Good day. Welcome to the BW Energy Q4 presentation call. Please note this call is being recorded. For the duration of the call, your lines will be in listen only. You'll have the opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question over the phone, it's star one. The hosts of today's presentation are Carl, Knut, and Lin. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Welcome to BW Energy Q4 and full year 2022. Please note our disclaimer. On to our highlights for the Q4 and the full year. The Hibiscus/Ruche development, I'm pleased to say, is on track for first oil in the Q1 2023. We have completed the installation of the platform, BW MaBoMo, and the subsea pipeline and flexibles. We're all tied into Adolo, where some minor remaining work is ongoing. We are progressing towards closing on Golfinho and the two transactions there. We are maturing the Kudu asset with a 3D seismic survey. The Q4 EBITDA ended at $21.8 million. For the full year, $154.2 million.
The Q4 gave a net loss of $8 million, and we had a profit for the full year of $45 million. We had one lifting in the quarter of 680,000 barrels. Unfortunately, we received only a price of $73, and I will comment further on that later on in the presentation. We still had a strong cash flow, and the balance sheet was saying a cash position of $210 million at the end of the year. We have planned or revised the plan for first oil on Maromba to the second half of 2026, and that will also be commented further later on in the presentation. Our safety performance for the Q4 was excellent and indeed for 2022 as well.
We had no recorded Lost Time Injuries in 2022, even though we had, as you know, very high activity levels, and we are, I think, rightfully proud of that achievement. We further had no environmental incidents in 2022. On the same topic, we are making action plans for environmental and sustainability for Dussafu asset in particular, as that is our operating asset for the time being, which contains critical habitat assessments, biodiversity, and invasive species management plans, and a flaring reduction plan. The next slide shows our reserve update. The Dussafu net reserves is basically the same as last year, with adjusted for the annual production of 3.9 million barrels.
The same obviously goes for Maromba, where there has been no production through the year. The same goes for Kudu. Kudu, please note that these figures are in BCF and not barrels. On to Dussafu and a bit further details on the Dussafu operations. Our Q4 gross production was 883,000 barrels, which is equal to 9,600 barrels per day. We had an OpEx of $40 per barrel, which is reflecting the somewhat lower production compared to a previous quarter. We realized $73 for our December lifting. This was due to a, let's say, a number of unfortunate coincidences. We had very high rates for freight. Tankers were expensive in the quarter.
We also saw a glut of very low sulfur fuel oil, which is one of the main cuts from refining the Dussafu crude. There was, of course, a lot of instability in the market due to the EU embargo of Russian oil. This led to a glut of Dussafu compatible crudes in the market, we could only achieve $73 in our lifting. We had very limited ability to shift the timing of the lifting unfortunately, due to our ongoing installation campaigns and lifting, as you can see from the caption, where we lifted the compressor on board Adolo. That was unfortunate, but that is something that can happen, of course, in the E&P business. The increase in lift capacity is underway.
As again, to just to repeat, you see here the lifting of the compressor module, the new Gas Lift Compressor Module onto the unit. The installation work is ongoing, and then we will then immediately start on the commissioning as soon as we have established first oil from Hibiscus/Ruche. Dussafu production forecast remain largely as before. The production of from 2022 was 23.9 million barrels at an average price of $36 per barrel. Our next lifting is expected in March, and then you can see there will also be lifting in the Q2 . The 2023 production is expected to be in the range of 8-10 million barrels with an OpEx of $20-$25 per barrel.
Here you see on the picture the BW MaBoMo, and the Borr Norve drilling through the Well Template of the MaBoMo. The BW MaBoMo was fully installed in October, and we have later on then installed in the quarter, we installed the pipeline and the flexibles, everything being completed in January. We then received the rig, and we have started the drilling campaign. We had a very good performance, strong HSE performance in the project execution of MaBoMo and the whole installation campaign with 0 LTIs for the whole project. We are still on track for first oil at the end of Q1 . We started the drilling operations in January. The first production well, DHIBM-3H, will target the Gamba Sandstone Reservoir in the Hibiscus field.
