Morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the 2025 Annual General Meeting of Strike Energy Limited. My name's John Poynton, and I'm the Chair of the company. Firstly, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet today, the Whadjuk Noongar people here in Perth, and the Yamatji people of the region where Strike operates in the Perth Basin. I'd like to pay respects to the Elders past, present, and emerging. We extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples joining us today. This year, we're holding the AGM in a virtual format, but also are pleased to have as many shareholders joining us in person in Perth today. The format allows shareholders and their proxies to have the ability to ask questions and submit votes on the polls in real time.
We have the necessary quorum present, and I declare the Strike Energy Annual General Meeting open and confirm that online voting for all items of business is also open. Please note that you may submit your vote and any questions for each of the resolutions via Lumi at any point in the meeting. Any questions will be addressed at the appropriate time. At this point, I'd like to introduce my fellow directors present today: Managing Director Peter Stokes, our Deputy Chairman Nev Power, Mary Hackett, Stephen Bizzell, and Jill Hoffmann, along with our Company Secretary Tim Cooper. I must also pass on Will Barker, our new Director's apologies; he unfortunately is in Queensland and can't be with us today. We'd also like to welcome David Newman, who's representing Deloitte, our Company Auditor.
David's also available to answer questions with respect to the auditor's report and the conduct of the audit. The format I propose for the meeting is firstly to present my address as Chair, after which I'll hand over to our Managing Director, Peter Stokes, who will provide an update on the company's activities and plans. At the conclusion of Peter's presentation and any questions that may arise, I will deal with the formal business. Shareholders will have the opportunity to ask questions either in person here at the meeting or via the Lumi application, and I'm aware a number of questions have already been submitted. This past year has been one of transition, reflection, and renewal for Strike Energy.
Following the Board-led strategic review, we've taken immediate and deliberate steps to refocus the company on its most valuable cash-generating assets at Walyering, South Erregulla, and West Erregulla, under an integrated gas-to-power strategy that aligns with the needs of Western Australia's rapidly evolving markets and seeks to optimize the value of our assets. At Walyering, we maintain strong performance in cash generation from gas production, averaging 25 TJ a day, while addressing natural fuel decline through the sanctioning of compression and cooling projects and planning for the upcoming Walyering West Exploration well. While the reserve write-downs and associated impairments were extremely disappointing, we remain confident that Strike's Perth Basin portfolio provides the opportunities and depth to mitigate any long-term risk of shortfall under our existing gas sales contract.
Positively, we saw record production and revenue, with output up 62% to 9.2 PJ equivalent and revenue of approximately AUD 73 million. At South Erregulla, construction of the 85 MW peaking gas power plant is advancing and remains on schedule for first power by 1 October 2026. The project is underpinned by long-term reserve capacity credits, which guarantee stable revenue streams independent of energy sales. Following the recent confirmation of the final reserve capacity price for the 2027-2028 capacity year, Strike now has visibility of base revenues of approximately AUD 18 million in the first year of operation, increasing to more than AUD 30 million in the second year, all before the plant even begins selling electricity. This certainty provides a strong foundation for returns and underlines the strategic importance of the project within WA s decarbonizing power grid.
At West Erregulla and the adjacent Erregulla Deep Discovery, we're nearing completion of integrating new 3D seismic and appraisal data to inform an independently certified resource update, which is on track for release in December. We are actively working to refine our development pathway for West Erregulla, with a target FID in the second half of calendar 2026. Financially, we strengthened the balance sheet through an AUD 217 million financing package with Macquarie Bank, and subsequent to year-end, welcomed an AUD 86 million strategic investment from Carnarvon Energy. Together, these initiatives provide a clear funding pathway for Strike's next phase of growth and value generation. In spite of these positive developments, however, we recognize that the past year has been extremely challenging. Our share price has not reflected in our view the fundamental quality of our assets or the progress we've made. As a Board, we share the frustration felt by shareholders.
We acknowledge that performance, both operational and financial, must translate into shareholder returns, and that has not occurred. As an immediate signal, we are listening to your feedback and concerns. The Board has resolved to reduce directors' fees by 20% across the Board, effectively from today. Further, whilst we believe that we currently have a fit-for-purpose governance structure in place, I confirm our intention to commission an externally facilitated Board review during the balance of FY 2026. This will cover the appropriate number of directors, requisite skills matrix, gender balance, tenure, and other relevant matters. The outcomes of that review, and we will make sure it is not an expensive review, will be shared with the market when appropriate. During the year, we also saw a change in leadership with Peter Stokes, appointed Managing Director and CEO, and Tim Cooper, joining as CFO and Company Secretary.
They've both had plenty to do since joining us, and you'll hear from Peter after my address. Looking ahead, the outlook for Western Australia's energy market remains compelling. The retirement of coal, combined with growing industrial demand and the global race to secure reliable power for AI and data infrastructure, is reshaping the energy landscape. The world is discovering that AI runs on compute and compute runs on power. In Western Australia, Strike is uniquely positioned in this intersection, delivering firm, flexible gas and power capacity into a system that is facing a pronounced shortfall in dispatchable supply. Beyond our producing and near-term development assets, Strike also holds a strong portfolio of growth projects, including Ocean Hill and Catafini, which contain significant prospectivity and represent the next wave of potential value creation for the company.
These assets sit within our 100% R&D acreage, well positioned to leverage existing infrastructure and extend Strike's low-cost, low-carbon footprint across the Perth Basin. As the state's energy security becomes a central policy focus, our integrated gas-to-power strategy places Strike among the few domestic producers capable of producing both the reliability the industry needs today and the scalability the digital economy will demand tomorrow. With one of the largest and most strategically positioned gas portfolios in the Perth Basin, Strike is well placed to play a central role in powering the next phase of West Australia's energy transition, delivering both reliable, low-cost gas and flexible dispatchable power.
