Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I think you all know me. I'm Mike Harding. I'm the chairman of Horizon Oil Limited. Before beginning the meeting today, we acknowledge the traditional owners of the country in which we meet today, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and we pay our respects to the elders, past, present, and emerging. I would like to welcome you and officially open our annual general meeting for 2022. I'd also like to extend a welcome to those members who are joining us by webcast. Do we know anybody has joined by webcast?
I think we have.
Okay. Based on the number of voting members in attendance, I declare a quorum for this meeting. Before I commence today's proceedings, I would like to draw your attention to the safety procedures for the venue. Should you hear an alarm, the instruction will be broadcast by the building wardens regarding what action to take, be it remain in place or proceed to evacuate. If you're required to evacuate, please make sure you don't use the lifts, and the evacuation point is located in the forecourt of Barangaroo Towers, tower 3, as indicated on the map. I would now like to introduce my fellow directors. To my far left is Greg Bittar, Bruce Clement, and the Chief Executive Officer, Richard Beament. On my right is Nigel Burgess, and Sandra Birkensleigh. Also joining us, our Company Secretary, Vas Margiankakos. Did I get it right?
Perfect.
Our auditor, Sean Ruggers, representing our auditors, PwC. He's also available today to answer questions on the auditor's report later in the meeting. Before beginning the formal business of the meeting, I would like to ask our Company Secretary, Vas, to outline today's procedures and protocols.
Thank you, Mike. All resolutions will be decided by way of a poll at the end of the meeting. The meeting will consider the items of business outlined in the notice of meeting sent to all shareholders on 17 October 2022. There will be opportunities for shareholders to ask questions and will be confined to the formal business of the meeting. Only those persons holding a yellow or blue card are eligible to ask questions. Gemma Coyle of Computershare has been appointed as the returning officer following confirmation by Computershare. Final proxy and voting results will be released to the ASX and the company's website later today. I'll now hand back to the chair.
Thank you, Vas. As there may be shareholders available today who can't stay for the entire meeting, I now declare voting open on all items of business. Any undirected proxies in my favor as Chairman will be voting in favor of the relevant resolution. The meeting will consider the items of business outlined in the notice of the meeting sent to all shareholders on the 17th of October 2022. I would like to start the meeting with my formal address. This will be followed by the CEO's presentation. There'll be an opportunity to ask questions on the presentation, and then we'll proceed to the formal part of the meeting for resolutions provided in the notice will be put to the members. Ladies and gentlemen, Horizon Oil has again posted a strong set of results for the financial year.
Similar to last year, coupled with a strong balance sheet, consistent low-cost production and cash generation, we are pleased to return a further AUD 0.03 per share to shareholders made up of the dividend and capital return. Our strong results produced the sustained production levels from our Maari and Block 22/12 assets, which are of course aided by the higher oil price. Our assets in China and New Zealand are high quality. Our aim is to continue to maximize production and cash flow through workovers, infill drilling, and other production-enhancing initiatives. We're also pleased to commence production from our new 12-8 East field development, with the first oil being produced in April 2022, only 18 months after FID was achieved. This development has been a success, which has led to an immediate second phase of development drilling, which is currently underway.
I would like to take this opportunity of thanking Chris Hodge for his time as CEO, and I'm particularly pleased to welcome the promotion of Richard Beament to CEO. All subsequent executive movements have been filled by internal staff. In this regard, I would like to acknowledge our new executive team, comprising of Gavin Douglas, our new Chief Operating Officer. Give you a hand. Where are we now? Kyle Keen, our new CFO. Our Chief Financial Officer, it's Kyle. Vas Margiankakos , our new company secretary. In regards to health and safety environment, I'm pleased to announce that for 2022, Horizon achieved a total recordable injury frequency rate below the Australian NOPSEMA industry average, with a lost time industry frequency rate of zero fatalities or significant environmental incidents in 2022.
The Beibu operations achieved a strong safety record with no recordable safety incidents despite significant drilling, production, and project development activities during the period. The Maari operations similarly achieved lost time industry frequency rate of zero and zero environmental incidents for the period. I'm pleased to announce that ANZ, Westpac and ICBC continue to support Horizon. We recently announced the extension of our debt facilities. The company has also moved offices, with the new office providing a smaller footprint more appropriate for current staff levels. Not only does this allow for some further cost reductions, but it provides a team with a refreshed new office space, helping to foster a more collaborative working environment.
Looking to the future, we will continue to work to maximize production and value from our producing assets of Block 22/12 and Maari in New Zealand, and continue to actively pursue infill well drilling, other production-enhancing initiatives in our producing assets which are providing excellent value. We will continue to review our cash position regularly to consider further shareholder distributions whilst always keeping an eye out for other opportunities. We've continued to progress work on enhancing our ESG strategy, particularly in response to growing climate change-related concerns. We acknowledge the part we have to play in increasing our commitments, our sustainability. This year, our report, which transparently discloses our impact on the actions we are taking to a more sustainable company. To this end, earlier in the year, we announced our ambition to achieve net zero GHG emissions by 2050.
