really, I think, a very, very difficult choice. We either publish an audit report with statements which could seriously damage the company's standing with all stakeholders, or we raise additional funding to safeguard the company's future. At this point, Tyrus were approached, given their position as our largest shareholder.
There was no viable equity solution possible over a nine-day period without support from them. This would have been the first question anyway, and likely requirement from all other shareholders. You know, in the event, with a commitment from Tyrus to underwrite the whole GBP 50 million equity raise, as well as to commit funds to the standby working capital facility, as our largest shareholder, it sends the strongest possible positive signal that underpins the business. You know, it was not unreasonable under those circumstances, for Tyrus to be compensated for committing such significant funds over a short-term period. By effectively underwriting the equity raise at 45 p, in reality, Tyrus is actually protecting everyone, including retail shareholders, from what would have been a far more highly dilutive equity raise at a significantly greater discount.
You know, to all intents and purposes, you know, I see the actions of Tyrus of being, you know, really supportive of everyone, and of course, especially of the business. The board management advisors and Tyrus, together with Tyrus, we worked around the clock to deliver this financing in an incredibly short timeframe. No one else, apart from Tyrus, was in a position to act this quickly. This we've tested with a number of other shareholders, who, you know, would have liked to support this, but were simply not able to move at that pace. The warrants, well, you know, circumstances around that, I might equally argue that at 50p, in support of the full underwrite, given where the share price is today, it's far less dilutive than alternatives.
The final point here that's worth reminding, I mean, we do have a fiduciary duty to run independent, fair, and reasonable test. The board received advice from the company's nominated advisor that the terms of the Tyrus participation were fair and reasonable, insofar as shareholders were concerned. You know, on that basis, we were more than happy to proceed. Indeed, you know, I think in many ways, this has really turned around what was an incredibly difficult situation for the company. I hope that sufficiently answers the question. Let's move on. Question four: Can we have a detailed update on Akatara? What are the risks to time to completion, and is there any possibility of further funding being required?
I think we've covered this largely through the presentation, but, I mean, just to pick very much on the key points of the question. Long lead items, as I've said, are usually the thing that stand in the way of project schedule. We have no concerns at this stage on that score. As I touched on, being largely lump sum, fixed price contracts, you know, funding requirements are well covered. The project activity moves forward absolutely on schedule and on budget. We feel very comfortable with where the project's going. We do hope to see some upside in the subsurface, which I touched on, but we'll talk to that more, I think, in the future.
Whilst you can never relax, I think as project goes, implementation is well in hand, and we're feeling confident on delivery. Okay? Question number five: Is Montara now fully back and running as management would expect? Has there been any further challenges? What should I say? You know, Montara, the challenge at Montara, and we've talked about this before, is actually all about limited access to bed space, to personnel. You know, that's an ongoing challenge until we fix that, and that takes time. There is a project being defined to expand the accommodation on Montara, and that would certainly alleviate what is a very dynamic scheduling of activities to make sure everything is done on time and to priority.
Into the detail of specifically where we are today, there are two more wells still available to come on stream on the Montara field. They're waiting for a small relief valve for the gas lift lines. They're being manufactured in the U.K. They're a long lead item. They're coming soon, we hope. There is some more volume, production volume upside still available. The second separator, you know, with today's production levels, we can almost run to maximum capacity through one separator. Of course, the ship, the process is, you know, designed for original peak production.
We do want the second separator back. We like to have the redundancy, and it would allow a few extra barrels, by being able to handle more water. that aside, and as we've showed with the tank reinstatement program, there's still a lot to do. T here is nothing that is causing us any more significant concerns, you know, post the incident last year. Okay? Question number six. Matahio Tamarind recently completed a deal in May 2023 in New Zealand. With regards to Maari, why weren't you able to conclude this deal quickly? if this is a sign of a smoother regulatory process for asset transfers, would you consider going back to New Zealand? also, has the New Zealand office been permanently closed? the office has been permanently closed. The Matahio Tamarind transaction was onshore asset. It's not really a transaction. Matahio and Tamarind are essentially the same company, the same team.
This is more a corporate reorganization. Tamarind was in liquidation. The name is disappearing. Importantly, as an onshore asset, it's not subject to the change in the offshore Crown Minerals Act, which is what drove the difficulty and actually still drives the difficulty of acquisitions and dispositions in the offshore environment in New Zealand. That said, you know, we recognizing the above ground issues to be dealt, whilst we don't say no to New Zealand, we'd have to recognize those challenges need to be represented in an entirely different way for the future. Okay? There was a strong hint. Next question. There was a strong hint of lining up plans for director succession in a recent update. Is Paul considering retiring soon?