We realize, however, the market is yet to fully reflect the underlying value of our assets and prospects, and we see it as our responsibility to promote a clear and accurate understanding of our portfolio's underlying value and long-term growth potential within the investment community. Before I finish, I would like to acknowledge an important change to our Board. Recently, we farewelled Andrew Seaton, who has served with dedication and integrity during a period of significant transformation for Strike. On behalf of the Board, I thank him sincerely for his service and commitment to the company. At the same time, I'm pleased to welcome Will Barker, who joins the Board as a representative of our major shareholder, Carnarvon Energy. Will brings a strong background in subsurface and has already added significant value through his recent contributions.
Carnarvon's investment represents a strong vote of confidence in Strike's asset base and strategy and future direction, and we look forward to working closely with Will as we look to build long-term value for all shareholders. Finally, I want to extend my thanks to our team, who have continued to deliver safely and professionally under demanding conditions, to my fellow Directors for their diligence and commitment during a testing year, and most importantly, to you, our shareholders, for your ongoing support and frank feedback through these frustrating times. We look forward to taking this opportunity to engage with you today, both in person and online. We have heard your comments and suggestions and frustrations and we're determined to deliver the performance this company and our exceptional asset base is capable of achieving. Thank you.
Good morning. My name is Peter Stokes. As John said, I joined just on five months ago. I'm privileged to be MD and CEO of Strike and really excited to talk to you about some of the things that we're achieving, but also some of the real challenges we've had during this year and the things that we're doing to address those. I wanted to welcome our shareholders particularly, but also all of our or a lot of our staff and a number of our key business partners as well to the AGM today. Thank you. If I go through the highlights from the year, and John covered a number of these, I'll try to go into a little bit more detail on a number of these points.
This year really marked a number of key milestones for us: record production at Walyering, generating some AUD 73 million of revenue and 9.3 PJ equivalent from that asset. We continue to develop our robust asset base around the production at Walyering, the development of the South Erregulla plant, and further exploration with the 3D work that we have done at Ocean Hill and also the preliminary works that we are finalizing in December around West Erregulla. The execution is well underway at South Erregulla, now well past 50% completion of the facility there, and we are confident that we can continue to deliver that, as we have said, by 1st October next year, and we are doing everything we can to bring that forward and to manage costs as part of that process.
John mentioned the strengthened balance sheet confirmation of the AUD 217 million Macquarie facility and really pleasingly the post-FYI AUD 86 million Carnarvon strategic investment, which is a critical part enabling us to continue to develop the assets that we have in the business. We are energy transition ready in the business. We'll play a key role in the West Australian market as it transitions over the next few years away from the coal-fired generation in the south to renewables and a combination of the transition that we'll provide with gas assets that will generate significant power. Strike's vertically integrated strategy anchors long-term value for our shareholders. All of our assets are centrally located within the SWIS and also close to the pipelines to enable us to access gas into major industries in Western Australia as it continues to grow. The flexible gas-fired power generation is an essential part of renewables.
I think, as you've probably seen in media recently, the challenge with the amount of renewables coming into the market without firming capacity being either gas-fired generation or the coal generators provides real challenge to enable stable power generation in the state and cope with the times when renewables are not operating. We're building assets that underpin that transition in Western Australia and will be a critical part of the future. The South Erregulla plant is the first part of that with a vertically integrated gas-to-power generation facility connected directly into the SWIS and the line that runs up to Geraldton and back down to Three Springs. Safety is core in our business, and we continue to deliver strong safety outcomes across our business with zero fatalities and zero tier one or two process safety events. We have also, during this year, had zero clearing of vegetation.
We're very conscious about running the native vegetation in our areas that we work in. We own the farm that we work on up at South Erregulla called the Precinct, and we continue to manage around native vegetation as much as possible. We have an industry-leading 40% female workforce, and you'll see a number of the people, quite a few of them here, which we're really proud of. We continue to focus on doing that both at the board level and, importantly, in our organization. We're also focused on local spend, both in Western Australia and particularly in our local community. We have a lot of local contractors working from Welliering right up through to West Erregulla and the South Erregulla plant in between. Our Board, as John said, has deep industry expertise and management across a number of sectors.
With the addition of Will with deep subsurface expertise, I think we have a very capable Board who can continue to lead and drive our business. The renewal of the management team also provides an opportunity for us to, one, step back and assess the business and continue to build out the capability as we transition from an explorer into an operator of both gas facilities and also power plant facilities. We are facing a number of challenges, and many of you, as shareholders, have talked to us about that extensively. We're very conscious of the things that we need to do. We need to rebuild our credibility with the market and with our shareholders about what we say we're going to do, we do, and that we deliver on that and make sure that we don't slip on projects or overpromise and not deliver.
At Walyering, you would have seen recently the reserves write down and some of the production decline. We're on the front foot there. We're committed to delivering our contractual obligations and are working with our key customers. We are doing mitigation around the project with an additional well in the west, so the Way West well, which is planned for middle of first quarter next year, so around March next year, and assuming success would be tied in in the third quarter of next year. We are also doing some additional work to ensure long-term steady supply from the current well with compression and a number of additions to the plant, which will be in place some before Christmas and the rest early into the new year.