We will continue to refine our roadmap for achieving this ambition. Our CEO, Richard Beament, will say more about Horizon's performance shortly. He'll also update you on the company strategy. Richard and his team are to be congratulated for their achievements in 2022. Bruce Clement, together with myself, are seeking re-election today. Bruce and myself are unanimously endorsed by the board. I'd also like to thank our shareholders for your valuable support during the year. I will now hand over to Richard to present the CEO's report before returning to the items outlined in the notice. Richard?
Thanks, Mike. It's lovely to welcome everybody to what is our first physical AGM in quite a few years. Firstly, I'd like to just turn to the disclaimer and compliance statement, which relates to today's presentation. Today I'm just going to go through and basically outline and reinforce, I guess, the company's strategy, give you an update on our operations and some of the key highlights for FY22. Horizon Oil's company strategy is fairly simple. We aim to maximize free cash flow from our assets. We aim to further provide distributions to shareholders when it's sensible to do so, and we want to continue to invest in production growth focused in and around our existing asset portfolio, but continuing to keep an eye out for opportunistic growth opportunities. Importantly, we're delivering on this strategy.
In FY22, we had very strong cash flow generation, driving EBITDAX of roughly $73 million. Our ability to generate such strong free cash flow is really underpinned by our very low operating cost, sitting at just under $20 a barrel. Obviously, that was enhanced by a very high oil price, sitting at around AUD 90 a barrel through FY22. This strong free cash flow generation has helped us to deliver significant distributions to shareholders with consecutive returns of AUD 0.03 per share, over the last couple of years, which roughly equates to 40% of the company's market cap or about a 20% distribution yield over the last two years. Notwithstanding these distributions, we continue to focus on production growth. As I said, focused in and around our existing portfolio.
We were very pleased earlier in the year, back in April, to commission our first new development in some time, the 12-8 East development, and we've had very strong production rates from that field. That's been enhanced further with infill drilling and additional workover activities. We're now seeing combined production across our portfolio of roughly 5,000 barrels of oil per day net, which is an increase of some 40% on the prior financial year. Just to put that into perspective, we're currently generating revenues of about $0.5 million a day. That's up from about $300,000 during FY22. It's our objective to continue to mature further opportunities in those assets to really drive and sustain the production levels from our assets. Let me briefly recap FY22 and point out a few highlights. We had over a 70% increase in revenues to over $108 million.
Over 100% increase in EBITDAX to $73 million. Over a 200% increase in underlying profit. Importantly, this drove over 100% increase in cash flow generation, which helped facilitate the distributions I mentioned earlier. As Mike mentioned, we managed to extend our debt facilities, with ICBC, ANZ and Westpac. Operationally, I've already mentioned the successful commissioning of the 12-8 East development. I think it's really important to recognize that that field, we took FID only 18 months prior to that field coming online, which is really a testament to the capacity and ability of our operators in the joint venture and the contractors involved to be able to bring that facility online within 18 months, notwithstanding the pandemic and the various supply chain challenges. ESG, despite the elevated activity levels, we continue to uphold a strong safety record, significantly better than the benchmarks.
On climate change, as Mike mentioned, we declared our ambitions to reach net zero by 2050 and are developing a roadmap to achieve this. We enhanced our governance in this area with formal ESG oversight by the board, supported by a sustainability steering committee. For the first time, the group purchased over 15,000 tons of voluntary carbon units to offset the majority of our Scope 1 emissions at Block 22/12, and whilst continuing to offset or purchase carbon credits for 100% of our Scope 1 emissions from our Maari fields. Going forward, our desire is to focus on further direct carbon emission reduction initiatives at both of our fields, and we continue to encourage the operators of our fields to perform that. As part of our overall decarbonization strategy, we continue to evaluate various institutional-grade carbon removal projects.
For any project to be considered, it's got to have positive and appropriate investment returns. Just moving on to the next slide, we've got here a snapshot of the share price over the last 12 months. Horizon share price in the red or orange, the oil price in the green, and the ASX 200 Energy Index in the gray. What you can see is we're clearly heavily leveraged and linked to the oil price. Importantly, we've outperformed the ASX 200 Energy Index by quite some margin. Noting we had the AUD 0.03 distribution quite recently, which obviously brought us back in line. Just a word on oil price. About this time last year, the oil price was floating just over AUD 70 a barrel, and now the consensus is for it to remain at or about the AUD 90 a barrel mark.
Notwithstanding the higher oil price, we've seen significant underinvestment in the sector, and whilst the sentiment has shifted away from fossil fuels, it's clear that oil's going to be necessary in the energy mix for quite some time to come. Accordingly, it's our general view that oil prices will continue to remain relatively elevated, really driven by those supply side pressures, but also due to the continued strong demand for hydrocarbons. Now to an update on the actual asset portfolio, starting with Block 22/12 in China. If you just turn to the next slide. This slide's got a couple of good photographs of the 12-8 East development as it's come to fruition throughout the year.
