Good morning. My name is Leiv Kallestad. I am the Co-CEO in Horisont Energi, and want to welcome you to this Q4 and 2023 presentation, where we are going to give you an overview of what happened during last year and where we are at present.
Yeah, good morning. My name is Bjørgulf Haukelidsæter Eidesen. I'm the other Co-CEO of Horisont Energi, so happy to be here with you this morning. Leiv Kallestad, we'll kick the presentation off, so please, Leiv.
Yes, if we go to the next slide, this is information that you are familiar with. We have been around now for five years. We have spent quite some time to develop projects within the ammonia and CCS space, and we have built an organization of around 40 people now and raised capital through three different capital raises, over the last year, the last one in 2022. If we look at what happened in 2023, it was a bumper year, a few downs, but luckily we ended the year with a few ups as well. One of the key events is that Fertiberia came in and joined Horisont as a partner in the Barents Blue project, in the fall of 2023.
We have also signed a few LOIs on the offtake side for Barents Blue with Barents NaturGass, which is a local company up north in northern Norway, but also with VNG, which is a major German energy and pipeline company, as a consequence of the changes to the Barents Blue and Polaris projects. PGNiG, which is the upstream part of Orlen in Poland, came in as a partner and operator in the Polaris license, so we have now secured the continuation of the Barents Blue and Polaris project going forward. We have also continued to work the North Sea area, and we signed an MOU with Koole Terminals to continue to develop the Gismarvik terminal and CCS value chain.
And we have also worked on the organization in the second half of the year, and we have launched then a new organizational structure, where we have three new subsidiaries, one for the CCS space, one for the infrastructure part of the business, and one for ammonia. We will come back to that in a bit. And we have had a few things happening also since the end of the year, where actually then PGNiG, or PUN as we call it now, was approved as an operator in the Polaris license.
Then we have adopted this new Co-CEO structure to ensure that we strengthen the governance, but also the capacity of management to take care of all the things that are happening in the company and that we are allowed to ensure that we spend the money the best possible way, and we are more effective, and we have more control of the money we spend. So, we can also say in that regard that we have also then strengthened the core management team and expanded it a little bit. So in every part of how we do business now, we have improved the capacity and oversight of what we are doing. On the financial side, the year has been not so good from the point of view that we have generated larger losses than we did in 2022.
Good reasons for that. But if we look at the fourth quarter first, we have actually recorded revenue in the quarter, and that's related to sale of technology. We worked on a project internally that was to use for people who are working on so-called venting technology for tankers. And you can read more about this company in note one in the annual report, that so you can look at that in more detail yourself. If we look at the losses in the quarter significantly reduced compared to the fourth quarter last year and also compared to the previous quarters. That is partially due to timing of costs, because some of the previous quarters still had costs related to Errai and also Barents Blue, prior to Vår Energi and Equinor exiting.
But it's certainly also a result of Horisont spending less money and focusing the resources we have internally. If we look at the full year, you see an increase in losses of about NOK 60 million. And this is a reflection of the fact that we went into 2023 with a bigger organization than we had in 2022, as we were geared up to do Barents Blue and also the Errai project with Neptune. And as a consequence, when the projects stopped and we did the reset in the spring of last year, you could see also partner recoveries going down. So some of the cost base we had to carry for 100% for a while. So that's the main reasons for that. On the cash side, we had NOK 200 million on the bank account at the end of 2023. And from our point of view, that is satisfactory.
You always want to have more, but we think now that we, when we look forward, that we have visibility on how we spend the cash. And, and we have said that, we are fully funded throughout 2024. We can confirm that. The way we see it now is that we stretch the capital fairway into the end of Q1, 2025. And depending on how we are progressing the project, we see that we can also stretch it further towards the summer without additional financing. So with that, Bjørgulf, I think I will hand it over to you.
Yeah, okay. So we have restructured the company. So we have created three subsidiaries, and we have demerged the business into these three subsidiaries. And there was an extraordinary and a general meeting where we made this decision before, at the end of 2023. So that is 22nd of December. So it's in the very last stages of 2023 that this happened. But now in 2024, this process has been finalized. So we now have these three subsidiaries, which represents each of the business areas in the company. So we can now say that we have three business areas. We have one pure play ammonia area, one pure play carbon storage area, which includes sort of the customer and securing the value chain for the customer and licensing and all of those parts.
Then we have one midstream CCS infrastructure subsidiary where we are developing the East Norwegian Terminal. So open CCS infrastructure for emitters, but also for other carbon storages, not exclusively Horisont storages. So this is an area where we've tried to develop more like a midstream business. CCS, obviously, a large value chain, consisting of several items. We need to secure the whole value chain. So this subsidiary helps us in securing that midstream part of the value chain. And also say that this facilitates for SPV structures in the project. So creating SPVs for individual projects, which obviously we need to for the project financing part of the activity. So this secures our project financing approach going forward and will be the vehicles from which SPVs will be created.
We are also facilitating now for strategic partnerships within each business area. So this creates a lot of optionality, also in terms of partnering and financing for the company going forward. Yeah, so in short, we can say that in each of these three business areas that we just presented, there are three projects. So Barents Blue project is the first ammonia project that we develop in the company. It's the first world-scale clean ammonia facility in Europe as such. Clean or not clean, it is the biggest one, and it's a unique project in Europe. Polaris is a storage license that we have together with PUN, in the Barents Sea. It's close to Barents Blue, but it can also facilitate for other CO2 than the CO2 from Barents Blue.
And then we have the Haugaland CO2 Terminal, which is currently the largest planned CO2 terminal in Norway and also among the largest in Europe. So it's, it's a big midstream facility that can facilitate for a lot of CO2. We'll come back to these things, but all of these projects provide us with the pathway into these businesses and are, can I say, unique in their own respect. So we, but we'll come back to that under the project section of the presentation. So, maybe Leiv, you can take us through the, the new management team.
Yes, I touched upon that, initially. With the dual CEO structure, we also changed what we call the core management team, and we have expanded that. So we, if you look back to the previous slide where you see the focus around the three business areas and, and we have the three projects that belong to, to each, one of those, we have, Rune Halseid, who is looking after the, the ammonia, and infrastructure business. And, and the relation there is that, both on Barents Blue and also on Gismarvik, we see that it's a lot of common elements in terms of the project and the project management. And Rune, he's really well positioned to, to look after that. Morten Solå is looking after the CCS business and, and he has done that since he joined the company. So no major change there.
Anette Kvilhaugsvik is looking after the commercial area and the business development part of the business. Ståle Brattebø, who was in the previous CMT, he remains in the CMT, but he's, for the most part now looking after the resources we have in the company, the project managers, and also the engineering resources. Malene Sandøy, who's looking after the sustainability and risk management in the company, also is working very much across the different projects and has become a key member of the management team. Then, if you look at the financing and some of the support functions, I'm continuing to look after that in my current Co-CEO role.
So, for Bjørgulf and myself, we feel that we have a team now that we have increased the capacity of the team, and it's easier to work across the different projects. So far, so good.
Yeah. So, then we will move into the project part and do an update on the projects. So we'll start with the ammonia part. Our first clean ammonia project is the Barents Blue project, and it's Europe's first world-scale clean ammonia plant. It's considered also in this business the original blue ammonia project globally and has been influencing, I guess, the standard of these projects and setting a global standard. So many projects are using, let's say, the basis that was created through this project. Combined with the Polaris project, we offer a best-in-class life cycle carbon footprint. We're actually looking at 300 grams per kilogram of ammonia, which is the lowest in the business currently. This project is located in Hammerfest in northern Norway.
So we also through this project create a large production area for clean ammonia in the north of Norway or the north of Europe. So this is a project that is creating a brand new project region for this new clean product. We were joined by the Spanish ammonia fertilizer company, Fertiberia, which is leading the way, I guess, in the energy transition within the fertilizer space with having a target of carbon neutrality by 2035. So they are very, very aligned with Horisont Energi in terms of driving the energy transition and the way path to carbon neutrality. The focus in the project now is to realize the first train of 1 million tons per year. And we're also working hard with the interface towards Polaris. That project is co-located, obviously, with Barents Blue.
So there's a strong connection between the two. And we work both alongside Fertiberia and PUN to realize this project. We have also renewable electricity directly from the grid secured. So we have the power both for the Polaris part and for the ammonia part. We have all the time, ever since we started, been very diligent about being compliant to EU Taxonomy and have been able to assess that continuously and also do additional auditing of that to make sure that we are compliant with this framework for, let's say, the green markets in EU. And we're also in mature processes with off-takers. So just to give a short summary of the key developments, you know what, where are we, what has happened.
Just to summarize that, we have completed a full design on an, let's say, we can say an extended concept basis, for the, for the third plant and with mature and proven technology all over the plant. So it's, it's really a well-fit-together plant. We have signed a joint development agreement with Fertiberia, a 50/50 partnership. We have so far published two term sheets or LOIs, made with VNG and with Barents NaturGass for a total of 400,000 tons of ammonia. We are also in other discussions and more will come later. You can also say that we are in term sheet negotiations for the carbon storage and we are working to secure the gas feedstock. We also secured the power supply for the first days, like I mentioned, 45 MW from the grid of the renewable power.
To just also repeat that, we achieved this IPCEI hydrogen status with a sealed conditional grant of almost NOK 500 million. And we are part of the IPCEI hydrogen program Hy2Use. So aiming at FID in 2025, starting 2029, we will get back to the schedules across the projects in a bit. So moving over to the carbon transport and storage. Our first storage license was the Polaris. And it's one of the most mature licenses in Norway currently. We have worked on this project since 2020. So it's well matured all over, also in terms of conducting offshore operations for gathering data and doing subsurface work. And we have completed more or less the work obligations for this license for the first phase, and also partly for the second phase of the license.
It's operated now by PUN, like we mentioned previously, and Barents Blue is the anchor customer for the storage. This is the only license, CO2 license under the carbon storage regulation in Barents Sea. And it's around 140 km from Hammerfest. It's planned also with the robust and mature technology. So we don't take any technology risk in this project, like we also limit, like I said, with Barents Blue. There's a strong customer base also for scaling the project in Northern Norway. I mean, we're working up this customer base. There's also a customer base interested in this carbon storage on the continent. So also working with that customer base. There's a strong support for this project locally.
So just to say where we are with this project, being the first license application after all the lights, this was the one that set off the phase of carbon storage licensing that we have been seeing the last years. It's also, it was also formally approved in 2022. We have done offshore surveys and we have been conducting feasibility and concept studies and now getting a new operator and partner in place and completed the work program for the first phase. There are three phases. We have the BOK phase, the BOV phase, and the final FID phase, you can say, or PDO phase. So we conducted more or less the work that's associated with the first two phases. It also complied with taxonomy for this project, being also assessed and verified and audited.
We enter into MOU with E.ON for storing CO2. We are talking also with other customers and working on term sheets with Barents Blue. It secured power through the project, through the Barents Blue Power Reservation and offshore permitting program. The offshore part of the program is approved through the Barents Blue Permitting Program. I'll get back to the scheduling. Then we are looking at our newest business area. So this is, I think, brand new in terms of what we have been seeing previously. Now we have dedicated a business area to the midstream CCS infrastructure. So in this midstream section, we are locating our first terminal within an area where there are all the awarded and actually all the ongoing application licenses are ongoing except for Polaris. So it's a very prospective area.
So we can provide a capacity, you can say, for maybe 3-4 licenses from this terminal. It is the first terminal that we develop. It's one of the largest, as we mentioned previously, and located in Haugaland Næringspark. It's also the biggest regulated industrial park in Norway. So we also have customers that are developing industry in this park that need this terminal to access carbon storage. We also provide solution for several carbon storages and several phases with this CO2 location or CO2 terminal. We provide economy of scale and we enable them to secure their value chain through this terminal. It's also scalable. So we start out with this with the minimum amount of capacity and we gradually can invest and grow up to the full capacity of 2024. So it's a gradual development.
It's also prepared for being able to connect to future European CO2 pipelines so it can be part of an integrated network. Together with E.ON and Koole, this is also part of developing the value chain that they are developing on their side. Some key developments here. We enter in MOU with Koole to develop a European value chain for CO2 where CO2 is aggregated in terminals on the continent. It can be transported to this location. Also MOU and term sheet with E.ON. And then also all the infrastructure, including power, has been secured for this location. And it's been regulated already, but we provide a couple of additional regulations for the site for some additional needs that we have for the terminal. But there's this limited scope for detailed planning or zoning.
We have an optional agreement with the park for the site that we signed in 2022. We are in tight, tight dialogues at various stages with several carbon storage licenses and also are one of our own license candidates. We have the permitting process is ongoing. Planning program is approved. So we have planned it in such a way that we're able to start up in 2028. We are also conducting paid feasibility studies for interested parties for this so that we can secure solutions across the value chain for the ones that need the midstream section. And then we have through this project established a standard CO2 terminal design that we are able to reuse in new locations. Looking at the scheduling of these projects. So we are now targeting what we call a Concept Select in Barents Blue.
In Concept Select, we consider also as the DEVEX decision. So the decision that if you pass the Concept Select, we will be able to initiate the phase, the FEED phase. So, and then the next step could be, would be FEED studies. And with the Concept Select, we also try to fulfill or complete all the term sheets that are required to secure the feedstocks and the offtakes and the storage of carbon. So basically most of the elements are in place. It's, it's the commercial part that is, that is now being, being trying to be secured toward this Concept Select milestone. Following this, we aim at the DG2 around the year end. And, and, and that is also related to the other parts of the value chain, such as the gas plant and the, the offshore storage.
so that we will try to align that DG2 milestone across the project. And then with the final investment decision, end of 2025. For Polaris, we have the BOK decision, which is the finalization of the first phase, which we have in June. And then, we will try then to align the next phase, the DG2 , as close as possible to Barents Blue DG2 . And then aiming at the investment decision towards the end of 2025. For Haugaland CO2 Terminal , also with DG2 milestone where we try to get the DG2 around the end of 2024. That's also related to the milestones for the carbon storage part. So we are dependent upon to pass DG2 in alignment with the carbon storage.
So that milestone could be moved, depending upon when the DG2 milestone of the carbon storage will be. And then also the same for the DG3 . But we are planning in a way to be able to take DG2 end of the year or 2024 and DG3 end of 2025. And that's for our next CCS project, which is not announced yet, but we will then; we're aiming for DG2 towards the end of 2025. So there's a maturation phase that is ongoing. So that gives you an overview of the milestones that we are working towards across the projects. Then I will hand it over to Leiv to give us the highlights.
Based on how we see this, our situation today and the position that we have, we still believe that we are in a good position, as an early mover, for the big projects that we are working on. Barents Blue is certainly a unique project. So if we are able to put together the commercial modules, we think that can be a very good project, not only for Horisont, but for European ammonia, because it's not any projects that are comparable to Barents Blue, which we already touched upon. So the projects we have are still leading. We see on the carbon storage side that things are happening with licensing being awarded and other companies positioning themselves. We see things happening also in Europe.
but we hope and expect that we can build on the position we have to move forward. East Norwegian is very exciting. It creates interests outside Horisont, with industrial players and also from a government or regulatory point of view. So we hope to be able to push that forward throughout 2024. Horisont has done a really good job over the years to secure good and strong partners, not only as such, in the projects, but also in terms of who we are working with on the engineering side and who are there to do future construction work, etc. We also see that we are in a good place to draw upon potential soft funding sources that will help us to take down the equity requirements. And we have talked about IPCEI.
We are also looking at other fairly big soft funding opportunities. And we also see Europe now preparing for the 2050 carbon strategy that there might be more coming our way. So we follow that space carefully and we try to be proactive in how we go about that. And we expect that this might help us in some of the other projects we are working on beyond Barents Blue. We are chasing attractive returns. And obviously we recognize that we are doing pioneering projects and we are in the early phase in an early industry. But we believe that there is potential here to extract the return on equity around 20% and potentially higher.
We also think that the team that we have in Horizon, and we can always talk about ourselves in management, but the whole Horizon team is very strong, very experienced, a lot of enthusiasm and energy. So it's really good to have this team with us as we try to meet our goals. So I think that's the closing remark. And we can see on the chat that there are some questions and we will try to address those as best as we can.
Yeah. So, we can start out with the first question we have here. And it's whether we can comment on the response to the organization restructuring so far and what to expect going forward. I think with the restructuring that we have done now with the value of the company to three subsidiaries for each of the business areas, I think the response has been positive. I think one of the messages that we got earlier was that maybe it's difficult to understand fully the business model of the company. So I think that distinguishing within these three subsidiaries helps a lot to see the different business areas more clearly. So I think overall, and it also allows for more strategic partnerships within the business areas, individual business areas. So that's also been very positive.
That was also one of some of the intentions behind it. At the same time, obviously we needed it also to be able to do project financing and to have project financing in separate SPVs that are connected to the individual subsidiaries. In terms of what we can expect going forward, I think we can expect to see that there will be project SPVs and those will be the vehicles for project financing. I think, you know, we can expect that. We can also expect to see some strategic partnerships coming along, industrial partnerships, within individual areas. Then there is a question whether we are in concrete dialogue with investors regarding investment in the certain holdings. I guess we are targeting industrial partnerships with these subsidiaries.
So we're not sort of looking for financial investors, just to be clear that it has been the focus on having industrial partnerships that can support the business. Like we have been working alongside E.ON for many years and also Koole and others. So looking after industrial partnerships. And in those industrial partnerships, there might also end up being equity as part of that. But the main focus is on the industrial partnerships. So whether there will be investments in those certain holdings, we will have to wait and see. But our focus is on the industrial side, basically. And then there is a follow-up question here. Then you guided the Concept Select to be finalized at the end of Q1. And what is the reason for this now being postponed to the summer? Yeah.
So I, I guess when we guided on this, we, we saw, I guess, some time that needed to be, to be added up. Maybe I think most importantly, I think the, the timeline alongside the carbon storage. So, like you saw in the schedule, we showed there is a, a BOK deadline, which is in June. So, we needed to align these timelines. So then by aligning them, we get the, Concept Select in June. That's the short answer. So I, I think that's the most important reason and that we, we, we thought that we, we perhaps were able to, to do that before. But at, at the timeline on this carbon storage side is as it is. It's, it's, it's, it ends up being in, in, in, in June. Then there's the next question here. You want to take that one? Yeah.