I have no plans to step down. There's work to do. I'm feel personally extremely motivated to get the company back to where it should be. We're undergoing a period of rapid growth and diversification. It's going to be an exciting time, and the team is up for it. The creation of additional role at COO, I think, will help. To strengthen the board with a couple of changes is all good for the business for the longer term, in my view. Thanks for the questions, though. Slide eight. Please consider not going ahead with the Vietnam development.
If it wasn't for Lemang and some very questionable spending decisions in light of Montara being shut in, we would not have been very painfully diluted, and succeeded suit of control of the company, said Tyrus. Well, I hope I've made clear the discussion on Tyrus, who I think, you know, whose interest in the company actually hasn't changed in percentage terms. They've simply, although underwrote the full $50 million, for which we're extremely grateful, at 45p. We should all be grateful. They, in the end, that they only took their pro rata share. So their position hasn't really changed. In respect to Vietnam, look, there's a while to go before any significant spending.
If we make progress there's a possibility of agreements next year and move to sanction, potentially, late next year. A lot of ground to cover before you get there. No spending until 2025, at the earliest, by which time, as you can see from the presentation from Bert-Jaap, you know, our circumstances look very different by then. Notwithstanding, Vietnam would be an extremely attractive project to take forward, but to the question, there are no plans right now. Okay? Slide nine. Sorry, question nine. In one investor call a few years ago, the company mentioned it was looking at deals in the range from, you know, $10 million to half a billion, or even $1 billion. Is the company still capable of executing material, and most importantly, accretive deals going forward?
What range of M&A values is the company looking at now, since this statement a few years ago? Is it capable of financing them without placing equity at horrific discounts? We are doing all we can to continue to grow the business, and including M&A, as we've discussed, without equity. I think, you know, we can only agree that equity would be a last resort. You know, to the, to the sort of the meat of the question, it does focus our M&A strategy on certain types of assets, specifically, which can be supported by the RBL. I think that's the shortest and simplest answer. We're a growth business. There's lots of organic growth in the next 12 months.
There is organic growth potential within the next 24 months, and we can layer on some M&A on top. It will be thoughtfully done. It won't likely be in the half billion to a billion-dollar range, however. Okay? Number 10, it would be nice to see some material buys from all directors, as the directors completely underestimated the damage they've caused to market confidence. This would help restore some confidence and go a long way into rebuilding trust. Several directors have made meaningful share purchases in the run-up to the placing, myself included, and also committed to buying shares as part of the placing and subscription.
I, you know, I mean, I think this demonstrates, you know, importantly, that, you know, we had no sense of what, you know, would turn out to be a really challenging situation in the short, you know, over a very short period. Just to reiterate, you know, this isn't a deal with Tyrus. Tyrus was approached, and Tyrus stepped forward in an incredibly swift and certain way to bring the financing forward, which would have been almost impossible otherwise. I think, you know, I think you saw directors step up during the period even, you know, through May and June.
We continue and to be, you know, leveraged, and I... You know, speaking for myself, you know, highly so personally to this business. Slide, question 11, OMV are selling their whole New Zealand package. I remember in 2019, the board mentioned they, excuse me, they may be interested in these assets. Excuse me. Are they still attractive? Does Jadestone have the firepower to go for it? Our priority is to deliver on what we already have on our plate. At this point in time, we're unlikely to be looking at the OMV portfolio. I think is the shortest answer. Another question: How are Stag's two new infill wells performing?
What are they currently averaging, and why is the decline very aggressive, performance worse than expected? I'm not sure. You know, the basis for the question, I can tell you, we've drilled three infill wells. They all came on at an average of around 1,000 bbl a day each, at initial production. You know, subsequently, you know, through decline, the wells continue at sort of 600 bbl a day range for a period of a year or two, and then slowly settle down into a decline of around 10%-12% per annum. All three wells have followed that path. The latter two drilled late last year, are performing entirely as we expected.
They still represent the first and second, you know, largest producers on the field, which we would expect from the newest wells. We have no concerns at all. In some ways, the wells' performance actually encourages us with further infill drilling in the future. Question 13: What was the reason for the rush, or rather, panic, to secure funding within a two-week window? What changed, and why didn't the company go ahead with the planned raise later down the line, as mentioned in the financing call? There obviously must be a very good reason to rush the financing, as it's resulted in dilution.