Again, just really want to highlight the success of this project and what's been involved here to get this project online, notwithstanding lockdowns in China, the pandemic, supply chain challenges, inflation, you name it, everything's been thrown at us. Really the testament to the joint venture and the contractors involved to get this field online. Just now moving on to the next slide. As you're probably aware, Block 22/12 consists of about 20 odd wells spread across eight different fields, as shown in the green squares in this slide. The geographical spread helps to diversify the portfolio and really de-risk the asset, as we've got cash flow coming from each of the different platforms. Whilst historical production has been dominated by the 6-12 and 12-8 West fields, which is the top green box in the bottom left for you.
Production from those fields has generally been averaging about 8,000-10,000 barrels a day over the past nine years since production first commenced. It's this box off to the right, the 12-8 East field, which has really been the core driver of production growth over the year. We're now seeing production rates elevated at about 15,000 barrels of oil per day ever since the clean-up of the 12-8 East field occurred around about July this year. Our objective is really to continue to sustain that production from that field. That's almost a 50% increase in production rates out of this field. This field generates about 70% of the group's cash flow. That's heavily driven by the very low operating cost, which for FY22, sat at around AUD 13 a barrel. Very low indeed.
Looking at the 12-8 East development in a little more detail, there is a 3D diagram on the right, which shows the key elements of the field. You've got six production wells and one water disposal well, and the lease platform sitting over the top. That's all tied back through to the 12-8 West field via a dedicated pipeline. As I mentioned, that field successfully was commissioned in April this year. What was very pleasing was we managed to keep the development costs on time and in budget of around about $20 million USD for our share. The field's been producing very well, and as you can see, it's generated about 8,000 barrels of oil per day on average over the last three months. We expect it to contribute at least an average of 4,000 barrels of oil per day for the first full year of production.
Importantly, the early success from this first phase development has given us the confidence and courage to go with a follow-up phase 2 development. We're currently drilling ahead with three to up to five new production wells into the field, which will further enhance the production rates. Just to look at this phase 2 development in a little more detail. As I mentioned, it's three to five wells, and they're depicted there in the black is the likely well locations. I'm pleased to announce today that the first of those wells has already been drilled and completed, and it should be turned on to production in the coming days. That subsequent phase of development will add about 200,000 barrels to our 2P reserves, and again, continue to help us to sustain those high production rates of around 15,000 barrels a day, certainly out into the new year.
Other recent activity at Block 22/12 has been focused on infill drilling. We had two wells, which are depicted in the red line there, the A10S1 and A12S1 wells. Those successful wells drilled and completed, again, helping to sustain production rates. We also had a very successful workover program in September, which has meant to these high production rates. Just move on to the next slide. This slide really just helps to sort of show the further opportunities across the field. You've got there a number of orange and yellow dots. The orange dots represent the wells that were drilled during the current year. The yellow dots rather, represent all the remaining infill well opportunities, and further near field prospects that we see right across the Block 22/12.
It's our objective to continue to look at drilling some of these opportunities to continue to sustain those production levels, which segues nicely to the next slide. This is probably my favorite slide of the whole deck because it really helps to demonstrate what our objective is and show you how we've been successful in this field over the past nine years. What you've got there in the dark green is essentially our 2P reserve forecast, and in the blue is our indicative future activities. What we're trying to show there is, in the past, we've had a very successful run of being able to conduct infill drilling, work over activities, upgrades to water handling capacity and the like, and really maintain production at or about 10,000 barrels a day, for the last nine years.
You'll see that we've been quite successful in recent months in really accelerating our development efforts and boosting production rates, as I mentioned, about 50% above the average of the last nine years. We're not done with that. There's further infill wells proposed in the pipeline, upgrades to water handling capacity and other initiatives that we've got in the pipeline, which are all aimed at trying to sustain those higher production rates. I would just point out they're not a given. They rely on joint venture approvals, proper economic assessment. They rely on elevated oil prices being sustained and indeed re-availability. Certainly, that's our core objective. Turning on to New Zealand, the Maari field continues to be a very important asset for the group, contributing about 30% of the group's cash flow.
Importantly, over the past few years, the decline rate here has been arrested through consistent and constant water injection into the field. Perhaps the key difference with Maari over our China fields is we don't need that continual investment in new wells in order to sustain production rates. The water flood into the field helps to maintain pressure and continue sustaining production rates. Our operating costs are relatively modest here in the sort of mid-AUD 20 a barrel mark, and as a result, this field just continues to be highly cash generative. Maari crude attracts premiums to the oil price, and most of the oil is sold into the east coast of Australia. We had a number of workovers during the year, and we've had some challenges due to COVID in getting those wells back online. We expect those wells to be progressively reinstated over the coming months ahead.
