Hello and welcome to the BW Energy Quarter Three Presentation Call and Webcast. My name is Caroline, and I'll 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 questions. For those joined via webcast, you can type in your questions in the Q&A module located under the video player. If you require assistance at any point, please press star zero and you'll be connected to an operator. I will now hand over the call to your host, Carl Arnet, the CEO, to begin today's call. Thank you.
Thank you. Welcome to this third quarter 2022 presentation of BW Energy. This presentation will be hosted by Lin Espey, our Chief Operating Officer, Knut Sæthre, our CFO, and myself, Carl Arnet. Please note our disclaimer. In this presentation, we will cover the following highlights. We are pleased to announce that Hibiscus / Ruche is on track for first oil in first quarter next year. We have installed BW MaBoMo and the subsea pipeline, and we will cover that in more detail later on in the presentation. We are also progressing very well towards closing of the Golfinho acquisition, also in first quarter next year. We have been approved as deepwater operator Class A in Brazil. We have also launched a 3D seismic survey that will be performed in the first quarter next year on the Kudu asset.
Further, we will cover, of course, our results where the Q3 EBITDA was $61.5 million, with a net profit of $33.8 million. This was based on one lifting in the quarter for BW Energy of 680,000 bbl. The average lifting price achieved was $101 per bbl, and we had a gross production in the quarter of 960,000 bbl. This gave us a strong operational cash flow and with a RBL drawdown, we have a very healthy cash position and good liquidity going forward in line with our high activity level. Of course this will be covered later on in the presentation. Again, we had a good quarter with respect to our HSE performance.
We had no recorded LTIs, no recorded environmental incidents, and our project in particular MaBoMo, which is the biggest man-hour contributor, performed very well with zero LTIs. The security risk at Dussafu also remains low. Our production outlook does not include any approximations for the Golfinho production, and this will of course be added later as the transaction is closed. This shows the production expected from Tortue and the Hibiscus / Ruche phase one and two, as well as Maromba one and two phases. On to Dussafu, where we have the most significant news for the quarter. Our production was according to expectations about 960,000 bbl equal to about 10,400 bbl per day. This was achieved at a OpEx of $36 per barrel.
We are also pleased that we have finally managed to get our gas lift compressor delivered and it is now sitting on a barge in Gabon ready to be taken offshore, and we are awaiting the delivery of the heavy lift vessel that is mobilized to lift this unit onto Adolo, where it will be integrated and we are expecting a startup of this gas lift compression facility in the first quarter 2023 as well. The production forecast is as previously related, about 4 million bbl for 2022 at an OpEx estimate of $35 per barrel. We did one lift in the third quarter lifting, as per the plan, and we are planning one further lifting to company in December, as you can see from the caption in the lower right corner.
This picture, this caption shows the MaBoMo installed on location in Gabon. We are currently undertaking commissioning and startup activities and preparations as well as some minor punch list activities related to the completion of the facility. We have also installed the 20 km subsea pipeline, the rigid pipeline from MaBoMo to Adolo. This will be connected with flexibles, and the flex-lay campaign is planned for late December, early January. With that, the two units, MaBoMo and Adolo, will be connected with the pipeline. As such, the MaBoMo will then be ready to receive or to produce oil as soon as we have performed the drilling operations.
Adolo is also being prepared for the receipt of the oil from MaBoMo, and we expect Adolo to be completed end of February in line with our drilling program. We continue to have a very strong HSE performance on the completion of this project. We are very much on track for first oil end of Q1 2023. We expect to take delivery of the Borr Norve jackup rig in December, and we are preparing to spud the first well in January. We have a program of approximately 60 days per well, and the initial drilling campaign will target four Hibiscus Gamba wells and two Ruche Gamba wells.
We have a contract with four firm and four option wells so we can perform further drilling of production wells or exploration wells as we, you know, see fit at the time. The six wells we have planned to drill are expected to yield about 30,000 bbl per day of production, and this is gross, of course. The CapEx for the project is still tracking well within our budget, and we have today a expected gross CapEx. This is including the drilling program of the six wells of $440 million. Our original budget was $490, so we, in spite of, let's say, significant inflationary pressures lately, we are still tracking well on the overall project. On to Maromba. A very quick update on Maromba this quarter.