At South Erregulla, the connection and infrastructure costs were higher or have been higher than we initially expected, but we are doing everything we can to mitigate those. As I said before, the project is advancing quickly. The power line from our facility is now being installed. The key substations and other key components will start to arrive on site early in the new year, and earthworks for those other key components are well underway. Through the various announcements, you would have seen all of the gensets are now in the facility, and a number of the key components on site are done too. Well testing has been completed, and the connection of the well to the facility is underway over the next few weeks. At West Erregulla, we're working on ways to develop that asset.
As you can imagine, it's not a simple process, but we're working through the best option to deliver value for our shareholders through that facility. It's a large and very attractive resource that we want to develop as soon as we can, and we remain committed to targeting FID by the end of next year or earlier if possible. The options that we're exploring there continue to be around gas processing, and there are a couple of options there, as you can imagine. There's also an opportunity for us to look at further power generation and/or firming up South Erregulla to ensure that there's a long-term opportunity there. Exploration has been the core of Strike, and it will continue to be into the future.
We need to continue to develop on the very large acreage that we have from Kattby right up to Katerini up in the north, some 3,000 sq km. Our immediate focus, as you would have seen from the releases that we made around Ocean Hill, is to work on drilling Ocean Hill in the second half of next year, just after, probably after mid-year is our current timing, to really follow up on the 3D seismic results that we released and prove up the reserves that we have there as a further opportunity to either produce gas from that facility or connect into the power lines that are right nearby with the large number of wind farms that are in that area. It'll provide a much easier connection than we've had further north. Operational achievements during the year. The Walyering plant continues to perform exceptionally well.
Availability has been above 98%, which is a real tribute to the team who continue to operate that facility and continue to ensure that we deliver to our Santos and Alinta contracts. The Natta 3D seismic over West Erregulla and Erregulla Deep is well in progress, and we're working through the independent resource certification. Early results from that look positive, but we'll wait to confirm that once we get the certification by the end of the year. At Ocean Hill, the 3D seismic, it was applied to the acreage that we have there, and we confirmed a large 2C resource of 180 PJ in the Ocean Hill area proper and an additional 190 PJ of prospective resource and a very large prospective resource north of 600 PJ in the Ocean Hill south area.
The field extension projects that I talked about at West Erregulla West and the compression projects are well underway with, as I talked about, planning to start in the first quarter of next year at Way West. We're working through the final parts of the drill contract and are looking to have that signed up in the next week. We have early works done and a lot of the approvals are already in place, so we're ready to drill once we finalize the rig. The construction of the South Erregulla plant is well on track. The market dynamics in WA really demonstrate the tightening supply and demand balance for both gas and firming capacity through firming through gas-fired power generation.
You can see John referred to on the right-hand side, and this is driving the capacity credits that we are provided with the power plant, which increased by 67% from the first year of what we were awarded, from just below AUD 20 million to north of AUD 30 million in the second year of operation, which is a payment that we received from the government independent of producing power. On top of that, we optimise the plant to ensure that we use the peak power premiums to ensure that we maximise the revenue from the facility and also deliver the peak power that the government needs in order to stabilise the grid in Western Australia. On the top graph there, you'll see the looming gap around gas supply as well.
There's been a lot of noise in the market around a gap that's coming later in this decade and beyond, and we plan to be a key part of the solution to fill that gap. Importantly, the vertically integrated model that we provide at South Erregulla is fully integrated gas reserves, processing, power generation, and power station, and then grid connection. You can see from the graphic that we're provided, it's an incredibly positive opportunity for us to contribute both in Western Australia to resolve some of the challenges, but also to take out a number of the interim costs that you would have if you were either an individual buying gas on the market to produce power or any other part of that stream where you're not in control of both the gas and putting that into the power plant.
It gives us a unique opportunity to really drive value from the gas that we produce at South Erregulla. Strike has a leading Perth Basin gas portfolio position. You can see from the left-hand side of the map here just the extent of the leases that we have from Kattby in the south up to near inland from Dongara in the north where we have West Erregulla and the number of assets that sit around where we are. The red blocks in here define reserves that we have both in our assets and some of the adjacent assets. We have one of the largest discovered Gas portfolios in the Perth Basin.
We're located, as I said earlier, strategically near the transmission infrastructure of the SWIS, and we're equally well placed to the pipelines, both the Parmelia pipeline in the south and the Dampier pipeline in the north to provide gas into the market. We have a diversified portfolio across the production, development, appraisal, and then a number of exploration assets that we will continue to develop over the coming years. We have a large discovered reserve and resource of some 800 PJ equivalent in the Basin, and a number of those remain still to be explored and developed, including the Katerini asset in the north that we will continue to work on over the next 12 months or so as we start to look at what the next phase of development is for that asset and ensuring that we can prove up that and continue to add to our reserves.
There are a number of catalysts over the next 12 months that we believe will drive significant further improvement in our share price from what we believe is a very depressed value currently, and I'm sure you do too. West Erregulla and Erregulla Deep resource update will be provided before the end of the year. The Walyering West near field exploration drilling will be completed early into the second quarter of next year and on success tied into Walyering plant into the third quarter of next year. The West Erregulla development pathway will become clear as we work through that over the next number of months, and we'll continue to provide updates as we have information that we can provide to you.
The Ocean Hill appraisal is planned for the middle of next year, and we hope to prove up the reserves that we've identified down at Ocean Hill and then as rapidly as possible turn that into a production facility on success. The key last one really is I'm sure everyone is looking forward to is the commissioning and startup of the South Erregulla peaking plant to prove our concept of gas-to-power generation. Strike is a proven gas developer positioned at the intersection of the surging energy demand and tightening firming capacity requirements in the Western Australian market. As WA exits from the coal-fired power generation by 2030 and the commitments that the government has made, there's a significant gap, some greater than one gigawatt of dispatchable capacity drops out of the market.