We have, as we speak, drilled and cemented all six conductors for the first six wells of the drilling campaign. We have options for a further two production wells, or if we may choose, also to do some exploration drilling. The six initial wells is planned to add approximately 30,000 barrels per day of production, and that will be early 2024. The gross CapEx for the project stands now at $450 million, including of course the drilling campaign, which is still below our original FID budget. We are still tracking well to be on the original plan of our Hibiscus Ruche development.
We are continuing to evaluate, as I said, some potential exploration drilling, and we will add that to the tail end of the campaign if we high-grade the right targets. On to Maromba. The project Maromba remains robust, and we have done a review of the project as the final investment decision, which is subject to project financing activities, had dragged on out in time. We have, in this period, seen a significant cost inflation in a lot of the input parameters for a Maromba project. We have, due to this, we have decided to do a further cost optimization of the project, and we have decided to revise the planned first oil until Q2 2026. We are still working on the financing of the FPSO.
We, of course, hope to be successful. We have made commitments to certain long lead items, so we will be able to restart the project and have the shortest possible execution time. Due to the high cost inflation, we are also stepping through everything, particularly related to, well, of course, the FPSO, but also the SURF and the drilling program to make sure that we have the optimum program based on the current pro-cost costs that we see in the market. We do expect, again, to repeat an annual production of 30,000-40,000 barrels per day from Maromba. Again, this remains a very robust project, and it meets, certainly meets our investment criteria.
Kudu, we have a lot of activity on Kudu these days, and we are very pleased to say we have signed an engagement protocol with NamPower, which covers the project feasibility process and also sets us up for negotiating a term sheet for the future power purchase agreement to be finally negotiated. The sentiment in Namibia is very good, and we have today widespread stakeholder support for the project, including both political and regulatory bodies. This is of course driven by the very unstable power situation in Sub-Sahara Africa, due to South Africa and the problems they have with the power generating capacity of Eskom and the frequent blackouts. We are also being contacted and in contact with other potential private off takers of gas to power.
Of course, that is widening the business potential of our development. The focus today is on completing the seismic and geotechnical studies. We are in the process of undertaking, as you know, a 3D seismic survey. We are shooting seismic as we speak. This will cover the whole area of the Kudu, the whole license area, which is close to 5,000 square kilometers. We will shoot that with the best possible 3D seismic technology available today. This is particularly relevant today, of course, where there is a lot of activity in the Orange Basin, there has been a number of shallower oil discoveries made by Total and Shell. We can see some of these structures potentially extending into the Kudu license.
With the planned FID work, we hope of course to have the results of the 3D seismic survey, both for additional gas potential in the block as well as potential oil deposits. On to Golfinho. We are progressing the Golfinho transaction, which is not only the Golfinho field, but also the Camurim cluster and 65% in Brigadeiro, as well as the FPSO Cidade de Vitoria. We take over 100% operating interest in Golfinho and Camurim and 65% in Brigadeiro. We have achieved approval by ANP as operator. We have built the local organization, we have been through the operational preparedness. Everything is in place.
The closing is subject to a waiver of CPs and restart of the field production after the FPSO have been upgraded and shut down and upgraded after requirements from ANP. We are waiting for these upgrades to be approved by ANP and then the field restarted, and then we will be able to lift the CPs in due course. This is expected to add production of 9,000 barrels per day. Again, the quickly, the reserves we are looking at recoverable reserves are 38 million barrels of oil equivalents and 0.7 TCF of gas, which is a future potential. The assets that we take over also include a gas pipeline to shore, which is a sales point, of course, for any potential gas that we can develop. With that, I...
We are on to financials. I will pass on the baton to Knut.
Thank you, Carl. Good morning, everyone. I will give you some comments today to the Q4 financials and also the full year. We have this morning also made public the whole annual report, including the sustainability report. That's part of the annual report. Also then the annual statement of reserves and the report on payments to government. It's all available on our website. To the income statement for the Q4 , as Carl mentioned, we achieved a lower oil price than what we were hoping for, bringing the operating revenue somewhat lower in Q4 than in previous quarters. We also had a loss on the derivatives of $5.6 million, most of that unrealized, coming a little bit back to our hedges.
