Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining the call. I'll start by drawing your attention to page two, which is a cautionary statement outlining that we could make forward-looking statements during the presentation today, and results could differ from the forecast shared. We may make reference to non-IFRS measures, the definition of which can be found in our filings. Finally, we've commissioned a NSAI to prepare a revised independent reserves report incorporating our recent acquisitions, and that report is currently in draft form. With me today, I have David Crawford and Iain Lewis. Dave's gonna assist me with the presentation today, but this will be his last bond call as he's decided to step back from full-time work finishing at the end of the year.
In the meantime, David is facilitating a managed handover to his successor, Iain Lewis, who recently joined the company and will take over officially as CEO on the first of September. Perhaps I'll just take this opportunity to allow Iain to introduce himself. Iain?
Sure, Alan. Good afternoon, everyone. Great to be on the call today. I've joined Ithaca in the past few weeks and the last nearly 25 years I've been involved in upstream finance and public practice and in the multinational environment with TAQA Group, listed in Abu Dhabi and before that with Ernst & Young. Delighted to join Ithaca at a very exciting time and following the acquisitions, look forward to presenting to you in the future on calls.
Super. Thanks, Ian. Before I jump into the agenda for today's presentation, I'd just like to make some opening remarks. This has been an extremely strong quarter for Ithaca. We've completed the acquisition of Summit, which has increased our stake in the key Elgin-Franklin field, and of course, the Siccar Point acquisition, which has transformed the future outlook of the company. By combining a portfolio of early life developments with our existing highly generative cash base, we have the ability now to grow production and margins organically over the next decade. This creates longevity to our portfolio, and that will ensure a strong foundation for value creation, but also support the U.K. to navigate domestic energy security of supply over the long term.
At the same time, we will reduce our emissions intensity as we transition the portfolio from mid to late life assets with higher carbon intensity to early life assets like Cambo and Rosebank, designed specifically with lower emissions intensity. Today I'm gonna provide a quick summary of the company's portfolio in light of the recent acquisitions, and then Dave will prepare a review of the financial results for the first half of the year and share a pro forma outlook, and then I'll close with an update on emissions reductions, which is a key focus area for us as a company. If you could turn to page six, please. This slide's a summary of our value proposition, and these are the characteristics that differentiate Ithaca. It starts with scale.
We're now one of the largest U.K. independents with a high quality, long life portfolio, and we have working interest in six of the 10 largest fields in the U.K. with a robust, high quality resource base which supports the future growth of our business. We're an established operator with decades of operational experience, and our focus is on continuous improvement across all aspects of operations, be it safety, environment, adopting innovative technologies or managing operational efficiency. We also have decades of project development experience, including brownfield, greenfield projects and well construction. You'll hear a bit more today about some of our ongoing projects and how these are progressing. Our value proposition is very much focused on oil and gas, but our strategy has been developed with the energy transition in mind. Our near term plan remains to reduce our gross operated emissions 25% by 2025.
I'll provide an update on that later in the presentation. In the medium term, as I mentioned, we'll transition the portfolio to lower emissions intensity assets with a long term goal of net zero by 2040. As you'll hear in our results today, the company is generating material free cash flow. This has allowed us to reinvest in the portfolio and also undertake value accretive acquisitions while simultaneously reducing our leverage. We're highly focused on delivering strong financial returns, which will add value through the organic and inorganic investments. The company is supported by a first class team who've been there and done it before and were open to and adaptable to new ideas. Moving on to page seven, providing a quick summary of our key business activities. It's important that we're active across all areas of the E&P life cycle.
We're an explorer. We have a wealth of seismic data. We've added to that with the recent acquisitions and added to our opportunity hopper. We're doing this in a disciplined manner, though, with a strategy that's focused around our existing infrastructure. We expect to drill 1-2 exploration wells per year, and we have several exciting opportunities that we're working up for execution end of this year into next year. We develop projects, so that's brownfield and greenfield projects, as well as drilling and completing wells. Abigail and Captain EOR are the two projects that are active in our portfolio just now. Those are both currently on schedule and on budget, and I'll share a little more about those in the coming slides.