In addition to that, a number of the gas peaking plants will start to drop out of the market into early 2030s as well. The government is committed to support companies like ours to bring their capacity onto the market and not keep reinvesting in state assets. The forecasts show that the firming capacity credit deficits will drive continued increases in the prices of the capacity credits in Western Australia. Strike has a significant acreage in the Perth Basin, greater than 3,000 sq km, as I said, close to the SWIS load centre and uniquely placed to supply WA's grid. We have gas assets in order to support both industry in the sector, but also additional power generation.
As John mentioned, the AI boom that is happening in the market at the moment continues to drive additional demand on top of what is already expected as a growth profile in Western Australia that has been somewhat stagnant for the last several years and now is starting to grow again. With Gas and Power integration, Strike is one of the few ASX names that can really provide direct exposure to the infrastructure of intelligence around data centers as well. As the coal-fired generation is phased out, I think we are uniquely placed to fill that gap. Thank you. I will sit down and we will take questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Peter. I will now move to the formal part of today's meeting. As a reminder, voting instructions are now on the screen, or will be in a second.
The minutes of last year's AGM held on the 28th of November 2024 were approved by the board and signed by me as Chair of the meeting in accordance with the Corporations Act. The minutes are available for inspection upon request. Voting can be conducted via the Lumi application if you've not voted already. If you wish to change your existing votes, using the application will override any votes currently cast. Voting will remain open for all resolutions until the time I declare the voting is closed. Reminder that online attendees can submit questions at any time, and I'm aware some have already. To ask a question, select the messaging tab at the top of the Lumi platform. At the top of that tab, there's a section for you to type in your question. Once you've finished typing, please hit the arrow symbol to send.
I invite you to start submitting your votes and questions via the Lumi app now. You can vote on the resolutions at any point during the meeting. There's no need to wait until the relevant item of business is reached. Votes can be changed up until I declare voting has been closed. We also look forward to using this time to engage with you, our shareholders, after what has been a challenging period, and we encourage you to ask questions both during the meeting and afterwards. We will be available to chat over refreshments. Valid proxies have been collated by the company's share registry provider, Boardroom Proprietary Limited , and 597 proxies received from shareholders totaling 1,480,525,678 shares are tabled before this meeting.
Where a proxy vote has been given to the Chair without voting instructions and subject to voting exclusions, I intend as the Chair to vote in favor of all resolutions except Resolution 4, which I intend to vote against for the reasons set out in the explanatory memorandum attached to the notice of meeting. Proxy voting by resolution will be displayed on the screen once I've taken the resolutions as being read. As Chair, I direct that the vote on all resolutions is to be taken by way of a poll. To ensure there's sufficient time for all votes to be cast, the polls will close five minutes after the conclusion of today's meeting. Notice of general meeting. The notice of annual general meeting and explanatory memorandum has been circulated to all shareholders via mail or electronically.
With the permission of shareholders, I'll take the notice of annual general meeting as read. Tim, have you received any objections? No. Thank you. As per the notice of meeting, all proposed resolutions at the meeting will be conducted by poll via the Lumi application. The results will be tallied along with the proxy votes and subsequently released to the ASX. There are 10 resolutions in total to be considered, including two special resolutions. Accordingly, each resolution will be passed if at least 50% of the votes cast by or on behalf of shareholders entitled to vote on each resolution are in favor of the resolution. The two special resolutions require a higher threshold and will be passed only if they receive the approval of at least 75% of the votes cast by shareholders entitled to vote on those resolutions. Financial report.
The financial report of the company and its controlled entities for the year ended 30 June 2025, together with the Director's Report and Auditor's Report, is required under the Corporations Act 2001 to be laid before the annual general meeting and made available on the company's website. I understand there have been no questions received from shareholders in relation to these reports. Correct? Resolution. The first four ordinary resolutions now appear on the screen. I will pause for a moment to allow people to read the resolutions before we take any questions in relation to these resolutions. As noted in the notice of annual general meeting and in accordance with Section 250R of the Corporations Act, the vote on Resolution 1 will be advisory only and will not bind the Directors of the company. Are there any questions in relation to these resolutions?
Certainly. Hi, I'm Dr. Darren Ferdinando.
I'll put myself up as the National Director. Sorry, just for a moment, we'll give you a microphone. Oh, thank you very much.
Is that different from what you've sent out to shareholders already?
Sir, I'm confusing the shareholders in the rooms available at this resolution.
Go ahead.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, board members, and fellow shareholders for the opportunity to talk to this resolution for. My name is Dr. Darren Ferdinando, and I've nominated for election as a director. I hold directly and indirectly around 1.8 million shares. Like many of you, I have a fair amount of skin in the game. Why am I running? The answer is choice. My nomination provides you with a choice as shareholders. Two years ago, our share price was around AUD 0.45. A year ago, AUD 0.22.
Today, we're looking at a share price of around AUD 0.12 as of earlier this morning. Your choice is whether or not to continue with the current Board composition and direction or to elect to the Board someone with a different set of drivers and direction. If elected to the Board, I will be a strong advocate for Strike Energy to refocus back on exploration and advance the drilling of our high-impact opportunities such as Catterfeni, Aranoo, and some of the other leads and prospects that we have so that we can see value generated for the company over the short to medium term. It is my belief that with the Board composition we have, with only one member having geotechnical expertise, and that's Will Barker, just coming on recently to the bBoard, for the excellent exploration assets that we have, we're doing ourselves an injustice.