On the operating expenses, they were somewhat higher, mainly due to the preparations that we're doing in Brazil to take over the Golfinho operation. We already are occurring some costs to get prepared, hiring people and so on. EBITDA ended up at $21.8 million for the Q4 . Depreciations, more or less in line with previous quarters. The operating profits stood at $6 million with the net financial expenses increasing somewhat. That will increase even more going forward because of the Reserve-Based Lending Facility. We had an increase in the interest expense due to the RBL.
The net financial expense ended at $5.8 million, giving us a slight profit before tax and after tax, we had a net loss of $8 million in the Q4 . Taking us through the full year. You can see the revenues were somewhat up compared to 2021, mainly because of a higher oil price that we achieved during the year. We had a little bit lower production and sales, and we also had the losses from derivatives of 19.9. The hedging activity was started early in 2021 due to the requirements from the RBL. We started in January and February just before the war in Ukraine to put some hedges.
That was not a fortunate timing, because the oil price increased a lot just thereafter. The operating expenses was more or less in line, giving us an EBITDA for the year of $154.3 million. Depreciations more or less in line with previous year. As I said, production and sales were pretty similar during both these years, giving us an operating profit of $94.1 million. Net financial expenses of $10.3 gave us a profit before tax of $83.8 and a profit after tax of $45 million for the year. To the balance sheet, we had a high in-investment activity during the year.
You can see here the E&P tangible assets are increasing a lot with the investments, mainly in the Ruche Hibiscus development. Also some investments taking place in Maromba and Kudu. Kudu was not a lot. That's more this year because of the seismic shoot that will show up here. What I also could mention in the balance sheet is the fact that we now have interest-bearing debt, compared to last year where we didn't have anything. We had an additional drawing of $71 million in the Q4 , taking us up to $171 million that was drawn on the RBL at year-end. Still a very strong balance sheet.
We have that here where you can see we have 51% of the equity compared to total assets. Equity ratio of 51%. To the Q4 cash flows, we started off with $186.5 million. Had an operating cash flow mainly because of the lifting in December that was also paid in December of $41.6. We had the investments mainly again in the Hibiscus/Ruche development of $676.4 and also, as I said, the drawing on the RBL, which gave us an end cash balance of $210.8 million.
For the full year, we started off in January last year with $151 million, a very good operating cash flow during the year of $168.7 million. Investing activities of $129.5 million, and the net financing activities of $238 million, giving us an end cash situation of $210.8 million. Here we have an overview of the investments in assets, all the way back since the inception of the company. You can see we have invested a lot in Gabon in the Dussafu license over the years, starting off in 2017 and 2018 with the first development in Tortue phase I .
You can see in 1920, we had the Tortue phase II starting off and then the Hibiscus Ruche development that is still continuing going forward. You can also see here the Maromba capital expenditure main part then in Q3 2019, where we had the first installment to Petrobras and Chevron for the acquisition of the asset. Next payment there is due on start of drilling activities. There won't be anything happening there in 2023. On Kudu, where we took over the asset or increased our ownership back in last year, and where we are also now shooting the seismic in Q1 as we speak.
To sum this up, our production outlook has shifted somewhat towards 2026 and 2027 because of the Maromba delay that Carl just explained. On Hibiscus Ruche we expect then to see a very good increase in 2023 and then 2024 up to the production capacity of the FPSO. The strategic priorities and value levers, we are about to optimize the Dussafu output. The new gas lift capacity will give us production from all six wells. During 2022 we more or less had four wells producing all the time, and then there was one well that was a little bit on and off with the nitrogen unit that we have explained in the past.
Now we expect all six wells to come up from Tortue. As mentioned, we are doing the assessment of the Kudu potential. On the development side, late March we will hopefully see the first oil flowing from the Ruche Hibiscus project. Focusing on getting the Maromba financing done and also to finalize the agreement with local power company in Namibia for the Kudu gas to power project. On the corporate side, good cash position. We're working very hard in Brazil now to complete the Golfinho acquisition. Waiting for the regulatory bodies to give their final approval on the restart of the field to get that closing done as soon as possible.