We're a well-established operator, and we have a team of over 650 people offshore with a wealth of operational experience, and we're leveraging that across both our operated and non-operated assets. While we don't have a lot of near term decommissioning liabilities, we've built up expertise in-house, and particularly around well abandonment, facilities preparation and removal. An example of that would be the Jackie decommissioning work that we did earlier this year, which was completed on schedule and on budget. Moving on to page eight. This page provides some specifics for the first half of the year.
We delivered production in line with guidance for the first half of 67,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, which excludes the Summit and Siccar Point acquisitions, which were completed at the end of the quarter. We reported a significant increase in our 2P and 2C reserves position with about 250 million barrels of oil equivalent of 2P reserves and now 300 million barrels of oil equivalent of 2C resources. These figures obviously incorporate an acquisition completed in the first half of the year. With the completion of these transformation acquisitions, we're now in extremely strong financial position, with inherent longevity built into our portfolio. Looking to the right-hand side of this slide, EBITDA for the first half of the year was just over $900 million.
Dave is gonna cover this in detail, but we remain in a very strong financial position. In order to finance the acquisitions in the first half, we made a drawdown of around $750 million against the reserve-based lending facility. However, since the end of the quarter, we've already made progress on further reducing our net debt, supported by the strong cash generation in the business. Turning to page nine, this provides some operational highlights for the quarter. The business is performing well operationally and financially. I mentioned completion of the Summit and Siccar Point acquisitions. We've also got significant project activities underway, and you can see the picture on this slide. This is one of the new decks installed for the Captain EOR Phase II project. We've created more space on the platform to support the additional polymer injection.
These decks were fabricated and loaded out in a modular fashion and recently been stacked up and successfully installed on plan. We're actively drilling on Captain, and we recently brought the C-69 well online in April. We've completed the turnaround activities at FPF-1 in Cook. More broadly, we also have subsea drilling activities underway with the Coastal Pioneer at Captain, and drilling activities in Jade, which again, are all progressing in line with plan. Moving to page 10, just a couple of quick comments around expectations for the third quarter. Alba turnaround is actually now complete, and that field is returned to production. We have another major milestone for the Captain EOR Phase II project, which is the installation of the riser caisson.
The clamp in the top picture there will support the caisson, which you can see in the bottom picture. That's the conduit by which the flow lines which will then help us inject polymer to the new subsea wells and then bring production back up to the platform will flow through. Construction of that is progressing to plan. It's anticipated to be loaded out at the end of September, and then we'll have a diving support vessel in the field completing that work, but also completing the work on Abigail. That vessel is now mobilized and, over the course of the coming weeks, we will be completing final construction activities in order that we can bring Abigail online at the end of September, early October.
Lots of work ongoing, but really making great progress from an operational perspective on delivering on our 2022 commitments. Finally, just touching on the Captain platform. Well, we're drilling from the platform and that well's come online or been drilled in line with prognosis and is due to come on at the end of the quarter. I'll now hand over to David, who's gonna cover first half financials, and I'll come back up and pick up the emissions at the end. David?
Okay. Thanks, Alan. If we could go to slide 12, please. Just a reminder, as per previous quarters on the Ithaca website, there is additional information. We have a set of accounts which have been reviewed by Deloitte. There's an MD&A, and there's these slides as well. Slide 12, first half 2022 performance financial results versus 2021. First half 2022, 67,000 barrels per day, compared to 2021 of 56. As you remember, we acquired Marubeni in quarter one, so the Montrose and Columba assets are included in the production of financial results from the fourth of February. Prices continued to improve. Our realized price in first half 2022 was $98. It's basically $120 less at $22 of the hedging loss per barrel.
Unit operating costs have stayed pretty flat, $19 per barrel in the first half of 2022, up 6% compared to last year, primarily due to the fuel gas which we import to run some of the platforms, and also we have use of diesel on some of the platforms as well. Lastly, EBITDAX. Great to see EBITDAX of $75 per BOE in the first half of 2022. The high commodity price continued to increase the dollar per barrel in EBITDAX, and you'll see in a couple of slides in quarter one and quarter two, it basically stayed the same. If we can move to slide 13, please. This is just a breakdown of production over the last four quarters.