With the termination of the proposed divestment by OMV of their stake in the Maari field, we look forward to working with OMV to continue to extract maximum value out of the asset. Similar to the China field, here's another slide showing really the production performance and our view of the asset going forward. The dark green is essentially the 2P reserves, the light blue, potential indicative future activities. I would just highlight with Maari, you've got the notional end date there of 2027 for the permit, getting an extension beyond that date is quite critical in order to go after some of those future activities. There are talks already afoot within the joint venture to look at an extension to the permit. Just looking to the future and what's the next year hold for us.
This slide really just shows you what the various activities are. Block 22/12, we've got our hands full there in really fulfilling and executing on the WZ12-8E Phase 2 drilling program. That will take us through to the end of the first quarter. There's a constant focus on upgrading water handling capacity at our fields in Block 22/12. What's very important to recognize is the more water we can handle in Block 22/12, the more oil production we can sustain. There's a big focus on upgrading water handling. Further focus on some infill drilling targets, and we'd hope that towards the latter part of the year, we can mature a couple of other infill well opportunities to keep that sustained production levels. At Maari, I mentioned we've got a couple of pretty key workovers, one which is underway at present.
Then there's a third one, which involves some further water injection enhancement into the field, again, to sustain production levels. I've already mentioned Maari life extension being a focus area. Let me conclude by summarizing and emphasizing the group's strategy and how we've planned to deliver against it in 2023. We've commenced FY23 with exceptionally high production rates and sustained high oil prices, which bodes well for continued strong free cash flow generation. As I mentioned, our production rates are currently about 40% higher than the average for FY22. That bodes pretty well for cash flow generation. At Beibu, our priority is to optimize production and continue to enhance production rates through that constant focus on further infill drilling, workover activity and upgrades to water handling capacity.
At Maari, our focus is to restore production from the wells that are currently shut in, and really work with the operator looking to the future on how we can extract maximum value from the asset. In terms of further distributions to shareholders, we're determined to deliver value to shareholders, having delivered consecutive returns of AUD 48 million this year, AUD 47 million last year, and further capital management initiatives are under constant review, as Mike mentioned. In terms of investing in production growth, as I mentioned, our focus is continued investment in our existing assets, trying to deliver value. Our first priority is the 12-8 East Phase 2 development, closely followed by further infill drilling and the workover activity at Maari. We keep a constant eye out for opportunistic inorganic growth opportunities, which could further enhance shareholder value.
We'd only really look at these if they provided exceptional value and continued to enhance our ability to provide distributions to shareholders. Whilst our business continues to face challenges, I'm very lucky to have a very capable team working with me, and I feel that we're in a very strong position to navigate the challenges ahead and continue to deliver value to shareholders. Thanks, Mike. I'm happy to answer any questions.
Thanks, Richard. Now I'd like to provide an opportunity for questions on Richard's presentation. We'll get an opportunity to ask questions on the formal business of the meeting later. I'll endeavor to give everybody a chance to speak for a reasonable time. Questions for Richard, Leo, and the team. Charles Horn.
In all the stuff that I've read, I haven't seen anything on sovereign risk in China. I assume that means it's very low as far as you're concerned. What is your thinking there?
Look, we're quite fortunate. We have a very good relationship with particularly our joint venture partner, CNOOC, and particularly through our other non-operator party, Roc Oil, who are owned by the Fosun Group, and again, provide us that connectivity through to the Chinese. Realistically, we're essentially a domestic producer in China. China's got an insatiable demand for oil, and we bring to the table our own Western expertise. Through this 12-8 East drilling program, we're providing constant feedback and suggestions on well trajectories. They really value our input. On sovereign risk, if I was honest, I think it's more the other way around. It's more Australia and what Australia does, and Australia's reaction. I'd like to think what we've seen in the last 24 hours is perhaps a softening of our stance and a more cooperative position.
Certainly as a time horizon of this asset, I mean, it runs out through to 2028. We recognize its potential risk, but not something we're particularly concerned on, and certainly in the near term.
Questions?
Yeah, Andrew Beach is my name. You mentioned earlier in the presentation about any opportunistic potential positions for the portfolio. You mentioned exceptional new business opportunities. When we look back over the last few years, it was only the transaction with [Current] Energy. I think that was truly exceptional for one of the partners. Could you perhaps give us a flavor around about the opportunities you've been reviewing over the past few years and perhaps one or two which you came close to looking at potentially purchasing?
Have we got to start, Richard?
Yeah.
It's fascinating because I remember when I first came three years ago, everybody wanted me to turn the bells off, go home, and give you all the money, right? That's all there was. When you look at what's happened over the last three years, and when I first came, the production was off by 2020, 2027, whatever the year was. We might as well pack up and go home. What we've done over the last three years that Richard's talked about is kept that production flat, and you've seen the revenues from it. What we'd like to do for the next three years is keep that production flat again. It's getting harder, every sort of tranche you look at because the reserves are declining. That's our big shot. That's our main job.
We've looked at lots of things, which Richard will talk to you about in a minute. I don't think we're interested in long-dated back oil assets that go through the exploration phase, and I don't get any revenue from it for 10 years, you never do. It's got to be free cash flow accretive more or less straight away, and hopefully in our own backyard. They're the three things that once you start those three things off, you narrow it down just like that. They're the three things we put on top of these growth options over and above our production. You talk about it in turn.