Our goal is also to ensure a very high operational cashflow to fund our new projects and also future shareholder returns, and maintain a strong balance sheet and liquidity supported by the RBL. On the right-hand side you can see the game changer for the company that will happen now in the Q2 where Tortue production will increase with the new gas lift capacity. We will get oil production from the Hibiscus Ruche. And from the Golfinho transaction we will also add the anticipated $9,000. We will have about three times higher production towards the end of the next quarter. That concludes our presentation for today.
I leave the word, back to the operator, to take any questions that might be from online, and then we'll get back to any questions that we have on the web. Back to you, operator.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question over the phone, please press star one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, it's star two. Again, please press star one on your telephone keypad. The first question comes from Teodor Sveen-Nilsen from SpareBank 1 Markets. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Carl, good morning, Stig. Thanks for taking my questions, thank you for the update. There are a few questions from me. Just on Maromba, is it like the lack of project financing that is the key issue there or is this the cost inflation or is it a combination and a color that would be useful? Further on Maromba, have you considered to farm down, is the partner, your 5% partner able to pay some of the CapEx themself or are you required to carry them? My final question that is on dividends. You have been guiding for dividends after Maromba first oil and also the completion of Hibiscus, Ruche phase II .
Do you expect that it's a 2026, 2027 event now that you pushed out or any clarity around the first year dividend would be useful? Thanks.
Okay. Thank you. Well, I can only give a flavor. Yes, it is primarily the lack of project financing for the FPSO that is affecting our decision to push it out. It's very difficult to say that you're kind of half finished with the financing. It's you either have it or you don't. Unfortunately, we're still in the position that we haven't been able to close the financing. Yes, we have seen a significant cost inflation in a lot of the input
Variables for the project. This has triggered an internal process, of course, of stepping through our project plans, our solutions, and we're looking at optimizing both how we do it, when we do it, because we think that is prudent, as we have now a somewhat changed landscape to when we started this process. On farm down, we have an open door, if people want to talk to us, and I'm sure the people that want to talk to us, they know they can talk to us. We're not adverse to thinking about the farm down if the conditions and the partner is right. That's about all I can say on that. Our 5% partner is carried, but they will pay us back for their share.
On dividends, the dividends is really based on the board's view on the company's, let's say, development, production. Our plans are changing. We are responding to possibilities in the market. We have just entered into agreements to acquire the Golfinho cluster. Nothing is kind of set in stone here with respect for dividends and Maromba as such. It's really the development of the company and the viability of paying out a long-term dividend. It will be how the board views the investment plans, the investment opportunities, growth versus paying out dividends, and that is not really for me to say how they will evaluate that. That's the board decision. I'm sure they will be absolutely keen to pay out dividend when they see that the parameters that they have are right for it.
Just to add to that, I mean, dividends, I mean, is this annual closing and annual financials, it's not only about financials, it's about sustainability. I would just add that dividends should be sustainable as well. That is also why we in the past have said that we have to have a good overview of all our investment activities and liquidity position before we can pay dividends. Any... Was that okay, Teodor? Or-
Okay. Thank you. Yes, absolutely. Just a follow-up on the Maromba financing. When should we expect that to close? Is that 2023 event?
It's very difficult, as I said, to give like a progress update and say we're 75% complete because with financing, it's either you have it or you don't. We're making progress, and we're of course particularly happy that China has opened up as a possibility for us again, because that widens the possibility of achieving the infrastructure financing that we're looking for for the FPSO. What I can say today is it's still work in progress, and we're of course looking for the most accretive deal for our shareholders. We feel we're not there yet, so we have a few more rounds to go.
Okay. Understood. Thank you.
As a reminder, to ask a question over the phone, it's star one. There are currently no further questions on the phone. I'll hand back to your hosts for any web questions.
Thank you, operator. Yes, we have a few questions from the web as well. First one comes from Daniel Stenslet in Arctic Securities. What is your best assessment of total Maromba CapEx, both, one, prior to first oil, and two, if including activities after first oil, which might be further drilling, et cetera? There's second question, what [Hufud] exploration prospects are you most likely to drill in the future? The third question, when do you expect to start drilling production wells for Hibiscus / Ruche phase II ? On the Maromba CapEx, I think Carl elaborated on it.