The question is, can you comment on the current status of the IPCEI grant? I know that you have set up the business structure. Are you now able to draw on the grant? I think it is during 2024 when it comes to IPCEI, so yeah, if we still have the grant and, on a different matter, we just received the support from Enova in terms of our position with the IPCEI grant. So that's still there for us to use and take. Can we draw on it in 2024? The question to that, I would answer to that is yes, but it is continued upon us reaching a positive concept select as Bjørgulf just mentioned. So the question to that is yes.
If I can just add one little thing about the question about investments in subholdings, I think Bjørgulf answered that really well. But we are trying, and I support you, you know that we are trying to de-risk the projects also financially. So whatever discussions we had with partners and all that, it is a part of the discussion. So just so you know that, yeah.
Yeah. And also on the IPCEI grant, just to clarify a bit, it's 3 pools of support under the IPCEI grant. It's 1 pool of support is around EUR 40 million for what we call dissemination, which is development and, you can say, knowledge sharing, and which we can draw upon, you can say more or less immediately.
And then you have the second part, which is support for FEED, which is NOK 75 million, which we can also use when we pass Concept Select. And then there is the final part, which is the rest of the 402, that is for CapEx. So that will be used around DG3. So for the first two, two pools of support, that can be used all, all already now or in 2024. Just to clarify, you know, how that funding can be spent. And in terms of what we can utilize in 2024, I guess, we could perhaps utilize most of the, the grant from the FEED part depending upon the progress, or how much work has been done in 2024 on the FEED side. But, yeah, potentially quite a lot.
I believe.
Okay. So there's a the next question. We can read it. Thank you for announcing. There's a question about EU taxonomy. Since there would be distinct separation between renewable and blue ammonia, how do you think Barents Blue will take, meaning in the EU market generally? So I would say that in the EU, EU market, rightly so, there is a definition of, let's say, the green product, which is under the Renewable Energy Directive, which is called, Renewable Fuels of Non-Biological Origin. That is one side of it. And then the other side is what is called Low Carbon Hydrogen and Derivatives. And that is supposed to be published, the definition for that this year. But both of these products will comply to the same, constraints, which is the EU Taxonomy. So EU Taxonomy has one set of requirements for for all clean products.
But there is, it's been, it's to be seen in connection with these two separate categories, which is RFNBOs and the Low Carbon Hydrogen and Derivatives. So, so in EU, EU you can say that they are treated in the same way, through the same type of requirements to sustainability, to the six environmental goals of EU and, and to, to all of the different sustainability aspects. So more or less they will be treated the same. There is a difference in terms of, the requirements to mix of fuels where EU says that there is, say, about 40%-60% mix that they, they will aim for. So there will be over time a larger portion of green, but initially, I guess the highest portion of will be of blue.
Then there is, you can say, a question whether we will need to raise capital this year.
Yeah, that's obviously a good question. Based on the initial comments, if we just look at the work plans as they are, we do not have a need to raise capital. Do we want to raise capital if we pass some of these milestones? We do. We have said, and we then will go out and look for financing. The question though is, what sort of discussions do we have with potential partners? How can that help us to de-risk and take down the need for external financing? So we will try to minimize the need.
But if we have good traction and if we make good progress on the three main projects that we presented earlier on, we might well go out and look for financing in 2024.
Yeah. That then there's a couple of more questions before we are at the end. There's a question about whether you want to apply for new licenses in the North Sea. And we are also working with a portfolio of, you can say leads, you can say in that carbon space, both on the, say, application level and an earlier level. So it is our intention to also apply for licenses in the North Sea and further develop that area. Then there's a question of the last question that we're able to take today and whether we are looking to get listed in other stock exchanges. Yeah.
The question to that is no. There are some related questions on the market value and, of course, the way we are priced at current point in time. It seems to reflect expectations in the market that we will go out and raise capital, that there will be dilution, that we have a capital runway that is not the infinite. So from our point of view, I think we should try to make the best out of the listing we have and make a good job to try to change the downward curve on the share price. So no.
Yeah. Okay. I think that's that; we are over time. So we need to end. But thanks a lot for the questions and the engagement. So, David, when you end it.
Yeah. I would also say thank you very much. This is the first quarter for me as a co-CEO and I hope that we can show progress when we do the first quarter presentation, which is not really that far away. So thank you very much.
Thanks a lot. Bye. Bye.