We are still working on completion of the financing activities. The unit is in layup. The Polvo is in layup in Dubai, and we are still planning for first oil in 2025. That's the quick update on Maromba. On Kudu, we are seeing significant activity on the Namibian shelf. We also note the re-entry of Chevron on the tail of large discoveries made by Total and Shell previously this year. We have consequently decided to go ahead with a 3D seismic campaign, and we have contracted the seismic company to do this acquisition. It will cover the 4,600 sq km. Kudu is a very large license.
This is of course to further enhance our understanding of the depositional model and additional reservoir presence and potentially also exploration targets. We are keen to have this work completed ahead of the details or let's say the detailed FEED work. We are in the process of doing but having not completed yet on the Kudu gas-to-power project, as well as of course to undertake let's say potential future farm-in discussions. Our MoU discussions is going well, and we are in discussions with the power company in Namibia for heads of terms.
They have also notified internationally that the Kudu gas-to-power project is making progress, and we take that as a good sign that we are in a good workflow with the local power company. On to Golfinho. We are preparing to take over the operations of the Golfinho cluster, as well as the undeveloped Brigadeiro field, 65% of the Brigadeiro field, and of course the FPSO Cidade de Vitoria. In these preparations, very pleased to announce that we have now been approved Deepwater Class A operator by ANP, which is necessary for us to be allowed to take over the operations on Golfinho. We are currently building up our local organization and working to be prepared to take over the operation of this field.
We expect that the transaction will close in the first quarter. This will add approximately 9,000 bbl per day to our production. Is based on 38 million proven recoverable reserves and a future 0.7 TCF that is potential for future development. We also take possession of a gas pipeline from this field to shore, which will of course then make it possible for us to monetize this gas, potential gas accumulation. As you can understand, the first quarter is going to be a momentous quarter in the history of BW Energy. A lot of things is coming together and a lot of things is happening, and a lot of positive news flow is expected in first quarter.
With that, I will leave the word to Knut, who will take you through the details of the financials.
Thank you, Carl. A few comments to the third quarter financials. First to the income statement. We had revenues in the third quarter of $83.5 million compared to $16.3 million in the second quarter. This is mainly due to the fact that we didn't have any liftings in the second quarter, so the revenues recorded are more of technical nature with some taxes and the domestic market obligations. The big increase is then because of the lifting that we performed in August and also received the funds that you will later see in the cash flows in September. We did that, as I said, in August.
The Dated Brent averaged a little bit more than $100 in August, so that gave us very good revenues and EBITDA. We also had some positive effects from the commodity hedges where we had gains as the oil price were falling a lot from June up to September. We recorded a $16 million change in the result from derivatives. On the operating expenses, they came in as expected, as was earlier mentioned. It was about $36 per barrel. That gave us an EBITDA of $61.5 million versus $5.5 million in the second quarter. Depreciations, everything according to plan, giving us an operating profit of $45.4 million.
The net financials with a slight negative as usual from the lease liabilities. That is the bareboat rate of the FPSO. We also again had some financial gains on our interest rate swap, giving us a total of an expense of $2.1 million in the quarter. A profit before tax of $43.3 million, and after taxes, $33.8 million. To the balance sheet, we are adding our investments to the balance sheet. You can see there's an increase on the E&P tangible assets up to $468 million, mainly due to the Hibiscus / Ruche development CapEx.
Also a slight change to the inventories where we had an underlift adjustment in the quarter. The big news, let's say, for the balance sheet is that we are adding interest-bearing debt. The RBL was closed and drawn upon in the quarter. We had a first drawdown of $100 million, and that's what you can see here on the liability side of the balance sheet. There was also a small effect then also on the result from hedges that you can see on the derivatives lines long-term and short-term.