I look at one of our successful peers in Beach Energy, where they have three experienced geoscientists on a board of eight, providing direct and relevant experience to their investment decisions for both exploration and development. While I support a long-term future as a producer of projects such as West Erregulla, we also need to ensure that in the short to medium term, we keep our share price in line with our exploration value to ensure that opportunistic predators are kept at bay and that we as shareholders are able to maximize the value of our company. The most direct way of doing this within a 6-18 month timeframe is through selective exploration of the parts of our portfolio that have the greatest chance of success along with significant cash resource within them.
If elected, I will advocate for our exploration spend to be put where it will generate the best value for shareholders by leveraging my 35 years of direct and hands-on experience in exploring the Perth Basin from Jinjin all the way up to Dongara and truly understanding the nuances of the Perth Basin area and applying that knowledge to Board decisions. My thanks for your indulgence and allowing me to talk to Resolution 4, and I hope we can turn around the position that our share price currently languishes in. Thank you, John.
Thank you, Dr. Ferdinando. Are there any other questions in relation to the first four resolutions? Yeah, I am. Sorry, we're going to...
My question is in relation to Resolution 2, and I see that Mr. Bizzell was qualified as a chartered accountant and seems to have considerable experience in corporate finance.
Yet, over this last 12 months, we seem to have got ourselves into a financial situation where we had to sell 20% of this company for a dramatically lower price than even what it was being traded at. I'm just wondering why you deserve to be re-elected, given that this should have been your area of expertise, I would have thought.
Go ahead.
Thank you. Certainly, my experience with a number of companies in the mining and energy space has been primarily around strategic and corporate matters and corporate finance background originally. In terms of the company's financial position, as Peter and John's addresses outlined, I mean, we finished during the course of the year, we put in place a significant debt financing package with Macquarie , which is a large part of the project development funding that required for what we're moving forward with at the moment.
We obviously had some additional capital spend now on our South Erregulla project, which is part of what the recent placement to Carnarvon Energy solves for. Yes, not ideal in terms of the price at which we were raising the capital versus where we had been trading, but it was the appropriate sort of solution for the circumstances at the time.
If I can just comment, look, I do not doubt that it was an appropriate step to take, but what I wonder is how we managed to get ourselves in that sort of situation in the first place.
Yeah. There is a variety of factors that led to that. We obviously have a different management team in place now, and that reflects some of the circumstances that led us to being in the position that required that financing.
That is also an easier answer because whenever someone's not in the room, we always blame that person. I think you've got to take a lot of responsibility for this.
We as a Board, and John acknowledged, it's been a tough year and decisions that this board made have sort of led to some of those tough positions that we found ourselves in. However, the circumstance we are in now is in a much better shape than where we were at the start of this year.
Okay. In fact, sorry.
Yeah, hi, John. You've heard me before because I've been to a number of meetings, but my question to the board is that I know who you are, John, when it comes to your presentation and Peter before you, of course Stuart Nichols and Stephen Bizzell.
I just now know exactly how you represent the board in your capacity and professionalism, but we never hear from Nev Power or Mary Hackett or Jill Hoffmann in relation to how you're actually moving the company forward with what you do, like who's champing up contracts when it comes to gas sales, who's talking to Woodside when it comes to offshore sales, and so on and so forth. I am not sure of what roles you take or the fact that for you also to be given a voice of comment when it comes to us as shareholders, that we can understand that other than sitting at these meetings, we know who you are, we know what you're doing, and we can get behind you. Nev Power, I knew you back in the Fortescue Middle days. Essentially, you stay quiet, we do not hear. I do not know what's happening.
To say that I'm disillusioned at this time probably applies to everybody in the room as well as the directors. Thank you for taking the tuck cut remuneration. At the end of the day, I still would like to know who people are and what you are doing for us as shareholders at the company.
Thanks entirely for your question. I'll let the relevant people respond. I might say that none of them is quiet in a boardroom if in fact they are in these meetings. Do you want to make any comments? Any three of you?
Yeah, thank you for the question. I think that's a reasonable question. You only get the opportunity to see us in action at AGMs, and that is a relatively small role that we play in that.
I will be circulating afterwards and happy to take any questions and always happy to engage with shareholders and talk through the prospects of the company and get their feedback. In terms of what I do on the Board, I'm on three of the subcommittees of the Board and particularly on the major project subcommittee where we oversight on the development of South Erregulla Power Station. I'm also on the Audit and Risk committee, and I'm also on the ESS committee. Our role as directors is not to run the company. It is to provide the strategic oversight and governance for management to run the company. We draw on our experience as a Board very much so to input into that process. Maybe I can just make a couple of comments around that.
It has been an extremely challenging time for the company and an extremely challenging time as a Director. The situation is that we as a small exploration company were pretty successful at discovering gas, but we were in a position where we had a significant amount of gas and have a significant amount of gas without a balance sheet to develop that. We are in the process of trying to eke out the funds that we have as an organization to create the maximum value out of the assets that we have. The write-down of the South Erregulla wells, both of which were certified independently by reservoir engineers as having that reservoir there, that write-down was an enormous kick in the guts for all of us, I can assure you.
We are trying to recover the maximum value we can from the South Erregulla field through the South Erregulla Power Station to recover some cash flow opportunities and monetization of those assets. The West Erregulla asset, as we know, is one of the most significant that we have. We have been working to try and come up with a joint venture arrangement which makes sense for our shareholders. Yes, there have been opportunities to develop that in the past, but practically everything that we have looked at is to the detriment of Strike shareholders and to the benefit of somebody else. We are trying through that joint venture agreement to develop that asset, but to make sure that we do actually capture the value that it represents because it is not going anywhere.