If you remember, quarter one 2022 was 71,000 barrels per day, and quarter two 2022 is 63,000 barrels per day, giving the first half at 67,000 barrels per day, the average for the first half. Captain continues to be the biggest contributor at around 19,000 barrels per day. Quarter two was a bit lower than quarter one due to the normal planned shutdowns we had during the summer. In June of this year, we had Jade in the Greater Stella Area, which had a planned shutdown which decreased the production in quarter two. If we go to slide 14, please.
This is just a bridge of the EBITDAX for the first half 2022, starting with the revenue on the left-hand side and then showing the hedging loss impact, the stock movement, which we have to account for, the lifting costs, and then some other residual costs, which basically takes you back to the EBITDAX number of $905 million for the first half of the year. If we go to slide 15. Just a normal comparison of quarter two compared to quarter one. As said, you can see quarter two production was 63,000 barrels per day compared to quarter one, 71,000 barrels per day due to the planned shutdown.
You can see the operating costs, while they've gone up slightly from quarter one to quarter two, per barrel, they actually in pure monetary terms, have actually come down by $6 million. You can see at the bottom the EBITDA. The EBITDA for quarter two is $431 million, and for quarter one is $474 million. As Alan said, pointed out in an earlier slide, the last twelve months EBITDA is now $1,564 million. The good thing, very pleasing that the last three quarters have all been above $400 million of EBITDA. If we could go to the next slide, please. Just on financing liquidity. Slide sixteen, please.
In May, we had our six-monthly redetermination with the reserve-based banks, which went very well. We had no issues with the redetermination. In fact, the value that attributed to the banking deck and the banking model went up. We have several hundred million headroom against our borrowing capacity at the moment, our borrowing $925 million at the moment. In May, I think I spoke at the last call, we repaid the last $150 million of the RBL that we had outstanding at the end of quarter one. That was repaid in May. By the end of May, our RBL was down to zero. For the acquisitions at the end of June, we drew down $750 million from the RBL to fund the Summit and Siccar Point acquisitions.
You can see in the net debt graph at our bar charts, at the end of June, we had debt of $1,415 million made up of the RBL, which was $750 million less cash of $160 million, which comes to the $590 million, the dark blue. We took on $200 million of a Nordic bond from Siccar, and $625 million is our own US high yield bond. The $1,415 million of debt, but with the last twelve months EBITDA is where it is, our liquidity ratio only went up or only increased to 0.9x.
You can see over the last four quarters, 1.5, 1.9, 1.6, and it just went up slightly for the acquisitions of Summit and Siccar. Since June, we have there was a put option in the Siccar bond. $166 million of the bond was called in the month of July. We repaid $166 million of the Nordic bond, leaving as of today just $34 million of the Nordic bond. As of today, we've repaid $100 million of the RBL at the end of August. We continue to generate good cash flow, which enables us to lower our debt when it becomes possible.
If we could just go on to page 17, please, which is the look at hedging. Hedging, as part of the Siccar transaction, we had to take on the Siccar hedging book as well. They had a number of hedges around $60-$65 oil and gas, which was a bit lower, around GBP 0.45 per therm. You can see in the left-hand side our current oil position. And this is now against the NSAI report. As Alan mentioned, we have a draft NSAI report. This is against the production volumes in that report. You can see as quarter and quarter goes on the floor price continues to rise. For first half next year and second half it's around $69, $68 for oil.
What we will do and from next quarter we'll actually include more information on the types of products we are using because it is a little bit misleading. The floor, for example, of $69-$68 in 2023, about 50%-65% of that is actually zero cost collars. The ceiling on those collars are at $90. While it's really good to have a high floor, it doesn't actually preclude us from actually getting upside on those zero cost collars. There's about 56% collars in the first half 2023 and 65% of the hedged volumes in the second half of 2023. It includes Siccar and that's the first half 2024 gas price at $46 was something that came across from Siccar.
There is the same on gas. There is some zero cost collars in gas as well. Next quarter we'll include a bit more detail on the different products that we're using to hedge. If we could go to slide 19, please. This is just another breakdown of reserves and resources. It takes you from the year-end 2021 of 2P, and you can see, it's increased from 206 to 244 with the various acquisitions and the production. You can see in the 2C, this has increased from a hundred and seven up to 214. A substantial increase in 2P reserves, a substantial increase and 2C reserves as well.