Had financing been arranged in a more orderly fashion over the next few months, this could have arguably been far less value destructive, or perhaps even in March, when the share price was 80p. If I had the benefit of hindsight, there's lots of things I'd do differently. Yeah, but I think, you know, would you like to provide some thoughts-
Sure.
on that question? It's a multifaceted question, but I think, I'll leave that with you.
Yeah, sure. Thanks, Paul.
Thanks.
It's also a combination of a question that I picked up that was recently stuck on the Q&A. The urgency of the RBL, why do we need the RBL, and why do we need it needed it fast? The RBL clearly is there because we have an investment program. The investment program was committed. As we've shown, by the end of May, we were already in a $9 million, $8.8 million net debt position, which basically shows you that the bridge facility came in on time and has provided us, let's say, room to maneuver into the RBL.
The idea was always to go from bridge facility into RBL. That sounds really easy and, it was, you know, for the team, it was quite a bit of hard work. We needed an RBL in place for the investment program, which is going to ramp up over the summertime. Just to give you an impression, we, on the first drawdown a while ago, we drew down $111 million, and we increased that to around $135 million, which is roughly where we believe we're going to be, assuming working capital, or not assuming, let's say, working capital steps. $135 million is what we project going forward. It goes to show that the RBL was very, very important.
Just to run through some of my notes, because it's an important question. There's been a lot of frustration in the market, and I'd like to address it, let's say, in full or as full as we can. The recent financing transactions, they were the result of a series of events, which really culminated, let's say, days before the annual report was due. First, of course, and this has been mentioned a number of times, Montara restart is key to all of this. It has occurred much later than we expected. It has slipped, and it has been on the trajectory for a while, which continued to erode, of course, Jadestone's liquidity position.
Also going into the RBL, of course, you need to have, you know, sufficient buffers, whether you have a loan facility or you don't. Banks required Montara to be in routine operations before they could sign. As mentioned in the presentation, the RBL then closed days before the annual report was due. There were some last-minute requirements from banks, which caused additional pressure on the liquidity position. Very last minute. Oil prices, in the meantime, had significantly decreased, which, as I explained earlier as well, had negatively impacted the borrowing base in the dip in the second quarter of 2024, which is clearly the point of attention. This dip has been there since early 2023, when we started working on the RBL already. It's always been there.
We have believed, and we still believe, as we, as I mentioned in the presentation as well, that this dip can be managed as there are several mitigation options, all of those need time, work, and of course, they need, or most of them, I should say, need bank consents. I mean, hedging, for example, doesn't need bank consents, obviously. The final update in our liquidity forecast was created after the RBL was closed, after which it turned out that the forecasted shortfall caused an issue with the language in the draft going concern statement, which was, again, days before the annual report was due.
Our plan B, which is what we presented back in April with a comfort letter of support for additional capital from Tyrus again, turned out to be insufficient to change the draft text in the going concern paragraph, which left us as management with two weeks instead of what we expected to happen, call it eight months, before we would hit that dip in the borrowing base in the second quarter of 2024, to manage the situation. This is also what I mean, Paul has been going at length to explain what the, you know, what it, what it looked like in terms of speed of execution and the, and the, you know, let's say, the work that we've done together with the teams of Tyrus as well to conclude the deal.
Board decided to proactively go out and raise equity, and on the back of a stress test case, a fallback working capital facility, the ones that I put on my first slide, as I went through them. Of course, as a bottom line, you know, financing providers with a good, you know, balance sheet resilience and financial flexibility, which, you know, is in support of the company's investment program, record-breaking investment program, and growth going forward for selective acquisition candidates, if it fits the RBL framework. I'd like to leave it there, Paul.
Good. Well done. Thanks, Bert-Jaap. That's, that's clear and helpful. Okay, I think we have just a few more questions. We'll move very quickly through. In light of the decline in share price since the rights issue we have, why have directors not bought shares? I think we've really answered that question already. Directors, of course, you know, make their own choices, but I think all have been participating, or, you know, and some more than others, of course, but that's fine. You mentioned a further acquisition in the information released around the rights issue. Do you have an update on this? Wasn't a rights issue.
It was a placing and open offer. On M&A, as we discussed, working within the RBL structure, we will continue to look for, and I believe, find you know, exciting opportunities. We certainly look for strong returns and value generation in the past and going forwards. A question on Akatara, H1 start date. Do you expect this to be towards the beginning of H1 or the end? All I would say is, in broad terms, pre-commissioning activities are scheduled to take place in Q1 2024, for sure. Final acceptance and commencement of contract gas sales would be most likely very early in Q2. If that answers the question. There's a question on Montara 3D seismic interpretation. Has this highlighted anything interesting?