That asset is a fundamental value driver for the business, and Western Australia market fundamentally needs that gas. We need to make sure that we do get the maximum value from it. I think the question about the issue of shares to Carnarvon Energy is one of pure need. We needed to raise that cash. As I said before, we have the gas, but we do not have the balance sheet to develop these assets and turn them into cash-generating assets. We would love to be doing more exploration, but the reality is our balance sheet does not allow us to build a power station and to do exploration and to develop West Erregulla. Our choices are to raise a lot of extra capital on the market and dilute existing shareholders, which we are trying very hard not to do.
As a current shareholder, that's the last thing I want to do. We have to get the funds from somewhere. We are pretty tapped out in terms of debt to build the power station. We need the cash flows from that power station to repay that debt and to reset our balance sheet. We need to have enough capital to complete that, to do the upstream works on West Erregulla to achieve FID there and to continue the exploration in the substantial assets that we have and tenements that we have. I can assure you we are looking very closely at how we deploy that capital that we have, the very limited capital that we have on our balance sheet, to be able to do that to get the maximum value that we can.
As I said again before, the write-down of South Erregulla was a major setback for the company because we could have been raising capital at a much higher share price than where we are today and recognizing that our share price will reset once we start generating cash from South Erregulla and that becomes a clearer way to the market, then we will look to raise more money at a much more respectable share price. We are trying to minimize how much we raise at these low-tier prices as we can. I recognize and understand the frustration and the disillusionment of where we are. The reality of that is that we have the gas in the ground. We need capital to develop it or sell assets or do something to be able to create value for shareholders. That is what we are focused on as a Board.
We spend every Board meeting looking through the strategic options that we have, rationing the capital that we have, and trying to make those decisions about expenditure on development, expenditure on exploration, and how much we're doing. I can assure you my experience at developing projects, at exploration across resources, and at contracting and major infrastructure development is what I'm trying to bring to bear to be able to do that. I would ask that again, please be patient with us. Do not be too patient. You can have high expectations of us, but also please be realistic about what we're able to achieve in the timeframe with the balance sheet that we have and that we are trying very hard to get those assets into cash-generating production so that we can reset our balance sheet and accelerate the exploration and accelerate the value growth in the company.
Thank you. Thanks, Nev. Mary Hackett, you'll have seen my profile in the background. Operations, projects background, engineering background. Before I start, a lot of what I'll say will sound defensive, but completely, utterly accept the year we've had and how gutted we've all been as shareholders and as Board members for how things have not gone our way. I think the importance, though, is a lot happens in the background that keeps us safe. For instance, I sit on and Chair the ESS committee, Environment, Safety, and Sustainability. That's incredibly important to keep us in the game, to keep our reputation, to keep us as a company that is viable and that is seen as a recognized operator now at this point. Really important. Nothing happening is a great result.
I think a major projects committee, I also sit on the major projects committee. Again, so much is done. I guess this Board constitutes way more often than any other board that I sit on, very hands-on. Our ability to be fleet and to pivot post our South Erregulla disappointment, to monetize that, to turn it into something that any other company would not have created necessarily. In as much as it has been hard, it has been tough yards, it is still a great outcome that I think having worked with major oil companies, it just does not happen. You do not get that rapid solution in a time when things are grim and difficult. Audit and Risk, I sit with Stephen on that committee. I can tell you how incredibly important this guy is. He thinks differently.
I think this is the diversity of the Board, very differently to, for instance, how I think as an operator and as a projects person, he brings a lot to bear in that area. When it comes to the decisions we had to walk into this year, you want this guy by your side. I absolutely would say every member of this Board, I've had moments of being very, very glad that they're by my side when we've had things turn tough and turn ugly on us.
Thanks. My name's Jill Hoffmann, and I absolutely share the sentiment that it's been an incredibly challenging year. I think the Board doesn't like it as well, very much in terms of where the shareholders are. I think that's a very fair reflection on your part.
From my perspective, my background is I've had 30 years' experience in Oil and Gas, primarily in Australia, working for Woodside Energy, but also in the U.K. I've worked across the value chain and had exposure a lot to operations and projects. Really, my background is in the commercial space, including gas marketing and working with joint ventures. From a Strike perspective, I Chair the major projects committee, and I assure you we're meeting very regularly to make sure that South Erregulla is delivered by the 1st of October. We are very, very focused on that and recognizing how important that project is to Strike. I also sit on the Nom and Rem Committee and also the ESS committee. I think collectively as a Board, every committee is meeting more regularly given where we are today as an organization.
They're not formal meetings, but we are talking every day or most days, but definitely every week and how we can move the company forward. There is a lot of work going in the background that is not reflected in the number of meetings that are seen in the annual report or what is reflected generally to shareholders. I also acknowledge and agree with the comments that Nev made in terms of where we are as a company. We are short on cash in terms of we do not have the strength of a balance sheet, and we are very asset-rich. On one hand, we are very lucky to have the assets. We have just got to find a way to how we actually commercialise those assets, and it is going to take some time.
Going back to the point about South Erregulla, it reinforces the need to get that project up and running by the 1st of October. I also agree with Mary's comment. We actually work very well as a Board in terms of we work well together, we listen to each other, and we work the way forward. I think that's really important to have that cohesion as a Board if we're meaningfully going to move the company forward.
My question. Thanks again for that question. It was a good opportunity to hear from my colleagues. Hopefully, that helped.
Go ahead.
Thank you for presenting that to us all today. What I'd like to know is you all sound fantastic in the roles that you're in. You're covering many things for board decisions. Why are we then doing a strategic review of the board?
What's the purpose if we're covering all items that need to be addressed?
It's a fair question. There's been some suggestions that the size of the governance of this company is bigger than it needs to be for its market cap and obviously reflects, I guess, where we came from. It is actually best practice to have an externally facilitated Board review on a reasonably regular basis, say, every two, three, four years. My position was that I was happy to conduct one of those or to commission one of those as long as it wasn't going to be chaperoned versus expensive. I guess as people's tenure go on, there's a reasonable expectation that people are thinking about succession and what's happening about that and indeed skills matrix. You heard the good doctor talk about the lack of subsurface skill.
I think you hear there's a lot of deep Oil and Gas experience on the Board. One might say too much. You never know. To have an external body or organization that does regular reviews, in a sense, gives you some sense of whether you have got the balance right across the criteria I mentioned is probably not a bad thing. As I said, it's come from shareholders asking us to do it. I think the further question was, how much is it going to cost and do you really need to do it? How much it's going to cost will be a modest amount. By that, I mean, I'd say, and it probably doesn't sound modest, but AUD 25,000 or something like that. We want to hear whether we're on track or not.
As I said, hopefully what you're hearing is that we certainly regard this as a democracy. The shareholders own this company, and we want to respond to their concerns. There are only so many things we can control. Some things, as you've heard, are outside of our control. In that respect, that is something that we can respond to and say, we've done that review. The review suggested this, that, or the other, and we're responding to it. There has not been a review that suggested we should take a haircut in our Directors' fees, but it responded. It was a response to people saying, you've had a really bad year. We've all suffered as shareholders, and we are all shareholders. What can you do that's tangible to show that you want to take some pain as well?
In a sense, the reduction of the amount I've talked about is the equivalent of more than the cost of one non-exec Director. In the absence of doing anything about the size of the Board, at least the cost of governance goes down.
We might move on just to get through the resolutions and get through the voting. There will be another chance for questions.
Great.
Yeah. Happy with that. I assume there are no other questions on those four resolutions specifically. Moving on, the next two resolutions are now displayed on the screen, and they're special resolutions in regard to the selected buyback of performance shares in relation to the Midwest Geothermal Project, along with the approval of proportional takeover provisions. Are there any questions in relation to these resolutions? The last four ordinary resolutions should now appear on the screen.
I'll pause for a moment to allow people to read these resolutions before we take any questions in relation to them. Are there any questions in relation to these resolutions? Unless there are any objections, I'll take all resolutions as being read. The proxy votes received for each resolution will now be displayed on the screen. Whilst we allow time for people to vote on each resolution, I'll take any further questions in relation to the resolutions. As I said, there's plenty of opportunity for us to have an interaction outside of this room, but that concludes our discussion on the items of business. Please ensure that you've cast your vote on all the resolutions. We'll now allow you time to finalize those votes, and the polls will remain open for another five minutes or so before closing.
We do have some further time for questions, or alternatively, we're happy to chat informally outside.
Question. I noticed a little while ago that Rio has conducted something similar in their drop from 14 members to approximately 11 Board members. That is a company with, I think it's something like 350x the size of Strike and employs about 60,000 people. It seems to me that, and there's been comment about the weakness in the balance sheet from a number of people up there. It would seem to me to be appropriate to try to cut back on the members that are there.
It just seems as if we should be concentrating on getting the peaking plant moving, and the other matters can be put to one side for the time being, and we can save money and have a more streamlined Board, which I think will always work better than having too many, a lot of members because there's always too many voices.
All right. That's all. Can I respond to that? So correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the non-exec Directors' fees are in the mid-high 100s. As I said, we've already taken steps as of today to reduce the overall cost of the Board by more than the cost of one director. I suppose in the scheme of things, one, you've heard that we're pretty busy, and we're meeting vastly more frequently as Board members than any company I'm involved in.
That includes companies like Perth Airport, which is a AUD 7 billion company. There is not a day almost goes by without either a conversation or indeed some kind of interaction. I have had two already this week outside of the board meeting today. There is a certain element of needing to share the load and get the work done. I suppose a cynic might also respond and say, "Is a AUD 160,000 reduction in cost, additional to what we have already agreed, actually going to move the needle, or is it actually going to make it harder for the board to govern the business in the way it needs to?" I guess that is also part of the reason why we want to get an external check on whether the size of the Board for the size of the company is seen by external parties as appropriate.
We would take that advice on board and act accordingly. In the meantime, we've made a gesture that we can respond to immediately. We're, I guess, in the position where we've got a lot to do. We're asking a lot of the Directors sitting on three committees each, that sort of thing. Take it on Board, listen to us, and just ask you to kind of think about all the things we're trying to achieve. Whether, in fact, the saving of that amount of money, whilst it is material in the scheme of things, what impact that has in the short term on the issues we've discussed is a fair question to ask back, I think.
John, I've got an audio question from someone online. Go ahead. Janostra Capital. David, if you are there, we'll put you online now for you to ask your question.
Yeah, thank you. I really appreciate the commentary from all the NEDs today. That has been really insightful. Maybe if Nev could take this question on. The company has talked about the WED resource update and downstream monetisation options for over six months now. When the resource update is released to the market, will the company also advise on decisions around offtake for our 50% of the resource? Unfortunately, the market appears to have little confidence these decisions are imminent. For anyone with a corporate finance background, and there are some on the board that do, if CVN sell their 19.9% stake after July 29 next year, it could be taken out of everyone's hands, and we run out of time to create the value that the shareholders are looking for.
Yeah, a couple of things there.
