All right, everyone, welcome to M Vest Water's presentation of the second quarter report published this morning. With us today, we have the company, from the company is CEO, Stein Giljarhus, and CFO, Morten Hilton Thomassen. My name is Nils Olav Furu Thomsen. I will moderate this call, and at the end of the presentation, there will be a Q&A session. All participants are able to submit their questions using the Q&A function at the bottom of your screens. So with that, I'll leave the word over to you, Stein.
Thank you, Nils, Nils Olav. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our webcast. I'm Stein Giljarhus, the CEO of M Vest Water, and thank you for showing up, and thank you to Fearnley for hosting this session. Here is the agenda for today. My colleague, CFO Morten Hilton Thomassen, will present the financial key figures. Thereafter, we will share some operational highlights before we sum up and give our view on the future. After the presentation, we will arrange Q&A sessions. If you have questions, please submit them in the chat function in Zoom, and we will provide answers also during the Q&A. So, Morten?
Thank you, Stein. Let's look at the numbers. The positive trend in revenue growth observed in the first quarter has continued into the second quarter. In second quarter, 2023, the turnover reached NOK 3.6 million, a notable increase compared to NOK 0.5 million in second quarter of 2022. Year to date, the turnover stands at NOK 6.4 million, a substantial rise from NOK 0.9 million in second quarter of 2022. The growth in revenue is primarily driven by increased sales of equipment and chemicals, complemented by a rise in paid assignments. The operating expenses were NOK 7.8 million in the quarter. The operating expenses are mainly staff and project-related costs.
In terms of net profit, we see an improvement from about -14 million NOK in first half 2022 to -12 million NOK in first half of present year. At end of second quarter, the company holds NOK 60 million in cash. The net change in cash for the quarter amount to -8.6 million NOK, thereof, cash flow from operating activities 7.3 million NOK. Based on our current business plans and the ongoing commercial processes, we foresee revenue growth in the upcoming period. On the next slides, Stein will comment on the most important developments and the business potential in our main focus areas. So then, Stein, I'll give the word back to you.
Thank you, Morten. Let us move on with sharing the most important events and developments so far this year. Our four main market segments are still oil and gas, with the sub-segments as produced water and slop water, the aquaculture, the municipal wastewater, and dredging industries. With regards to dredging, there is still ongoing facility modification on the planned projects in Hamburg. As also earlier reported, while we await this to be finalized, we gear up more on municipal waste sewage wastewater, which has positive progress the last months. The first operational highlight I will share with you is the successful project at SAR Mongstad, which is the largest slop water treatment plant in Norway. M Vest Water was awarded a firm five-year contract in June with optional extensions thereafter.
We are now continuously supplying our NORWAFLOC products to SAR Mongstad. The contract will provide M Vest Water forward with predictable annual recurring revenue. The customer has expressed great satisfaction with our products, its performance, and our technical support. Based on this success, we are now targeting the international slop water market, first in Europe with our technology and solutions. First step is a booked full-scale qualification in Q4 at a plant in Europe, which alone are treating approximately three times more slop than the SAR at Mongstad. The market for oil production and subsequently produced water in USA is the largest in the world, with a large concentration in West Texas and East New Mexico, where the large Permian Basin is situated. Produced water volumes at Permian are approximately 20 million barrels per day.
This corresponds to 3.2 million cubic meter of produced water per day, a huge volume, which needs to be treated. The large yellow column in the upper right, in comparison with the other produced water volumes at the other major oil fields in the U.S., shows clearly why Permian is a natural focused market for M Vest Water. It is important to understand that large volumes of pre-treated produced water is needed to be reinjected in order to resume production of oil in these fields. Access to injection water is not like in the offshore fields, where the water is all around the installations. In the map at the lower right, you can see the sustainability risk index color-coded from white and gray to brown, where the red and brown are respectively high risk and extreme risk.