The total 2P and 2C reserves at the 30th of June as per the draft NSAI report is 545. Page 20. We have an active portfolio of projects which are needing funding, which are in execution and development phase. We have the Rosebank and Cambo projects which have come across from Siccar Point. We have the Captain EOR 2, which has been underway now for over a year. Marigold and Fotla, which are in early stage of developments. Abigail, which should be brought on production in October of this year. Page 21. We have one page of the normal outlook that we include. Obviously we are cautious of the guidance that we gave, and Alan's pointed to the first page of the cautionary outlook.
On production, the budget, including Marubeni, was about 68,000 barrels per day. We're looking at somewhere between 72,000 and 78,000 barrels per day for 2022. That's following the Summit and Siccar acquisitions, and the Captain EOR project, and Abigail coming on stream around October, and Pierce coming back as well. For 2023, 2025 from the NSAI report, 78,000 to 90,000 barrels per day, somewhere in that range. OpEx per barrel, pretty flat, between $18 and $20 per barrel over 2022 and future guidance. It is impacted by the increase in fuel gas and diesel prices at the moment, and there is a bit of a benefit from FX at the moment. CapEx to fund these projects will increase substantially over the next few years.
Our budget for 2022 was $480 million. We're gonna come in under that, somewhere between $430 million and $470 million. From 2023 to 2025 as we undertake the six projects on the previous page, our CapEx will be in the range of $900 million-$1.3 billion over that period per year. The projects are driving the increase in CapEx from 2023 and beyond. The reason 2022 is lower than we originally planned was the Shaw C well, which was supposed to be spudded at the end of 2022, is now completely in 2023. The last page for me, page 22. The Energy Profits Levy, which I'm sure you're all aware of, was floated by the government around April, May of this year.
It took effect on the twenty-fifth of May. It wasn't made law till July, so it doesn't have an impact on the P&L in the first half 2022. We understand the reasons for the levy, we understand the pressures, the cost of living on U.K. households. What the government's tried to do is actually, while it's looking for cash from the oil companies, it also doesn't want to penalize companies which are investing in oil and gas. As well as the normal 100% allowance which you would tend to get for CapEx against your tax payable, it provided additional investment allowance of 80%. The sunset clause has been written into legislation, so it will end in 2025.
Basically, with the normal taxes that we have today, the normal corporation tax and with the new investment allowance, you can get 91 pence for every pound investment as an allowance. On the right-hand side just to remind you that, you know, we have the normal CT and supplementary charge of 40%. We have now this additional tax for a period of time up to 2025. For companies like ourselves which are investing heavily in the North Sea on Cambo, Rosebank, Marigold, Fotla, et cetera, it does reduce the impact of the Energy Profits Levy.
While we will pay some tax, we will pay some Energy Profits Levy this year, but as the CapEx increases over 2023, 2024, 2025, by 2025, 2024 and 2025, if the CapEx is as high as we believe it will be, we won't be paying any Energy Profits Levy on what we know today. Well, I'll hand you back to Alan to go through the emissions slides.
Yeah. Thanks, Dave. Just a quick update on our progress on emissions reduction. On page 24, this is a slide we've shown before, but no change to our commitment around a 25% reduction in our gross operated emissions by 2025, which is an aggressive target that we set, significantly ahead of the North Sea Transition Deal target of 10% by 2025. Making good progress on those. You can see Projects I through V are completed. Project VI, which is around reducing hydrocarbon purging at the FPF-1 facility, we've accelerated that into this year, and we've got some work that we're gonna be doing in the later part of this year to execute that project. On Projects VII through IX, we've commissioned studies on each of those.
They're more intensive modifications than some of the other projects we've undertaken, so we're working through engineering studies on those this year with a view to moving those into execution through the next several years. We're very active on working on other projects, which hopefully will come into the near-term window and continue to drive down our near-term emissions. We've actually been doing quite a bit of thought beyond that and looking to the future post 2025. If you turn to page 25, this just outlines our overall strategy with a view to net zero by 2040. Some of the things I touched on there, the process optimization, plant modifications, operational improvements to reduce flaring and optimize power generation.