Yeah. I'll just sort of add to that. We've looked at a lot of opportunities, and then every other week, we get things across our desk. Have we seen anything particularly compelling? Not really. Nothing that we've really gone too far down the path of. It's really because we've got a fairly sort of narrow sort of level of capital to be able to deploy. Quite frankly, the best value we can have is investing in our existing assets. You can see that what we've been able to unlock out of China. It's not to say we won't go after things. We certainly look for value. I think really where we would like to think the opportunities will come from is as the bigger companies start to divest out of fossil fuels, then we have the opportunity to pick up some of those assets.
Their desire for value on exit may be a little bit more relaxed, hence that would be the opportunity for us. We're patient, we don't have to do anything. These assets are good, certainly for extracting value for shareholders, this is our main game is focusing on what we've got. You're pretty much ruling out any development assets going forward? It'd have to be very close to development. We're certainly not interested in exploration opportunities, anything particularly long dated. We've looked at some assets approaching development, with that comes a whole load of risk similarly comes with that funding challenges which are only getting more difficult. It's not to say we wouldn't consider them if they were really compelling value, certainly that's not their core focus.
Brent, Mr. Chairman, can I just ask a question that sort of follows on from that? Richard, are we in sort of Opportunity doesn't knock very loudly, generally? Are we sort of in passive mode? Are we waiting for deals to come in the door, or have we got people in the organization or consultants or whatever, proactively looking?
Yeah. We do have people proactively looking, and then again, our focus of the core team is because we certainly need that. We do have some consultants working for us looking up in Asia in particular. We're pretty tapped in the local market through investment banks and so on. We're not spending an inordinate amount of time on it. We still think there's opportunity to be had.
Most of them, Brent, are looking for our cash.
Yes. That's a problem. They want our cash and we got. Sorry, go on then.
I mean, we've had a lot of people knocking on the door with big development projects, and naturally they see us like a bank. We're pretty skeptical about them anyway, generally, because they think their assets are significantly higher value than what they potentially are given the risks involved, and generally don't place the same level of value on our assets, which are clearly highly cash accretive. It tends to be pretty focused and careful.
According to my model, I calculate that with a reasonable price expectation, oil price, we'll have around about in excess of $200 million in cash at the end of financial year 2026.
You've not told me that, Richard.
No, that's [more drawings] in the right place. Spending it on the way.
If I go to the Petra research, which is the only research on the company, their number is actually $222,000. Okay. We might both be mugs, but we're getting the same answer. That's a hell of a lot of cash. I just wonder whether it's worth having a bit more proactive look at the new opportunities. I agree with the strategy, the current strategy, to focus on squeezing the lemon with what we've got. We're at a very good time in the price cycle for doing that. This is where, if you go back to the U.S. over the decades, over the centuries, this is where people have made money by sort of really squeezing what you've got hard during good price cycle. Anyway, I sort of agree with your sentiment. I don't agree that we don't have any capacity to do deals.
I think we've got a lot of capacity to do deals.
Perhaps don't misinterpret what I'm saying. We are focused in this area and looking for opportunities. We are being proactive. I just don't want you to take away that we're so focused on that, so we're not spending the appropriate time on our existing assets in squeezing the lemons.
A lot of what I've seen, Brent, given my background, that in terms of to the other side of the world, which doesn't thrill me much, and they're all going through an open, if you want, appraisal development phase where the small ones have run out of cash and got a need, and it's give us your cash please and let's get on with it. There's good and bad in that. I've not seen a lot of them who would give us free cash flow more or less on day one. That's the trouble. They're all in that appraisal, exploration, development phase where you well know it's full of pay, pay.
At the moment, based on the deals that have come across our desk, the price expectation is still quite elevated by the sellers focused in and around the high oil price. We need perhaps a bit of a softening in those price expectations to really help us to find the deals that would be accretive enough. The term exceptional in the current oil environment is going to be very hard to achieve. I would say that's unattainable in this current environment, especially if you're only looking at producing assets versus development assets. Like what you said, that's where the opportunity seems to lie for exceptional new opportunities in the industry. Comment. We're being picky. I'll be honest, Chairman. That's why we haven't done something for the last three years. The opportunities are there.
It's just got to be judicious and balanced and again, we're not urgent, hurried and have to have them tomorrow. We'd rather wait for the right deal to come along and jump on something.
Okay. There's a gentleman on the end there.
It's Peter Brereton, proxy for my super fund. I commend the company for its emphasis on cash generation. I think that's really important. I'm wondering why the company's wasting money on purchasing carbon credits when there's no fines or penalties for current emissions.
We've got a pretty judicious approach to that, and we're trying to make the right impact as we go along. Those carbon credits were purchased in China for a community-based project. On one hand, they had the environmental benefits, but probably just as important were the social benefits. This was the methane digesters for some rural communities to help them to essentially displace burning coal and timber for cooking and using, I guess, the by-product from their animals for cooking. We see that as sort of goes to the political risk side, trying to help the community in the area we operate, as well as having, I guess, the added benefit of providing some offsets. I would just highlight that, as I mentioned, it's not our desire or my desire to focus on purchasing offsets.