At present, lack of proper treatment capacity has led to operators in the Permian area have to reduce the desired production capacity of oil. The problem is lack of proper treatment, as the water quality for reinjection has to be good, and therefore, thoroughly treated. This is where M Vest Water has a very attractive solution to the US market, and our now proven and disruptive NORWAPOL filtration technology. At the same time, clean water is scarce and the situation is defined as a critical emergency by the authority. More clean water is needed to develop the fields in Permian, and so has the focus been towards this challenge as well. Consequently, the oil producers has lately reduced the oil production due to this situation. They are, at the same time, looking for more efficient ways to treat the water, more applicable for reuse.
This is a clear driver for M Vest Water and its products. We have, over the last year, been operating our pilot unit at a large oil field in the west of USA, and worked to qualify our NORWAFLOC products and our NORWAPOL filter unit with great success in cooperation with a major international oil company. Our successful long-term test with NORWAPOL there has proven us being a candidate for supply of our chemicals and equipment in order to meet the oil and gas industry's challenges in the U.S. All the technology listed in point one to six is needed at Permian, and we aim to resolve the pre-treatment demand by implementing our NORWAPOL as a disruptive technology above the commonly used walnut shell filters. We can see that the qualifications are time-consuming, but it opens the front door to major oil companies operating worldwide.
With reference to previous slide highlighting challenges at Permian, it is now open the door to the major oil operators at Permian, and we start the initial testing in this region in Q4. Aside of that, the qualification pilot has brought us to the next step at an actual heavy oil field. We will take a look at this on the next slide. We are now, based upon the operator's request, providing a large-scale qualification proposal to this field. This is programmed to start in Q4 in 2023, followed by operations in H1 or first half of 2024. The estimated potential in this one single opportunity is about NOK 5 million in NORWAPOL filter media sales, and about NOK 10 million in annual recurring revenue from the NORWAFLOC sales.
Then keep in mind that this field represent only 2.5% compared to the produced water volumes to be treated at the Permian Basin. Further spin-offs are active bids for NORWAFLOC and NORWAPOL to the same operator internationally. Among this is in West Africa and also to other operators in the Middle East that have been receiving the news about our achievements in west of USA. We will update forward the markets about the progress here. Last but not least, we have setting up two qualifications with small-scale pilot in US for another global major oil and gas operator. All these qualifications are paid work. So our message to our audience today is that we have proven our technology and clients' interest is rapidly growing.
Though oil and gas market is relatively tough market to break into, we are now accelerating into commercial phase, thanks to the outstanding performance of our products and skills of our people. The third highlight I would like to mention is the installation of NORWAPOL at the Erko Settefisk, the RAS plant, which means recirculating aquaculture system, for those who did not know that. Erko Settefisk is a salmon hatchery and a smolt production company that delivers about 5 million post-smolt per year, with a state-of-the-art RAS facility located in Stord, south of Bergen. The intake water to the plant is surface water from a nearby lake. M Vest Water's NORWAPOL provides clean inlet water to the fish, ensuring the very best living and growth conditions for the smolt. This is of high value to Erko and the industry in general.
Our installation is completed, the operations runs with excellent performance, another satisfied customer, and we continue to follow up their best results at the facilities. The fourth highlight is the launch of our complete solution for treatment of water and sludge management for salmon slaughterhouses. Two weeks ago, we launched our solution at the Aqua Nor Exhibition in Trondheim. Very well received by the important players in this industry. The salmon slaughterhouses in Norway will be subject to new strict discharge regulations imposed by the Norwegian government to align with the EU regulation for wastewater discharges. The restricted discharge regulation will come into force in December this year. To solve this problem, chemical treatment is necessary. Sludge from blood water, that is, well, until now, has been discharged untreated into the sea.
It must now be separated from the water and handled in an environmentally and economically sustainable manner. In August, M Vest Water, in partnership with Bioretur and Downstream Marine, launched a streamlined, complete treatment solution that complies with the coming restriction discharge regulation for salmon slaughter wastewater. This solution is launched under the umbrella of our long-term exclusive cooperation agreement with Downstream Marine, securing access to 70% of the Norwegian market. Under our new alliance agreement with Bioretur, they treat and manage the waste logistics and disposal, and M Vest Water offers a total solution for treatment of blood water and sludge management for the salmon slaughterhouse industry. Our complete solution is cost-efficient, and the OPEX cost will be down to as low as 10 øre, one-tenth of a krone per kilogram slaughtered salmon.
These are calculations we have made and verified during our experience through the last projects run. This is the total solution, just showing the three companies and the role that we have. And we treat the water very simply. Bioretur takes care of the sludge and makes it dewatering it and makes it like dry powder, which can be used for fertilizer later on. Downstream Marine is doing what they have been doing for many years and very competent at the preferred supplier of disinfection of the water. The difference now is that they have far more clean water to disinfect because M Vest Water is cleaning it down to very clear water before they disinfect it. There are about 60 salmon slaughterhouses in Norway.
The annual consumption of chemical to be used in this process is approximately 100 million NOK. We regard this to be a great potential for M Vest Water to catch a large chunk of, and we have the best environmentally friendly, technical, and cost-efficient solution. Our partner, Downstream Marine, has delivered and maintained contracts to 70% of this market. As part of the integrated solution, M Vest Water will also deliver process and treatment equipment to the market. We have estimated the investments for this industry to be in the range of 200-300 million NOK in total. Excuse me. So to the fifth and last of our highlights. 9,600 municipal sewage plants in Germany produce about 1.7 million tons of dry sludge per year.
The red column in the graph represents the sludge that are incinerated, meaning transported and burned at a high cost, at, at some other facilities. The 16,000 tons of polymer consumption represent, the cost of more than 500 million NOK annually. M Vest Water has shown that we have NORWAFLOC products that can replace 20%-40% of the synthetic polymers and provide large savings for the municipalities, in incineration cost. The dark green column in the graph represents sludge that is transported and used as agriculture fertilizer. In this segment, annual chemical cost is estimated to about 170 million NOK. Main driver in this segment is critical shortage of ferric chloride. The current ferric chloride supply shortage to municipalities in Germany is declared a severe crisis in terms of accessibility versus the demand there.
M Vest Water can eliminate 50% of ferric chloride demand and 25% of lime demand by substituting it with our product, NORWAFLOC. We have two main methods which both gives far better technical results, better economy, and finally make the customer a more environmental friendly company. And this last is not a disadvantage either these days. The two pilots for sludge treatment of municipal waste is reuse as agriculture fertilizer. The green column you saw on the previous slide have fully documented that by using our natural polymer, NORWAFLOC, in the treatment process, clients can directly reduce their chemical consumption, the ferric chloride and calcium, by 75%. Additionally, they can obtain a better effluent water quality and achieve 2% drier solids waste to transport and reuse as agriculture fertilizer.
We are now starting a full-scale qualification for commercial contracts at plants serving about 320,000 people. Approximately 1,000 sewage plants currently deposit sludge for agricultural, and our marketing towards the largest of these are planned and commence immediately upon finalization of our two ongoing projects. Furthermore, distributors of ferric chloride today unable to meet the demand also suffers from the shortage due to a substantial increase in raw material prices, which is not balanced in their long-term contracts. Consequently, distributors of ferric chloride supplying the municipal market have transitioned from being competitors to becoming M Vest Water's most attractive customers by implementing profitable, NORWAFLOC in their portfolio, favoring it over unprofitable ferric chloride.
The four other qualification projects aiming the sludge treatment, where the waste is incinerated, marked red in the previous column, are under execution according to plan and, is expected to be finalized now in Q4. Finally, I would like to sum up the most important key elements. The most important activities for M Vest Water now is to win contracts over the next months. Major contracts, like the one with SAR, has clearly positioned us, in the slop water treatment segment in the oil and gas market. We aim for more long-term contracts to be signed in second half of this year. This will give us predictable revenues from the sale of products and services in the business segments.
Successful qualification of NORWAFLOC and NORWAPOL in the U.S., in the produced water segment for a major international oil company, brings us to paid large-scale qualifications and invitations to bid both in the U.S. market and internationally. We have also received invitation to bid on other major oil companies' projects, and we prepare this work, processes now. Our development in municipal wastewater in Germany has clearly shown the competitiveness of our products. An important driver in this market is the limitation of available raw material, as mentioned. Due to the continuing shortage of ferric chloride, M Vest Water is now positioned with a clear competitive advantage. We provide better technical products and also happens to be environmentally friendly in the markets. There is also great excitement surrounding the last item on the list.
To the best of our knowledge, we are the pioneering company in discovering a sustainable solution to the challenge salmon slaughterhouses face now, as the new discharge requirements are enforced. We are very optimistic and in dialogue with several important players and front runners in this industry. Thank you for listening.
Thank you for that, presentation, Stein. And, again, I would like to remind you that if you have any questions, you can submit them at the, the Q&A function that you can find off the bottom of your screen. But I can start with one question. You say that you expect the positive trend in revenues to continue, and but you also have NOK 16 million on your balance sheet. So maybe you could comment a bit about the expected, movements in cash flow going forward and how you see the available liquidity for the company?
Yes, of course. Our business plans shows that we don't need any additional cash as we see it now, so we are not working on that kind of topic. I must mention that we have done some adjustments on the cost side. We are careful with the use of money, so we also hold back some investments. On the other side, we are also have now in place a financing from our bank, DNB, supported by Eksfin, which is export financing. So this also will assist us or improve the working capital for the company to finance stock of goods and sale of products and equipment. So, that's where we are now, so yeah.
Great. Thank you. And a question here, how is your ability to scale production to meet increasing demand today?
Yes, we have the production here in Bergen, and that has been able to, of course, give support to the activities that we have so far. We have, for the last six-nine months, been working on additional production capacity with some partners in Europe. And at this point, two of them are active, and they can increase the production that meets the requirement as we see it in Europe at least. We are also looking at possibilities to have increased production in U.S. through outsourcing with the chemical companies there. But that is in the early stage at this point.
Thank you. And then, maybe we can. We will allow for a bit more time to submit further questions if you have, but in the meanwhile, I can ask a question. In terms of the processing facilities for salmon, so it's a new regulation coming into place in December, but you know, at what point is the critical time for these companies to make decisions? How, sort of. What's the time frame they have to relate to?
It is said that they have a year to implement, but ordering the necessary equipment don't allow them very much time, as we can see it, but some of them has parts of the equipment, some other needs to make the investment in the process equipment. So I would say, you know, the authorities they imposed this regulation now in December, and it is said, like I say, I don't know, I cannot stay for that statement, but it is said that they have about one year to include that and build and make that processes operational.
So we see a very, you know, strong interest, and we could see it, you know, in Trondheim at the Aqua Nor exhibition, which was very busy exhibition for us and our two other partners that I mentioned in the presentation. So we are following up now several of these slaughterhouses, and we are quite optimistic. But of course, there has been some uncertainty, I think, is expressed by many in that industry regarding their cost forward and taxes and things like that. But I think this will clear out, and they will need to produce the salmon, and they need to sell it, and we will be there to support them in doing this the best way, because we are prepared. We are ready to do it.
Very good. There are no further questions, so I'll leave the word over to you, Stein, for some closing remarks.
Yes. I think what I said also in my summary is that we see now far more activity, far more interest, and it takes some time for us to break through, convince different industries and clients there. But we certainly have made it in those three, four prioritized industries. And now it's a busy time forward. We see it every day, and several companies are contacting us, and this is just, I think, bringing more activity to the company in the next quarters to come, and so we are very optimistic right now, I will say.
Very good. Thank you so much for participating, and have a good day.
Thank you, too. Bye now.