Still a very, very strong balance sheet taking us through the high activities that we're having in the company, and we have an equity ratio of 55%. Having said that, a lot of the liabilities are also due to the long-term commitment of the FPSO contract. Over to the cash flow. We started off with $123 million in cash at the end of June. A good operating cash flows. As mentioned, we received the funds from the August lifting in September, so we had operating cash flow of $42 million. Very high activity level on the CapEx side, $65.2 million.
Again, then the net financing activities mostly came from the RBL of $86.2, which gave us then a cash position of $186.5 million at the end of the quarter. To get to the summary of this presentation, our strategic priorities and value levers. We have, as you can see from the graph, we have some very exciting milestones in the shorter term. Tortue production will increase. We will also increase production from the first Hibiscus / Ruche well, and if the Golfinho transaction gets closed as planned, then that will also add additional production as you can see from the graph here in the first quarter. Of course, towards the end of the year, that will give us increased production all the way.
On the production and exploration side, optimizing Dussafu output with the new gas lift capacity will bring us up to the full production there or from all the six wells. Yeah, on Kudu, as Carl mentioned, exciting shoot of seismic for Kudu. A huge field where we have proven reserves from the development that is existing, but we would definitely like to know more about the other areas of the field in more detail to evaluate that going forward. On the development side, obviously bringing Hibiscus / Ruche to first oil.
On Maromba we are working hard to get the financing progressed for the project and we are in discussions with banks to see where we can get on that one. In Kudu in Namibia, we are in advanced discussions with local power company for the heads of terms of the Kudu gas-to-power projects. That's the milestones on the development side. On the corporate side, we are looking to complete the Golfinho acquisition within the first quarter. We are also exploring financing opportunities for Golfinho that is a producing asset that could give us some shorter term debt capacity as well.
Most importantly for the future growth is the production and the operational cash flow that it gives us to continue to fund our projects and future shareholder returns. Again, we are very pleased to have closed the RBL and to maintain a strong balance sheet and liquidity supported by that facility. A lot of exciting things going on and now we are ready to take the questions. I leave it back to you, Operator, for questions from the audience.
Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. For those who have joined via webcast, you can type in your question in the Q&A module located under the video player. We currently have no questions coming through phone. Thank you.
Thank you operator. We'll continue with the questions that we have received on the Q&A function. We also have some questions that have come in by email. The first question was related to OpEx, why that was higher than expected in the quarter. The answer to that is that it shouldn't be higher than expected. I mean, I think we were very much accurate in our guiding about $35-$36 per barrel on Dussafu. I think it needs maybe a little bit further explanation what goes into the total like expense line where there are several items in addition to let's say the operating expenses from Dussafu.
We have, for example, crude oil inventory adjustments, DMO purchase, there are royalty expenses, corporate expenses. We, as we see it, we've more or less in line with expectations. There is also some very technical complexity to all that, and that is an IFRS 16 adjustment that we can explain in further detail if you reach out to us directly. We have another question to CapEx on Hibiscus / Ruche . How much CapEx net to BWE remains to first oil? I don't have that figure in detail.
I mean, what is still ongoing is the, you know, connection to MaBoMo with the flexibles, and then we will then continue with the drilling program. That will be CapEx all the way next year. For this year we are about $160 in total. This year it is about $190 million in total CapEx for Dussafu. For next year, it is another $100+ and also the following year, $100+. We will get into the, let's say, the phase two of this project as well.
There will be CapEx for the next few years as we have also previously guided for Dussafu. There is another question. This is from Martin Ulrichsen in Pareto. Are you still targeting FID at Maromba in 2022?
I can answer that one, Knut. Yes, the company has already done the FID. Internally, we have approved the project. What we notified the market when we did that was that we are still working on the financing and specifically on the financing of the Polvo unit that will be converted to BW Maromba. That has been a bit delayed, unfortunately. We are still working on the financing. We are making good progress. Well, how should we put it? There is, I wouldn't say it's difficulties, but we do see that the financing of hydrocarbon activities is not as easily forthcoming as it used to be. It's still, let's say, work in progress.
We expect to start the project as soon as we have clinched this financing for the main unit. Of course, our strong operational cash flow will cover the other parts of this development. We still aim to have first oil in 2025. We have slipped a few months in 2025 on first oil. That's still the target, and we have done, let's say, a lot of investments already in long lead items to preserve schedule as best we can.
Good. There is a follow-on question to that, and that is the financing of Maromba and whether we would target a specific RBL facility for that development in addition to the FPSO project financing. Just to recap, I mean, we have several avenues on financing activities these days. As we have mentioned earlier, we are working out of Dubai with a project financing for Polvo. That is progressing, however, not at the pace that we would like to see it, so that has been somewhat delayed. It's still something that we're working on. We also started to talk to different banks on a specific RBL.
For Maromba, we have progress on that as well. We have, let's say, more a near-term action and that is on the Dussafu accordion that we're working to get additional banks in for the accordion. As you remember, we had $200 million committed out of the $300 million facility. We're working on filling that up to the $300 million amount. We're also exploring potential financing for our Golfinho investment. That is also something that is ongoing. We have a lot on our plate on the financing these days.
There might be a question on the line, Operator. If you're there, you could take that question.
Sure. I'll open up the line from Ola Eikanger from SEB. The line is open now. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for taking my question. Just going back to the operating expenses for one second. If the operating expenses were as expected this quarter, can we then expect other operating expenses to be in the range of $20 million+ going forward also?
Yes. I think the operating expenses, they were about $30 or the total expense was about $33 in this quarter. It varies with our lifting. If you go back to the second quarter where we had no liftings, it was $7. If we go back to the first quarter where we had a very big lifting, it was $45. It's also following sales, mainly on the royalty expense line and other. Yeah, and below that line also the depreciations varies with sales. That goes up and down. We can take that in more detail offline, then I can explain it more to you all the different lines that goes into the total expenses.
Was that okay?
Yeah. Great. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Yep.
Was that all from your side, or did you have another question?
There's no further question at this time. Thank you.
Okay. We'll continue on the questions from the web. We have a question from Nick in seventh place. What can you say about specific prospects in the Kudu block that you can see on the 2D seismic? In particular, do you see any prospects that you believe are likely to be oil prospects? If so, what can you say about them?
I think we're shooting 3D seismic to get a much better view. Obviously, the 2D seismic has compelled us to invest in a 3D seismic because we see a lot of scope from the 2D seismic that we acquired earlier this year. I don't know if you want to add anything more specific, Lin, on this.
Thank you, Carl. No, I think you've covered it. The 2D lines gave us a compelling indication that we should move forward with the 3D seismic survey, which is what we're doing.
I think just to add, I mean, the Kudu license is very large, covers a very large area, 4,600 sq km. The existing seismic is quite old and some of the main discoveries on Kudu was made 30 years ago, plus. With the modern 3D seismic, we do really envisage to see a lot, and we have a number of penetrations in this block. From the penetrations and a new 3D seismic, we will learn a lot more about our assets. That's really the target here. Yeah, I think that's what we can say at this point.
There's a follow-up question on Kudu, whether the results of the Gazania-1 well will have any read-across to the Kudu block.
Yes. I think there will be read-acrosses from other, let's say, activity in the basin. Yes. Of course, the other activities in the basin is attracting or making this basin, let's say, more prolific in the sense that you now have availability of assets to undertake 3D seismic as well as drilling because of the activity, which is also good and will assist us in our future, let's say, development of the asset.
Okay. There is a question whether we would consider a share buyback program if the share performance continues to be sub NOK 30. As previously commented on share prices and dividends, I think we've been very clear that we're doing our best to deliver on our promises and dividends/share buybacks would come when we have the main investments now on stream. Talking about Dussafu and Maromba.
Yeah. I think I just want to add to that when we listed back in early 2020, obviously our plans were not really premised on a pandemic hitting the world, and as such, we have definitely been affected by the pandemic and I think we were prudent to curtail our activities when the scope and scale of the pandemic and the disruption that it caused became, let's say, apparent. We curtailed our activities to preserve firepower and make sure that we survived the outcome. We immediately, when we felt it was physically possible to restart activity, we restarted. It's no denying that this caused a disruption in our plans of 12-18 months.