Are driving the near-term improvements. Beyond that, as I touched on earlier in the presentation, as we transition the portfolio to earlier-life assets, and make sure those assets are specifically designed to have lower emissions intensity, that will help drive down emissions intensity across our portfolio. As assets come to the natural end of their life and are retired, then there'll be a reduction in emissions associated with that. We're also very actively looking at various options in terms of low-carbon power. We're one of the few companies to be involved in the Central North Sea, Outer Moray Firth and West of Shetland electrification groups. We're looking at that across our operated and non-operated portfolio.
In particular at the Captain asset, we've done a number of studies and continuing to actively work on options to understand how we could electrify the Captain platform. Beyond that, small piece of offsets just to abate those difficult to abate emissions, which supports the overall 2040 net zero aspiration. In summary, before we turn it over for questions, the company is in extremely strong position now transformed by the acquisitions that we've completed in the last quarter. We're able to now continue to, you know, grow production, grow margins, improve our cash flows over the next decade, and drive down our emissions intensity as we execute the value-adding projects within the portfolio. That's the key focus area for the company.
It's a really exciting time over the next several years as we execute the plans we have ahead of ourselves. Happy to take any questions or turn it back to the operator for questions you may have.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad or press star two to withdraw your question. Alternatively, you can submit your question in the written form via the webcast. Our first question comes from the webcast, which says, What are the margin requirements for hedging as of today after the extreme increase in gas prices of the last month?
Sorry, can you repeat that again, please? I didn't catch the first part.
Of course. What are the margin requirements for hedging as of today after the extreme increase in gas prices of the last month?
It's actually become more and more difficult now to actually undertake hedging, especially gas hedging because of the volatility as the question references. The volatility some days is as high as 25%. I think the day ahead today went down 20%. It went down to GBP 5 a therm. It's a big movement in percentage, but the actual value of that, of the gas at the moment is still extremely high. It's very, very difficult. When we undertake all our hedging with our banks, you can imagine the counterparty, the RBL banks, because it's the mark-to-market that, and we have to mark-to-market as well.
It's very, very difficult to give a price which actually makes sense for both sides because you know, the bank has to make sure it's got a margin that it can make sure it can offset that hedge somewhere else. Within you know, four or five hours, that can move substantially. We have as our hedging policy up to now, and we are reviewing that, it will go to the board shortly, is to hedge up to 75% of our production one year ahead and 50% two years ahead. We have a soft obligation under the RBL to hedge as well. I myself, Yaniv, and Ian met all the banks probably about four to six weeks ago.
I'll be fair to say there's a great understanding from the banks that soft target isn't actually achievable at the moment, because none of the banks have capacity, because of the credit risk on oil companies. I'm not sure I quite answered the question. I mean, if we could hedge today of gas at GBP 5 or GBP 6 a therm, we would do. We have been doing some. You know, we've got some gas collars that go from a floor of GBP 2 up to a ceiling of GBP 5. But they come in small chunks at a time. You know, it's difficult to get lots. Just before the call, we were doing some oil hedging because it came available.
We try to do as much as we can, but it is a difficult market now to do the hedging. To be honest, what we would have set our policy in the past, again, to do 25% swaps, hedges, and puts. Again, that at the moment is not really relevant because to get a put is too expensive. It's just not possible. Difficult market to hedge at the moment. We're trying our best. We have taken all the capacity available to us from all our banks and then anybody else that wants to offer to us, and we take anything that becomes available to us.
Thank you. We have a question from the phone lines from Mariana Krishna at Nomura Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Hi. I was curious if you could provide more update on Cambo and Rosebank development projects and perhaps particularly for Cambo, given, you know, that you took over their operations and perhaps have a little bit more insight in this prospect.
Yeah. Yeah, certainly of course can do. I will
I'll start, and then I'll let Dave or Ian add anything that they want to chip in. Yeah, I think first thing just to say, so Cambo, low emissions intensity development, significantly lower than the sort of U.K. average emissions intensity, as I touched on in the presentation, just with the way it had been designed, and a really great opportunity to secure domestic supply in the U.K., and help minimize the amount of imports into the U.K. We've adopted the development concept that was put in place by the Siccar Point and Shell teams. It's actually very mature for a project at this stage. What we're doing now is working through revalidation of the project cost and schedule, and we're updating the field development plan.
Our goal is by the end of the year or early next year to have that all completed with a view to making a final investment decision. As I say, project very mature and economically compelling development that again will provide security of supply for the U.K. On the Rosebank project, another exciting one, and happy to be working with Equinor and Suncor on that. It's slightly behind Cambo in terms of where it is from an environmental perspective. The environmental statement just working through public consultation for Rosebank, and that process will continue through the middle of the first quarter of next year.
There's some engineering to be finished, and then again, we'll pull together the cost and schedule with a view to sort of final investment decision, you know, sometime in the first half of 2023. As I say, both really valuable projects and working closely with our partners to progress those to final investment decision.
Our next question from the webcast, in fact, it does have seven questions in one. Would you prefer that I read these all out in one go or give them one at a time?
Maybe go one at a time. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Sure. The first question is, what will continue to be your hedging policy? Did you continue to hedge gas in recent prices of above 500p firm?
I could take that one, Dave, real quick. I think Dave more or less answered that one, previously. You know, what I would say is the volatility in the gas market really is, you know, a function of the underinvestment in supply and just the challenges obviously in the commodity market more broadly.
You know, it's a key focus area for us is doing everything we can as a company to provide security of supply, whether that's, you know, the projects we've already invested in, the wells that we've drilled at Captain, the Abigail project that's gonna come on stream, or just looking at our base operations and doing everything we can to keep those running as safely and efficiently as possible over the winter to try and help do our part in terms of providing security of supply. Absolutely key focus area for everyone in our organization. I think Dave covered the question just in terms of some of the challenges with the high commodity prices and the credit availability from a mark-to-market perspective.
We'll do what we can, of course, to work within our hedging policy and continue to hedge just consistent with the policy that we've got in place. We'll continue to provide a summary of the outcome of our hedging, so that people will know what they can dial into their models. I think the key thing is we're sort of in the market every day from a hedging perspective, and we're just balancing the credit availability with what's available from the banks, from a hedging perspective. Okay, next one.
Next one is, what are your BOED expectations from Abigail and Pierce?
Was that in terms of production or what?
I think so.
OE.
Was it BOE?
B-O-E-D.
Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. It's production.
Yeah. Well, I think both projects will have a relatively small impact on 2022, of course, because just coming in at the sort of end of the sort of early fourth quarter here. As we look into 2023, across both projects, I think Abigail, we're probably looking at the order of 3,000-4,000 barrels a day, on an average basis for 2023. Then Pierce is around 2,000 barrels a day, oil equivalent. Of course, you know, Pierce is a really important gas project and working closely with Shell to support them on getting that back on stream as soon as we can to support U.K. gas production.
Thank you. Next is, it was published that Shell is selling its part in Cambo. Are you interested in buying its part? What are the chances of the Cambo development?
Yeah, I think, you know, what I would say there, you know, Shell's been a really good, strong partner on Cambo. I mean, the project is at a really high level of engineering development for, you know, for this stage in the project. Shell's added a ton of value in terms of just all the assurance that the partnership has gone through. It's been, you know, good to come in and pick that up. We've had really good engagement with Shell over the last couple of months as we've come into the license. I think, you know, that was the case with Siccar Point previously as well.
You know, without sort of commenting on specific commercial issues, I would just say that we found Shell to be really good to deal with, and we're working together to achieve both companies' objectives.
Thank you. Next question is, given the high gas prices, do you consider the Tornado field economic? Is it contingent on Cambo development?
Yeah. Tornado field is a undeveloped gas discovery in the west of Shetland, and it's another exciting opportunity for the company. I think isn't really contingent on Cambo. The development concept is potentially slightly different, looking at leveraging some of the infrastructure that exists for gas west of Shetland. There's some study work ongoing to understand technically the feasibility of tying that into some of the infrastructure that exists in that area. We anticipate that will be completed sort of towards the end of this quarter into early next quarter. Based on that sort of feasibility study, and then looking at the economics, we'll be moving it forward with the partners there.