The 3D seismic was high quality. It was extensively useful in the planning of the Montara H6 well, and will be, and is being used in the ongoing interpretation of the Skua field to optimize for locations, for future infill locations there as well. We've also been mapping leads and prospects on the block, focusing around Skua, but also looking at gas discoveries and whether or not we can understand if there's a commercially viable gas development through nearby infrastructure, albeit this is more likely longer term. We're pleased to have the 3D, and it is of exceptional quality. What's the level of competition for assets in APAC region? Is it still low, or has the dynamic shifted with many companies looking to diversify from the North Sea?
I'd say we haven't seen a lot of change. There are the same few folk that attend data rooms that we always expect. Very few new faces as of now, although that may change in the future. With respect to Southeast Asia. As for Australia, we are not seeing any meaningful competition for offshore Australia assets at all, which we think is a significant competitive advantage for us. The final of the pre the question sent in beforehand. Could you provide the oil hedging levels for 2023 and 2024? Could you state clearly if this level is including or excluding the oil premiums for certain oils? Yeah, why don't you take that one?
Sure, Paul. There's around 5.5 million bbl are required to be hedged under the RBL in the period of fourth quarter 2023 to the third quarter of 2025 inclusive. Of this, we're active in the market as we speak. We have a running order running. The completion rate is 99.0%. We have around 600,000 bbl to go. We are expecting to finalize in the near future. Then we're able to pick up some of the recent oil pricing at back end of curve. We've been hedging the front end first because it was really volatile, and we wanted to lock in the RBL rates, as we of course, don't know where the oil price we're heading. We believe that we know, but we don't.
In a sense, we've at the back end, we've been picking up on recent strength. The weighted average price of the hedges is around $70 million, which is because, of course, we keep a close eye on this, is very close to the RBL oil price levels, which is, of course, important because it goes back to that borrowing base position that we've described earlier, and especially the focus on the second quarter 2024. Some confusion around this, that, of course, being Brent, not hedging premium Stag. Just see an example of the Stag premium, as we've seen in off a barrel, is related to the end market for marine shipping fuel. It's probably hard to hedge in the first place. There was some confusion around that.
We're hedging Brent, the underlying, we don't hedge premiums, we did see, in all fairness, and we presented it, before, a while ago, reduction between the premiums that we realize and the underlying, current prices. That's all, that's all on that. Thank you.
Well done. Thanks, Bert-Jaap. Good. That's the list of questions. I'm, you know, I'm looking here now. There are a lot of questions have been submitted over the course of the last hour and a little bit, and I'm conscious that we are running past hour. We will take these questions and we will provide replies to them. I think that's the best way forward here. There are so many, I don't think we have time to answer any more. I think with that, we should probably try to wrap up.
Paul, it's Phil here. Can you hear me?
Yeah, I can.
There is one question that has been submitted, I think we just need to clear up.
Okay.
Which is, when earlier Bert-Jaap was talking about, Odey shareholding, his line broke up at that point. Just to make it clear, Odey has sold the majority-
I have seen this.
- of their holding and has indicated that they are not the seller of the small residual position.
Okay.
Yeah, I think that's a clarification. That's what we said. They sold out the bulk. They have a small chunk left, and they don't look at selling. Do not look at selling that. Yes, indeed.
Yeah.
Thanks, Phil.
Okay. Thanks, Phil. You know, as much as I would like to spend another half an hour and answer the questions, and you know, just glancing down, there are some excellent questions, and we can't leave them unanswered, and so we will take care of that. As we are now overrunning, I just really want to conclude by thanking you for joining this event. You know, to summarize, though you know, of course, this has been a disappointing period for Jadestone, the incident at Montara had far more far-reaching consequences than we certainly imagined during the course of last year. That's now behind us, and we have to look forward.
We, you know, I hope we've demonstrated we have an incredibly strong business as we move forward now. Production at Montara is restored. We have a far more diverse portfolio today, and it is going to increasingly become diverse, and that's a strength with strong growth underlying. We are well-funded, and we also see opportunity, but we are going to be very prudent about opportunity in the short and medium term. Nonetheless, we continue to be a growth business, and we'll work that to the best of our ability. Our commitment to you is to really, is to work hard to deliver on all of this to the best we can.
As I said earlier, a commitment to communicate more with you and to share more detail as often as we can. Once again, thanks for joining. I hope you found this useful, and I wish you all a great day and the rest of the week. Thank you.
Paul, Bert-Jaap, thank you for updating investors today. Can I please ask investors not to close this session, as you'll now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations? This will only take a few moments to complete, and I'm sure will be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of Jadestone Energy plc, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon.