Hello, and welcome to the Nostrum Oil and Gas Financial Results for the second quarter and six months ended 30 June 2024. My name is Laura, and I will be your coordinator for today's event. Please note, this call is being recorded, and for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen-only mode. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad to register your question. If you require assistance at any point, please press star zero, and you will be connected to an operator. Today, we have Arfan Khan, the CEO, joined by Petro Mychasuk, the CFO, as our presenters. I will now hand you over to your host, Petro Mychasuk, to begin today's conference. Thank you.
Thank you, Laura. Thank you, everybody, and good afternoon. Welcome to this call to present the financial results of Nostrum Oil and Gas for the six months ended thirtieth June 2024. My name is Petro Mychasuk, the company's Chief Financial Officer. I'm joined today by Arfan Khan, our Chief Executive Officer. We will follow the format of the H1 2024 results presentation, which is now available on our website in the Reports and Presentations section. As usual, throughout the presentation, we'll refer to the page numbers that appear on the bottom right-hand side of each page in the presentation. At the end, we will open the floor for any questions. I'll now hand over to Arfan to begin our presentation today.
Good morning, afternoon, evening, wherever you guys are. Thank you, Petro, and a warm welcome to everyone attending this call. I will be referring to information contained on pages three to six of the presentation. H1 results has been another busy and successful period for the company. Strategically speaking, following the positive results obtained from the Stepnoy Leopard Two Well Appraisal Program, which supported the commercial potential of the field, the company made a final investment decision for the initial development phase with a forecast total capital budget of $100 million gross. Early cash generation will also strengthen this project's self-financing capacity and help support further development of the remaining resource base.
A tieback project of this scale and magnitude will increase meaningfully the utilization of our 4.2 BCMA processing facilities, especially when combined with additional production that we now have from Ural Oil and Gas. Following the FID in July, we published a Competent Person's Report on the full field development of the Stepnoy Leopard fields with 138 million barrels of oil equivalent gross proved and probable reserves, and over a fivefold increase in Nostrum reserve base from 23 million barrels of oil equivalent to 133 million barrels of oil equivalent, representing material value creation of approximately $220 million of after-tax net Nostrum NPV10 at 34% rate of return.
In addition, the remaining large discovered proved undeveloped contingent resource base of 67 million barrels of oil equivalent gross across the Stepnoy Leopard fields represents a significant potential, potentially commercial opportunity. Future subsurface work is planned to identify deeper exploration and prospective resources. Operationally, regarding the two well drilling program at the Chinarevskoye field, well number 301 has been producing since May 2024, and well number 441 completion is expected in Q3. The significant year-on-year increase in production and sales volumes reflects successful launch of Nostrum's midstream strategy to become a major third-party gas processor, starting with processing of Ural Oil and Gas feedstock in our gas treatment facility. According to Ural Oil and Gas, throughput of 1.5 million cubic meters per day of raw gas is targeted by the end of 2024.
Naturally, declining production from the Chinarevskoye field has been slowed down by the success of the gas lift capacity increase, and we continue to benefit from improved LPG extraction efficiency at GTU-3 by approximately 20%. Our production facilities availability was approximately 97%, demonstrating the high quality of our infrastructure and our operational excellence. Financially, the significant production sales volume increases during the period that the $3.9 million Ural Oil and Gas condensate tolling revenues received in H1 2024, and the improvement of Brent prices between H1 2023 and H1 2024 drove the 23.7% increase in revenues from $52.8 million- $65.3 million, and a 44% increase in EBITDA from $15.5 million- $22.3 million.
We continue to focus on maximizing facility uptime, controlling costs, and improving efficiencies across all facets of our business. Excluding one-off items, our closing unrestricted cash position at the end of June would have been $158 million, only a slight decrease from 2023 year-end cash balance of about $162 million. Regarding ESG and HSE, we continue to focus on operational safety, of course, resulting in 0% fatalities, a zero lost time injury rate and a very low total recordable incident during first half of 2024. Regarding ESG, in first half 2024, we remain on target to operate within the permitted air emissions volumes for 2024 under the Kazakhstan Environmental Code.
We also achieved an improved independent ESG risk rating of 29.2, previously it was 30.1, moving us effectively, this company, to medium risk category as per Sustainalytics. I will now hand over to Petro to run through our financial performance in more detail.
Thank you, Arfan. I will refer to the information presented mainly on pages seven and eight. Additionally, in the presentation pack, towards the end, we have overviews of the financial statements on pages 10, 11, and 12, with explanatory notes. We're pleased to report strong revenue performance in H1 2024, mainly driven by increases in production and sales volumes and tolling fee income from our processing of Ural Oil and Gas feedstock. While production from our mature asset, Chinarevskoye field continues to decline. Average daily sales volumes in H1 2024 increased by 16% compared to H1 2023. H1 EBITDA increased by 44% year-on-year, reflecting the increased sales volumes, improved Brent pricing, and Ural Oil and Gas condensate tolling revenues.
Selling and transportation costs, operating costs, and G&A on a per barrel of oil equivalent basis, all showed a positive downward trend, reflecting the impact of increased sales and production volumes, partially offset by inflationary cost pressures, including the contractual annual indexation of our Kazakhstan payroll. We continue to leverage our existing organizational structure to advance growth opportunities and limit the need for any new headcount additions for as long as possible. As Arfan has already said, net operating cash flows before non-recurring items remain positive for the period, and closing unrestricted cash would have been just over $158 million before non-recurring items, as shown on slide eight. A slight decrease from our 2023 year-end unrestricted cash balance of $161.7 million.