Yeah. It's I think it wouldn't be prudent to start giving any fixed CapEx number at this point as we have just decided to step through everything, so that is work in progress. How we look at the situation may also affect the execution of the program.
How many wells we drill in the phase I in the phase II , et cetera. I think that is something we need to come back on, when we have done our work on Maromba. I, I think I would leave it at that at this juncture. Then on the prospects, drilling prospects, Lin?
Yeah. One of the things that we really like about Dussafu is the large inventory of undrilled exploration prospects. Partners and ourselves are working through and with an eye to potentially drill a prospect or two at the end of this drilling production development drilling campaign, which would be some time next year. Those plans haven't been finalized. We need to work it through the government and partners first. Suffice it to say, there are still quite a few exciting prospects, and we're going through that valuation phase right now. The other question was about when would. Our current drilling, development drilling on Hibiscus/Ruche is ongoing right now. That's gonna carry us through into beginning of next year. The original program was six.
We're keen to expand that additional two wells. Perhaps drill an exploration to be determined. Then we would probably take a break depending on performance of the wells and the overall environment. There's probably be a somewhat of a pause between the second campaign.
Okay. Good. We have a further question here from Martin Huang Nguyen in DNB. Could you elaborate what your investment criteria related to Maromba are? Given the recent cost inflation, could you give any details on break-even levels and CapEx estimates? I think we've taken those on the CapEx estimates, but investment criteria.
It's a bit difficult to come up with a break-even before we have the CapEx. I think that answered that part of the question. Knut on the investment criteria.
Yeah. We are looking at, of course, return on equity and IRRs as the main criteria. As Carl said earlier in the presentation, it's still a very robust project. What we definitely would like to see a higher IRR at current oil prices, but I think the most important is here to also test it on potentially lower oil prices. Of course, other sensitivities like higher CapEx and higher OpEx, that's part of our assessment when we look at projects. You know, at least to have a 20% IRR at a higher oil price, that's for sure, but it should also be okay at a lower oil price. We have a question from Ola Ekanger in SEB.
Two questions. When do you expect first production contributions from Golfinho? By the end of Q1 or Q2? Second question is, Dussafu 2023 production cost is expected at $20-$25, which compares with Q4 of $40 and $36. Could you provide a little more color on how you're planning to bridge the gap, basically cutting production costs per barrel in half? Well, to the first question on Golfinho.
Well, on Golfinho, as I mentioned in my presentation, there, the field is currently shut down. One of the Conditions precedents is that the field needs to be restarted. Petrobras and ANP is discussing that restart as we speak, and we expect ANP to, in the near future, but we cannot say exactly when, give Petrobras the green light to restart. There is a stabilization period, which is part of our, part of their obligations to us, where we will see that the field is producing stable output for a period of time, and then we will have the condition. Then we will lift the conditions, and we will take over the field as operator. That's the protocol.
Of course, some of this is out of our hands because it goes on between Petrobras and ANP. We're definitely party to it, we understand all the discussions, we understand the situation, it's a bit out of our hand because we are not the decision-makers in that process. That's basically... I would say it's very likely that we take over in the Q2 as we will go into the Q2 before we take over with the present let's say, status that we see today. How far, exactly how many days, very difficult to predict. The second part of the question was on.
On the production cost.
on production cost. That's a pure function of volume. When you double the volume and the costs are about the same, you get half the-
As a reminder, to ask a question over the phone, please press star one.
Hello, We went offline for a bit.
Sorry, we lost the line. There are of course some costs are dependent on volume, but basically it's a volume to cost that gives the cost per barrel.
Okay. We have a question from Steffen Evjen in DNB Markets. If we could share some more details on the Golfinho transaction related to the field restart and FPSO upgrades. Could you provide some more color on what investments you expect to incur here, and how long the FPSO will be offline?
We don't expect to... related to the FPSO, after we take over other than operating costs. The remedial work being done by Saipem and Petrobras, and they have, they are going to have to fulfill the obligations they have to ANP. We are privy to this. I think, the other part of the question on the takeover, I think I gave that in the previous answer.