A really exciting opportunity and just looking to solve the technical challenges and then work up the economics off the back of that.
Thank you. Next question reads, following the legislation of the Energy Profits Levy, did you enhance your CapEx estimations?
I think, you know, broadly, we presented the overall picture for the company. I think what I would say is we're really strategically we've put together the highly cash generative portfolio with the Chevron asset acquisition and then the other acquisitions we've done and added the undeveloped assets to really build a strong portfolio here where we can reinvest and continue to grow cash flows over the decade. I think broadly our strategy is unchanged. We're currently working through the business planning process just now as we think about the budget for 2023 and then think about the timing for final investment decision and execution on all the things that are in the hopper.
I think, you know, broadly I would say the strategy is unchanged. We'll be able to provide specific guidance on individual projects after we've sort of worked through the business planning exercise over the next several months, and then as we get into final investment decision on the key projects that are ahead of us.
Thank you. The next question reads, Is dividend now on the cards before/after the planned IPO?
I think, you know, what I would say, just sort of going back to the value proposition for the company and really strong position that we're in in terms of the cash generation, being able to support reinvestment in the portfolio, that being sort of our priority use of cash flow, making sure that we're in a strong leverage position. Obviously, like we touched on, we'll continue to deleverage fairly rapidly here with the cash that we're generating in the business. Then I think the portfolio does have the potential for shareholder distributions beyond that. To be able to, you know, continue to execute the plan, grow production, grow margins, and there is a margin there for shareholder distributions.
No decisions have been made on that at this point in time. As soon as, you know, any decisions are made, we'll announce those in due course.
Thank you. The last question from this batch is, do you intend to participate in the next licensing round?
I think, you know, refer back to the slide I shared just in terms of us being a full cycle E&P company all the way from sort of exploration through project development, production and decommissioning. You know, we do have a really strong portfolio. We have a focused strategy from an exploration perspective, so we're focused on our existing assets, and really adding value by developing through the infrastructure that we have an interest in already. I think, you know, we are active in the exploration space. I would anticipate that we'll be an active participant, but it'll be focused around the existing assets we have, given that we already have a deep and strong resource portfolio. Yeah, I think we focus participation from our perspective.
Thank you. We have a few more questions on the webcast. The next one reads, what is the net debt of the company as of today compared to the $1.4 billion as of 30/6?
Yeah. Dave, do you wanna pick that up?
Yeah. We had $1.415 billion and we've repaid $166 million. That was the Nordic bond with the put option. We've repaid $100 million of our RBL. It's about $1.25 billion today.
Thank you. Our next question reads, Can you update about the progress of the IPO? When is it expected to materialize?
Yeah, sure. I can take that one. Just to say that, you know, the company is making progress on preparing for a potential listing on the London Stock Exchange. We're seeking to be ready in 2022 if market conditions allow, supported by a consortium of leading investment banks. Yeah, that's as much as, you know, we can say at this point in time, but preparing to be ready in 2022 if the market conditions are there.
Thank you. Our next question reads, What production do you expect from Abigail when it comes online, and what is plateau production and when?
Yeah, sure. It'll come online. I mean, it's a fairly straightforward tie back to the FPF-1 facility, so it'll sort of plateau almost straight after coming online in the fourth quarter here. I think the annual average production was about 4,000 barrels a day for 2023. That will assume sort of the production efficiency and obviously being on an average basis across the course of the year. You could gross that up for production efficiency if you're looking for a peak rate. But that's the sort of ballpark figures around 4,000 barrels a day.
Thank you. The next one.
On an oil equivalent basis. Yep.
Thanks. The next question reads: Can you comment on Delek's ambitions for an IPO? Does the CFO transition have any implications for that?
Yep, sure. Just reiterating that, you know, it is something that the company's making progress and actively preparing for. No implications really from a CFO transition perspective. It's all carefully managed in terms of the handover, and it's actually been quite helpful having a bit of extra capacity in the organization with both Dave and Ian able to work together on that. Continuing to progress through the end of the year if the market conditions support.