I think we have done a good job of catching up on that, and we will be very close to delivering on our target or the targets we set in our five-year plan when we listed.
Okay. There is a question to CapEx more detailed breakdown in the quarter and also going forward. I think we have to take that offline. I gave some high-level figures on Dussafu. We of course have a breakdown, but it's also hard to say in exactly which quarter that CapEx will hit the books. I mean, whether it will be on this side of 2022 or into 2023. That's just how it is with all these activities. Please reach out to us if you want to have a further detailing on the CapEx going forward or also the breakdown of what we had.
I mean, Maromba is running. It's mostly man-hours that we are investing there. Yeah, in the quarter it was about $6 million. We had the FPSO assessment as well in the yard. Just to tell you about some of the activities that are ongoing on Maromba and of course you know about all the Dussafu activities. On Kudu, it's a little bit the same. We have mostly man-hours that we're spending, like a couple of million dollars to two and a half million dollars per quarter. That will also be the case going forward.
There we have, in addition to that, we have done the seismic survey that we will shoot in the first quarter. Okay. Okay, Operator, it says that Ola has another question on the line.
Yes. I will open up the line now. 1. The line is open now. Please go ahead.
Hiya. Thank you for taking my question again. Just going back to Maromba and the production outlook that you have provided in today's slide deck and comparing it to the production outlook that you shared in Q2, it seems that the Maromba contribution has been reduced quite significantly. I was just wondering if that was solely linked to the financing problems or just the financing being delayed or if it's something else.
I- it's just a straight time shift of, uh, of when we expect to do the first drilling and have the first oil. So it's just a time shift. There's been no change in our assessment of the Moramba and, uh, the, uh, let's say, oil that we will recover from Moramba and our development plans. It's, uh, just a straight time shift. But of course, depending on how much oil you produce within the year will, uh, of course make it look, uh, a bit different in the profile. But that's... It's just a time shift.
Okay.
Yeah. Thank you. Very clear.
Any further questions, Ola? Okay, good. Sorry, there is one question. What do you think would be the optimal time to farm down the Kudu block? Would it be once you get the 3D seismic analysis, or do you think you might be prepared to drill an exploration well without farming down?
I think I can start on this and then maybe Lin wants to chime in. Of course, if you are to enter into a farm-down or farm-in discussions, it is wise to understand what you are, let's say, selling. We think, yes, it's definitely prudent to do the 3D acquisition ahead of any farm-in discussions. That's, I think very easily understood. With respect to whether we are prepared to drill, I think that's really a question we also have to answer when we have the results of the 3D seismic. I think, yes, you can have hydrocarbon shows from a seismic, a modern seismic.
Depending on the results, I wouldn't preclude that we would even be willing to sink an exploration well, but that would depend on also availability of drilling rigs, cost of mobilization, et cetera, et cetera. Would you like to add anything, Lin?
No, I think that's a good summary. Just to reiterate, there's been a lot of activity in that oil play and offshore Namibia. A lot of recent farm-in activities that have occurred, and so a lot of activity. I think it behooves us to get a better assessment of the potential of the Kudu block before we do our final evaluations and entertain any farm-in activities.
Lin, then there is the final question here. In other words, a new state-of-the-art 3D seismic can show a much larger potential for Kudu than what we have today?
Correct. It's a generational old seismic acquisition on the Kudu block. What the more recent modern 3D seismic has shown, especially outboard on the Total blocks where the discovery is, as well as the Shell block where they had their discovery, is that the quality of the seismic is a significant step change different. We are gonna undertake that modern survey which we're following on. Total's gonna do another survey shoot this winter, which is summer down in Namibia, and we're gonna follow on them, use the same vessel, and do a survey seismic shoot over the Kudu block.
Okay, thank you, Lin, and that concludes the questions we had from the web. I leave it to you to close, Carl.
Well, I think thank you. I would say also thank you to those that have asked questions. There was a lot of questions and interesting questions. I hope that clarifies our position and our plans going forward. We look forward to speaking to you again in about three months' time. Thank you.