I much rather direct emission reduction initiatives, and certainly in New Zealand, that means NZD for us. There's an emission trading scheme there. We're paying NZD 85 a ton for carbon emissions in New Zealand. If we can reduce emissions there, we're saving NZD 85, as well as not having to burn crude oil for power generation. There's an economic rationale for focusing on carbon reduction initiatives, certainly in New Zealand.
I don't know whether it's carbon credits, but you still renewed the loan, the AUD 20 million loan we have. I know from Richard's experience, the banks wouldn't have given us that if we weren't somehow addressing that subject. Not that I want to borrow any more money, but if you want to go that route, you won't get any unless you've got some sort of strategy that they believe in. A lot of them won't touch it anyway because we're black oil.
It was a fairly modest amount, I suppose, for those.
Awesome.
Another question.
Yeah, go on.
What's the risk of not getting the lease extension in New Zealand? The current climate over there, the Prime Minister's pretty woke, and I really think you've got a major risk there if that sort of attitude continues in New Zealand, political scene.
I suppose I'd perhaps look at it the other way. Our current portfolio, our current reserve position is focused on production through to 2027. The opportunity is there for an extension. It's not a given. I would agree with that. You need permits. You need extensions to the permit. There are other sorts of permits that we would require.
You need the politicians on side. That's what you need.
You do. I think it's probably a positive with OMV staying in there, that they probably have a little more capital with the government or with the regulators to gain that, given Maari, Pohokura, and their other assets. Yeah, it's certainly an area we're going to need to work pretty hard, and that's certainly our current focus.
I think that's really worth pursuing because, A, it pushes our environmental, sorry, our P&A liability, pushes that out. Looking at your production forecast, if you like. You've got production out in 2029, 2030, about where it is today, and it's very profitable today.
Yeah.
It just sort of doesn't make economic sense not to push it out. I think where the company's done well, obviously in China and in New Zealand, you're very well aligned with the operator. That's quite clear from the presentations and the results. I know, as I understand it, there's a good relationship there with OMV. OMV have always been a bit timid. They wanted to shut the field down, as I recall, in about 2023. Have they got this idea as well as trying to push things out beyond?
Yeah, look, I mean, it's obviously only been some time we're settling after the transaction has been terminated. What I can say is perhaps, you're aware that the decommissioning legislation that's out there.
Yeah.
It actually requires you to have fully decommissioned by the end of the permit date. It's dawned on OMV that that's not going to fly. There's certainly momentum building for they're going to need an extension come off May. We really want to drive and push them to extend it out at least five years, and get that incremental production in the further decile.
Beyond the current close, the current end.
Correct. Yeah. We're seeing some positive signs coming out of OMV, but it's early days.
Oh, sorry.
Yes, sorry. Just very quick. Just a quick question. What's the biggest risk to these capital returns? Is it the macro or-
Oil price big picture, or is it these operational sort of Where's the biggest risk to the return to these AUD 0.03 returns at the beginning? Thank you.
Look, it's all price and production. They're the core parts. I'd like to think that having the two assets and now within China, a third field there with the WZ12-8E field, that helps to sort of diversify the production flows. Clearly, you can see that our cash flow is pretty sensitive to oil price.
You're more confident at the operational level, you've got a handle on that. What you can't control is the oil price, the macro, but at this level, the bigger risk is at the oil price level.
There's always risks at the operational level, and we manage that through workovers. Yeah, these fields have been in production for nine plus years. Yes, we will have small intermittent workover issues and so on. The general fields produce, we know how they produce. It's more the oil price and obviously, we can undertake hedging to help us in the short term to mitigate that.
I think on the oil price, what's going for us is that if I can ever get a straight answer from these accountants, our lifting production costs are about AUD 30 a barrel. We're still okay if it drops to that, unless you've got another number now, Richard, which you won't tell me.
No. That's about right. We've got very light operating costs, which means we've got good cash flow, but you can imagine the incremental value of an extra AUD 10 a barrel really helps to drive.
At what level is that AUD 0.03? For example, if oil dropped to AUD 60, would that AUD 0.03 now be not feasible and then we're looking at maybe AUD 0.02? At what level is that AUD 0.03?
Yeah. Probably something like that. Yeah. At the moment, we're going through a particularly capital-intensive phase. We've drilled 14 odd wells on the trot. That means we've got a higher overall cost, if you include the capital cost in that. Once we get past March, we don't have a huge commitment on capital after that point, such that if the oil price were to fall, we'd still be very cash accretive.
Okay. Any more on this, Richard's section?
Just one.
Oh, sorry. Somebody else had their hand up too. I don't know who else.
Yeah. One at the back.
Oh, okay.
Why did we get a capital return and not just a bigger dividend?