Of the closing unrestricted cash balance, approximately 96% or $137 million were invested in short-term bank deposits and AA A-rated money market funds to maximize our returns on cash reserves. From a balance sheet perspective, the main change during H1 has been the recurring biannual capitalization of the 13% PIK interest on our senior unsecured bonds and unwinding of the fair value adjustment that was booked at the time of the refinancing at the beginning of 2023. This concludes our presentation today, and I'll hand over to the operator, who can open the floor for any questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Thank you. We will now take our first question from Dmytro of ICU. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, Arfan. Do you hear me?
Yeah, we hear you well. Thank you.
Okay. T hank you. Thank you, Petro and Arfan, for your presentation. I have several questions about current and future operations of Nostrum. The first question relates to Chinarevskoye field. Just to clarify, the current guidance is 7,000-8,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. This guidance already includes contribution from this year's drilling, I mean, two wells in May, and commissions in May and expected in September. What I want to confirm, do I understand correct, that even despite the production expected to decline like 20-25% versus last year? That's all.
I actually, Petro, I actually just lost probably the last sentence there that you said. Sorry.
Ah, okay.
Could you say that?
Yeah. What I see from the data on the presentation on the slides that the current guidance is 7-8 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day for Chinarevskoye field. And even despite this guidance already includes data from this year's drilling. I mean, even despite drilling the production is set to decline like by 20-25% versus the previous year. Or the drilling which is ongoing like these two wells 301 and 441 should boost somewhat the production in the Chinarevskoye field?
I can hand over to Arfan, but generally speaking, the guidance is still that we're retaining for average production for the year from Chinarevskoye, 7,000- 8,000.
Yeah, I mean, that's, that's correct. Dmytro, thanks for that. Let's see, we did include some production from 301 in our guidance, but we had not, we had risked out any production contribution for 441, 'cause it carried, it carries a fairly high dry hole risk of 60% or higher. So that's why it did not really, you know, carry a significant amount of contribution into production guidance. I would say that the overall, this is an annual average figure, the guidance that we provide. And so directionally, I think, all I can tell you right now is that we should be towards the higher end of our guidance going forward.
Mm-hmm. Okay. Thank you for your response. And, let's continue with the earlier part. In the current presentation and in the previous presentations also, the estimated topics for initial field development phase for over the next three years, 2024, 2026, it's about, like, $100 million dollars growth. Is it correct? Yes?
Yes, that's correct. That's the current budget.
Yeah . Mm-hmm. But what I saw in the CPR report, like, prepared by Xodus for the estimated CapEx for 2024-2026 is about 206 million, split between 8 million this year, 36 million next year, and 152 million in 2026. And actually, I really don't understand what is the projected CapEx and what is the difference between the stated CapEx in the presentation and numbers in the Xodus report?
Sure. No, I think, look, that's a question we expected. The purpose of the CPR is to confirm the commerciality potential of the full field, rather than just one phase or the other phases. So what we did with the CPR is that we wanted to demonstrate and through a third party, independent assessment, confirm the overall commerciality potential of the full field development solution, and that if we had no capital constraint, Dmytro, we would be pursuing a full field development, you know, at the moment. But because of our own internal capital constraint, we are taking, you know, an initial approach, a phased approach, but if capital were to become available, then we would pursue a full field solution off the bat rather than phasing it.
So internally, from an execution standpoint, we can only move at the level that our bank account basically allows us, without us having to go out and raise more capital.
Okay, so actual CapEx will be close to $100 million?
Yes. That's internally funded. Of course, as I said, if we had more capital, then we would develop the full field. So the purpose of the CPR is to demonstrate the full field potential.
Okay, thank you. The last set of questions is about volumes received from Ural Oil and Gas. Unfortunately, starting this year, Nostrum provides data on a consolidated basis, and in production, without separating general space flow production and production from feedstock from Ural Oil and Gas. Could you please say what are the actual volumes of oil gas received in the second quarter or in the first half? Because they seem to be much higher versus stated flow rate of 0.5 million cubic meters per day. What are the actual volumes received from Ural Oil and Gas?
Yeah. Let me maybe give you a quick answer. Maybe, Petro, you can fill in the blanks there. I think, Dmytro, we are bound by our NDA obligations with Ural Oil and Gas and cannot really provide a breakout of their actual volumes. Only they can, given they are the upstream operator, and only they can publish their data. So we are guided by our current agreements in terms of disclosure requirements, and so that's limiting our ability to provide, you know, segregated data between the two fields.
Okay. It is a bit complicated.
Yeah, that is correct, Arfan, and we're only able to quote and repeat information that Ural Oil and Gas and the partners have already made public. So in our slide three of the presentation, on the operational, you know, there is, as you say, a bullet point there that summarizes the volumes that Ural Oil and Gas themselves expect to achieve in terms of raw gas flow rate towards the end of this year.
Okay, I saw these things, but, the problem is that, they are sending, are making a great part of revenues. And, actually, it is, it seems to me impossible to project flows without knowing, like, breakdown products, raw gas, dry gas, LPG, and, it, it is very complicated to understand, the future performance of the company without this data.
No, I fully appreciate that, Dmytro. And as I said, we do our best to, you know, comply with our counterparty agreements and still provide as much visibility to market that we are able to. And so we're doing the best to provide you with the information that we can.
Okay, Arfan, Petro, thanks for your answers. I don't have any questions now. Thank you.
Thank you, Dmytro.
Thanks very much, Dmytro. Yep.
Thank you. Once again, as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Thank you. There are no further questions coming through. I will now hand it back to Petro for closing remarks. Thank you.
Thank you, Laura. Well, thank you, everybody, again, for joining the call. Really appreciate you taking an interest in Nostrum's results and following our story. As Arfan said at the beginning, a very busy and eventful year, but many positive trends and opportunities going forward. Thank you, everybody, and look forward to speaking to you again soon.
Thank you all very much.
Thank you. Bye-bye.
This concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. Stay safe. You may now disconnect.