Thank you. Next question reads: How does Shell's desire to sell its stake in the Cambo field impact your development timing? Would you consider buying their stake?
Yeah. I think just to reiterate my answer on that one from earlier, you know, been a really supportive partner, Shell. We're working very collaboratively together. I think we're really hopeful we'll find a solution that will meet both parties' interests. I think it will not necessarily slow the project down at all. I think we're working hand-in-hand in order to try and find a solution that will allow us to continue to progress the project in line with our optimal timing.
Thank you. Our next question is: Given the M&A activity Ithaca have undertaken recently, is there an appetite to pursue more M&A opportunities to grow the company further in support of any IPO ambitions?
Yep. You know, I think we're in a really strong position now with the acquisitions that we've done. You know, we're in a position to be. What we're really focused on is you know, being very value driven. However we choose to use our available cash flow, it's looking at kind of the opportunities out there, either from an organic or inorganic perspective, and looking at it from a returns perspective and understanding what opportunities will help drive the highest returns. That's how we think about it. You know, it's.
We do see that, you know, over time, we think there will be further consolidation in the U.K.CS, and, you know, we are well positioned in terms of just our understanding of the basin, the assets that we have interest in. It's certainly something that, you know, we'll continue to look at, but, it would need to be sort of value adding and compete for capital with the organic activities that we have in the portfolio.
Thank you. Our next question reads: Which amount of dividend should we expect by the end of the year?
Yeah. I think we're not in a position to provide any specific guidance on dividends. You know, if and when we do have any guidance to provide, we'll circle up with that.
Thank you. The next question reads: Please provide wider info due to the taxes if there is a goal to terminate RBL absolutely till end of the year and to make a firm less leveraged?
Yeah.
Sorry, can you just repeat the question again?
Of course. It reads: Please provide wider info due to the taxes if there is a goal to terminate RBL absolutely till the end of the year and to make a firm less leveraged.
Yeah. Just on the taxes. The EPL, as I mentioned, it was enacted in July, and you've seen the CapEx guidance we have for the second half of the year. We will pay some EPL later this year. We will have some. As we move into 2023, 2024, 2025, as our CapEx increases, because of the basically a 180% investment allowance, correctly, as the government is trying to encourage people to invest, the more money you spend on CapEx, the less EPL. In fact, in some cases towards the end of that 2024/2025 period, we won't be paying any, or we don't forecast to pay any. Regarding the RBL, we obviously pay down our RBL as we go along. There's no point just holding $100 million in cash per month.
It's cheaper for us to pay down the RBL. There isn't an intention to get rid of the RBL. It may be that we're down very close to zero at the end of the year. It might be January or February, we're down to zero. As another question asked, you know, we may need the RBL. With all the CapEx coming up, you know, there's likely to be a question on the future capital for the business. It's likely to be a combination of RBL and bonds going forward. As tends to happen over time, we may refinance. The answer to the pure question is the desire to get to zero.
If we have spare cash, we'll pay it down. If we have other needs for it, we'll use the RBL.
Thank you. Our next question reads: Could you please disclose what is the plan for the bonds once IPO is underway? How much tax allowances are left?
Yeah. I think, not sure, we're in a position to comment on that one just now. We can maybe pick that one up offline, and see if it's a question we're able to answer. I'm not sure that we're in a position to answer that one at this point in time.
I think you know, if we IPO'd, you know. If we IPO this year, the bonds would still be there. You know? There's no IPO and a bond, the bond goes. That. They're not connected like that. It's more to do with what's happening within the business. I'm not sure what the tax question is, but if the individual wants to email me, I'll try and answer the question.
Thank you. At this time, we don't have any further questions registered, so I will just give a final call out. Star one for any questions, or please submit via the webcast. We have one last webcast question which reads: In your planning for an IPO, what percentage will Delek retain?
Okay. That's probably a question for the Delek quarterly call. I don't know if it's appropriate for Ithaca to comment on that one. I'll let them pick that up with Delek. Just wanna say, thanks everyone for joining the call. Yeah, we look forward to updating you on hopefully another strong quarter in the third quarter. Thank you, everyone.