Good way to pose the question. We've been sort of agonizing over what's the appropriate mix of distribution, of buyback, capital return, dividend. We've got a broad array of shareholders. We've got foreign shareholders, domestic shareholders, people holding in their super funds, retailers, you name it. We looked at what's really the optimal solution for the greatest number, so to speak. Capital return can be favorable for certainly for your retail shareholders. For the foreign shareholders, to be honest, whether it's capital or dividends, it's part of their ambivalence. Probably their biggest risk or concern is what does the ATO think of a capital return, whether it's handed or indeed a buyback, and whether they would deem any part of it to be a dividend regardless of what the company might call it.
We engaged with the ATO to really see what was going to be palatable, and this mix kind of was the level which they were comfortable with and gave a sort of a notional endorsement on. Again, trying to balance what's good for as many shareholders as we could cover.
Okay.
Yeah. It was just in relation to board thinks about the current share price. They're happy with the current share price range too. The capital growth in shares seems to be within the range of the capital return/dividend. Are you happy with the current trading range? Would you like to see that higher? Perhaps why I don't see the board investing themselves in buying shares in the company?
Well, I would say it's higher, yeah.
They always want it higher.
Can't make it higher, though. You guys make it higher. When I watch it go up and down, it swaps, and there's not much liquidity anyway, as you know. It seems to float up to AUD 0.13 and then down to AUD 0.10 on the whims and fancies of the marketplace. I don't particularly keen on buybacks. I don't think that will change much the share price. I don't know if we all got shares.
I don't think so. It's not a public company. I hold on.
I don't recall seeing many registered by directors in the last two or three years.
A number of the directors do have shares, but not many.
Not meaning to be rude to anybody. Can we have the last one, and then we'll move on, please?
Okay. You've prompted my question. What's in the company's franking credit account?
Not very much.
dividends, next dividend will be unfranked, will it?
Look, if we were to, absent something significantly changing, if we were to pay a dividend, that would be unfranked.
Thanks.
Given that the notice of the meeting has been sent to all registered members, I now move the notice of the meeting to be taken as read. The minutes of the previous annual general meeting have been approved and signed in accordance with the Corporations Act, and a copy is available for inspection at the registered offices of any member who wishes to do so. We'll now move to the business of the meeting, which includes the resolutions put to the meeting. Prior to each resolution being discussed, the proxies that we've received for those items will be displayed. As I mentioned earlier, all resolutions will be decided by a poll, and a live vote is now open on our items of business. The first item is the financial report.
To receive the financial report, directors' report, and independent auditor's report for the year ended 30th of June 2022. These documents have been made available to all shareholders. There's no requirement for shareholders to approve these reports. Accordingly, item number 1 is for discussion only, and there will not be a vote on this item. I remind you that only shareholders of the company or their duly appointed representatives or proxies are permitted to ask questions. We've done a lot of the more general stuff in the last 20 minutes. Anything on those reports that you'd like to ask? No. Okay. Well, let's go to item 2, adoption of the remuneration report. The committee now needs to consider item 2, adoption of the remuneration report for the year ended 30th of June 2022. The board unanimously recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this item.
Proxies received in relation to this item are displayed on the screen, and it's now open for discussion. Gosh, that must be a first. Any remuneration report, no questions. Item 3A is the re-election of me as a non-executive director. I'm retiring by rotation in accordance with the constitution of the company, and being eligible, I'm standing for re-election. As I've stood down from the board, I'll now hand over to my fellow director, Sandra, to chair this item.
Thanks, Mike. The proxies received in relation to this motion are displayed. The other directors unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution.
Oh, ignore that. Sorry.
All right. Okay. There is now an opportunity for discussion on this resolution. Are there any questions? No? All right. No questions. That's okay. I should have crossed out that. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. As Mike has been re-elected, I will now hand over the Chair of the meeting.
Thank you, Sandra. Thank you. Item 3B, the re-election of Bruce Clement. Bruce Clement is retiring by rotation in accordance with the constitution of the company. Being eligible, he is standing for re-election. The proxies received in relation to this motion are displayed, and the other directors, including me, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. There's now an opportunity to discuss this item if you'd like to. We'll move on to Item 4, the renewal of proportional takeover provisions. The meeting now needs to consider Item 4, approval of the renewal of the company's takeover provisions contained in the articles of the company's constitution for a period of 3 years in accordance with the Corporations Act. Proxies received in relation to this motion are displayed up on the screen. There's now an opportunity to discuss that. Okay. Thank you.
Item 5A, approval of the managing director's Long-Term Performance Right Incentive. The meeting now needs to consider item 5A, approval of the managing director's Long-Term Performance Right Incentive. The details of the Long-Term Performance Right Incentive Plan are outlined in the notice of the meeting. Proxies received in relation to this motion are displayed on the screen. Questions? Excuse me. If not, we'll go on to item 5B, approval of granting of shares to the managing director STI. The meeting now needs to consider item 5B for approval of the grant of rights to ordinary shares to the managing director as the deferred component of his 2022 Short-Term Incentive. The details of the Short-Term Incentive are set out in detail in the notice of the meeting. Proxies received in relation to this motion are displayed on the screen. Again, there's now an opportunity to discuss. Go on, Brent.