Okay, good. We have a question from Nick in Seventh Place. Is restart of the last condition, for the Golfinho acquisition or are there other outstanding approvals that may take longer?
The restart is the last, ANP approval. There is a IBAMA approval of us as operator, but we believe that will follow the ANP approval of the startup and our takeover. There is a further, a IBAMA approval, but that is not expected to delay or affect the actual takeover of the field operatorship.
Okay. Next question is coming from Tom Erik, in Pareto Securities. When do you expect to reach the FPSO capacity at there's a three block? How long can you maintain this production level based on existing discoveries?
All right, I'll step in here as one of. In this last slide showed the growth of production for year end. This is gonna be quite the year for BW Energy. We expect at the end of our drilling campaign, whether it's at the year end or through the end of the drilling campaign which will go into the, a bit of next year as well, though, that we ought to get to the capacity of the FPSO which is nominally around 40,000 barrels a day gross. The next question is how long can we maintain it? Well, we'll need to monitor the performance of the reservoir.
We'll see how well the reservoir pressure is maintained, and that will in part dictate when we'll start drilling the subsequent phase II wells to see how long we can maintain it. I think in past presentations, you know, reservoir modeling suggests that we should be able to maintain plateau for 2+ years, give or take. Yeah.
Okay. It's Nick again. What do you think is a reasonable timeline to assess Kudu seismic and take a view on attractiveness of different prospects?
I think the full interpretation of the seismic is expected by end of 2024.
Okay. Quick. We have a question from David in Spango. Given the lack of project financing at Maromba, does management feel that the company needs to grow larger through M&A to access this finance more readily? What is the current state of the M&A market in Brazil? Don't necessarily get the question here. I mean, the M&A market in Brazil, that is, you see a lot of transactions being announced. I mean, Petrobras, they have their long list of divestments that they're still working on. It is a market that it is there and there are transactions being closed. Even with, let's say, the new government in Brazil, we see that that is continuing. Brazil is an interesting market, but obviously we have a lot on our plate already with Golfinho and Maromba developments.
Financing, yes, there are also financing opportunities in Brazil that we might tap into. In general, we're looking at different, let's say, pockets of available liquidity in different parts of the world. As Carl said, we're trying to figure out what's the most attractive and what serves our shareholders in the best way.
Yeah. We're also today looking at potential Kudu financing, and that's a different ballgame again because that's gas to power and it's gas to power that will replace very dirty power, coal to power, from South Africa. It's definitely got a much higher attractiveness in terms of sustainability. It's also, of course, a very good partner to renewables, to have gas power for a country like Namibia and its neighboring countries. That will be a different game again to finance that development. Yes, we're having a lot of interesting things in to do in financing is what we can say.
Okay. We have a question from Nick again. It's about the CapEx guidance for 2023, a split between your different operating assets. The final question from Nick is, what is the amount of CapEx commitment you have made by ordering long lead items at Maromba, and how much of this would be 2023 CapEx versus CapEx in later years? The CapEx guidance that we see now for 2023 is around $250 million. I mean, it's always hard to say at the start of the year how much will be 2023 and how much will go into 2024. The main CapEx is obviously going into the Hibiscus/Ruche project, where there is approximately $140 million that we see as of today for 2023 and something is going over in 2024.
On Maromba, there are some long lead items as you mentioned in your questions. That's mainly related to boiler, turret system there. It's mainly the swivel.
Some SURF.
... and some SURF equipment that we have worked on and some agreements that are in place. It's the workforce that is costing us. It's around $30 million is what we have in our models as of now for 2023. For Kudu, usually that was mainly related to a few hours per quarter. Now it's of course the seismic shoot that will take us somewhat up, we, with the agreement with NamPower, we will also beef up the project somewhat. Around $40 million is received for 2023 CapEx for Kudu. That concludes the questions we have on the web. I leave it to you, Carl, to close.
Well, I think, again, thank you for your attention. Thank you for listening in. Thank you for all your interesting question, and we hope that this has been a useful time for you to participate in this as well. Thank you.