West Erregulla is a particularly complex issue to try and get that brought to market. One, the limited balance sheet capacity that we have to develop such a big project. We are trying to thread a needle here of continue that development pathway for that asset without having to raise a significant amount of capital through dilution of shareholders. We are looking at all options to try and monetize that asset. It is very difficult. It is a joint venture asset. We are the operator, so we have a lot of control over the way that asset is developed. At the same time, we do not have a balance sheet that allows us to develop it in a, can I say, a sort of straight-to-market way. We are looking at all sorts of things like prepayments, joint venture partnerships, offtake agreements.
We're looking at two or three different options for processing that gas. We're looking at gas generation options. All of those options are designed to try and provide us with the funding that it would require to bring that asset to market as soon as we can. Yes, there is an option for us to sell that asset at some stage. We want to make sure that we are capturing the maximum value of that asset for shareholders. The gas is not going anywhere. The demand for that gas is not going anywhere. While it's very disappointing to me personally and to the rest of the board and the company that we're not able to bring that to market sooner, we also do not want to make expeditious decisions that destroy value in it.
The negotiations that are going on are all around how do we develop that asset to create the maximum amount of value for shareholders. We've had a change in the ownership of our joint venture partner in the asset. They have taken quite some time to assess the total value of their field. They bought the MinRes assets. That has significantly delayed their valuation of West Erregulla. We're working with them, as well as other processing options in the Basin, to see what is the best option for us. It is not as though we are slowing down the development of that asset. We are trying to assess all of the options that we have. A key part of that is how we fund that development and how we can bring that to market at maximum value.
The resource update is important because it is fundamentally the gas in the ground that is creating the value for us. The rest of it is about how do we get that to market in the most capital-efficient and cost-efficient way to generate the maximum value. As I said before, we have used debt to fund the South Erregulla Power Station. Once that comes online and starts generating cash, we can start repaying that debt. I think you have all observed the deleveraging value that is created for equity. As soon as we start deleveraging the company, the equity value comes up dramatically. In terms of running out of time, yes, we do concern ourselves very greatly with that because the company is significantly undervalued, and we recognize it is our job to make sure that the market understands what the true value of the company is.
We are in that period right now between exploration success and being able to monetize the assets and generate cash flows. That is always a very difficult period. What I would urge all shareholders to do is to be patient through that period so that you're not giving away value early in terms of your shares either. If there is any surprise attacks on the company, I suggest that we all hunker down and make sure that we do not underestimate the true value of the company and make sure that we recognize the long-term and true value of the shares and do not be impatient in trying to get out early. I can assure you we are in there for the long haul, and we want to make sure that the true value of the company is recognized. It is a difficult period.
I'd say, from my experience, this period, while you're building out and we've got construction risk, we've got capital risk, we've got a very tight balance sheet, and we don't have that cash flow generation, is always a very difficult time for every development company. The positive side of that is it is a high-class problem to have that we have got such good assets in the ground that our difficulty is having the balance sheet to develop them. That's a far better position to be in than not having the gas in the ground and having the future options for the company. Thank you.
Emma, I think you have some more questions online.
Yes, we've got a couple. A few have been answered, I think, through everyone's talks. One is that you've mentioned AI and data centres.
What has the Board been doing to progress any business in this area?
Yeah, I think the question, or the person asking the question, said it's all very well to talk about sexy AI and data centers and stuff, but what's actually happening? I guess when we talk about gas-to-power, we know there's significant demand in the grid for any electricity that can be generated. We know that because the government's attitude towards companies like ours has changed quite a lot over the last few months in terms of, "Okay, when are you going to be able to convert some of the gas to electricity?
What can we do to help?" At the same time, there has been inbound inquiry from one place in particular in Asia, Southern Asia, to see whether an integrated renewables and peaking power plant might be created on top of one of our reserves to, in fact, power a data centre. That's what's happening in the U.S. a lot. Given what Nev said, that remains in the mix in terms of the best use of our capital and our ability to be able to move forward to FID with our major asset. It also throws back the opportunity potentially to look differently at the exploration portfolio that we have and be potentially quite specific about what we would do with gas, in fact, if we did make a discovery that might be indicated by the kind of potential reserves or resources that exist. It's in the mix.
We're not going to say, "Oh, we're doing this, that, and the other," but there is actually quite a lot of inquiry. It makes sense given that we're in a first-world country, that we're close to infrastructure, and also the ability to send information down a pipe as distinct from molecules or electrons. I guess it's just, yeah, we're looking at all the opportunities to monetize a portfolio, like Nev said.
Great. I mean, we are already 10 minutes over time. I do note that there's a couple of questions online, but they probably require a bit of clarification from our side. I'll just note that we'll take those offline, and I'll respond to those people directly. Otherwise, over to you if there's no further questions from the crowd.
Thank you. I just wondered, are we going to have enough gas to run the Power Station?
Yeah, I think Peter might have mentioned that we did have to do some work to confirm that. Certainly, the results have been pleasing. Down the track, it may be that we look at insurance on that or future-proofing it because it obviously has other sources of gas, some owned by us, others elsewhere. At the moment, it's all looking as positive as we would have hoped. We're confident that that is not an issue. I'm certainly not trying to truncate any additional questions, but we are a bit over time. Certainly, we're all happy to spend some time with you outside. If there aren't any other burning questions, I will declare the meeting closed. As I said earlier, the results of the resolutions will be tallied along with the proxy votes and subsequently released to the ASX.
I really sincerely thank you all for your attendance, for your questions, and for your support, difficult though it is in those circumstances. We really do encourage you to spend some time with us, having some refreshments outside. Thank you all very much.
Thank you.