Yes. Broadly speaking, I'm in favor of this resolution and the one before because it puts incentives in front of the CEO. I think that's good. I must say, though, not so much on the 5B, but on 5A, which was the LTR.
The LTR one. Yeah.
I know that it was set out with some care in the notice of the meeting, but I must admit, I had a bit of difficulty sort of working out how it works. I just wondered if there's a sort of an idiot's guide- summary. Is there a short explanation as to how it works?
I thought it would've been simple compared to the SARs. Essentially, it's a one-off grant.
Yeah.
We wanted immediate alignment to all shareholders rather than this perpetual, this motivation to stay year on year and capture more SARs at whatever the share price might be. It's essentially to motivate key management employees, personnel to become shareholders as quickly as possible. That was the same rationale for the 50. This is essentially if the share price hits each hurdle over a 30-day VWAP, and there is, post that, an AUD 25 million in aggregate trading of shares at or above that VWAP. We want that share price hurdle to stay. Then the five-year vesting window. Essentially, with other bells and whistles, the first hurdle is a 30-day VWAP, which is the hurdle prices, and that was AUD 0.13-AUD 0.20, which has obviously been reduced to the cap rate of return. It's now AUD 0.10-AUD 0.17.
In that 12-month window, post that VWAP hurdle being hit, there needs to be AUD 25 million worth of shares traded at or above that VWAP as the second key vesting condition. There are other vesting conditions. Essentially sustain that higher share price, and then they come out with shares. The SARs were options, these come out in shares.
Can I just put this hypothetical to you? If, for example, the share price went to AUD 0.17 tomorrow and it stayed there for the period, and if in the next 12 months there's AUD 25 million worth of shares traded.
That's it.
At the end of 12 months, does that mean the 19.6 million shares are assigned to the CEO?
Well, it would be at the end of that AUD 25 million.
AUD 25 million.
traded. We don't have that vest. Once the AUD 25 million is traded.
The whole AUD 19.6.
Well, you pick the AUD 0.17 because that's the gray, the top one. Yes, in the instance of AUD 0.17, because that's the highest threshold.
Yeah
all AUD 19.6 million. If it was AUD 0.13, only the tranche is up to AUD 0.13.
Right.
It was AUD 7 million, then they dribble out. There's five tranches. Yes, if the highest share price hurdle has been met and the volume has traded, they will quite importantly vest it.
Right. Once those shares are assigned, is there any escrow or any holding period? In other words, the recipient could actually go out and sell those shares on the market.
Yes, sure.
Right.
Subject to the trading policy, yeah.
Subject to the trading policy.
Brent, I'm in your camp. I'm more than happy that you could spend some more time with Greg working at it. It's something that everybody struggles with this LTI and investing. I'm happy that you do.
Right.
Kind of everybody else.
Also, we structured that second to make sure that the share price was sustained. At that point in time, they've done their job.
Yeah. No.
Without you. Other shareholders have all had an opportunity to exit while these guys are adding up to get the AUD 25 million. We can always finish the listings further and put more bells and whistles on it. We thought that was a pragmatic approach.
Before we move on, I would just like to say thank you. Just on a couple of things. I think we're a good little company. When you look at our peers, who's given back AUD 100 million in the last two years, is it? All things being equal, it's likely in the future, they'll probably do it. In terms of growth options, yeah, we're with you on the growth options, but they're few and far between. When you look at the criteria we said a few minutes ago, they're really bloody difficult to find. Unless you want to spend some money and take some risk. I'm not sure we can find any that don't require that risk and they give us cash. Where we are today, I'm very pleased with the dividend.
We thank everybody, because as I said before, the last three years we've kept production flat. Next three years, hopefully, we can do it again. It's getting harder all the time, but what a nice little company it is now. Let's get on to the polls. We'll now conduct the polls. I invite Cass to sort out what we're doing on the polls.
Thanks, Mike. Jim McQuill of Computershare Investor Services has been appointed Returning Officer for this meeting. I am satisfied that the Computershare is in order. If there is any person at this meeting who believes they are entitled to vote but have not yet registered, would you please raise your hand for assistance. Every member present in person or by representative, attorney or proxy, who holds a yellow admission card is entitled to one vote for each share held. The resolutions on which you are required to vote by poll are items 2, 3 A, 3 B, 4, 5 A, and 5 B, as set out in the notice of the meeting.
Thank you, Cass. Well, have we collected all the votes? We don't have to that. While I should be doing that.
Mike,
Am I on mic?
There you go.
This is here.
There's another one, Grant.
Yeah.
Whilst Grant's filling you in, you know the format here. We'll send this to the ASX, and we'll get the results issued this afternoon. It's all right.
Anybody else who'd like to see the votes?
Thank you once again for coming, and I'll declare the meeting closed. Thank you.