Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining NewMed Energy second quarter financial result presentation. With us, we have Yossi Abu, NewMed Energy CEO, and Tzachi Habusha, our CFO. Without further ado, I will pass on to Yossi. Please.
Hi, everybody. Thank you for joining us, especially in August. Let me take you through the highlights of the second quarter financial result. Basically, during the presentation, we'll discuss update on the BP ADNOC deal. We'll as well cover the financial results. As you can see, in the second quarter of 2023, we've basically been able to be a little bit short of 1 BCF a day production from Leviathan. We closed the second quarter with $173 million EBITDA, and net profit of $93 million. We'll update as well regarding the Aphrodite well, and as well the development plan that we submitted to the Cypriot government.
As you know, during the second quarter, we as well repaid the first bullet of Leviathan Bond, $500 million. This morning we announced, based on that, on the result, additional dividend of $50 million that gather to the first dividend of first quarter. We are continuing working on basically the two verticals and working on the growth from our asset base, inter- mainly internal growth, second phase of Leviathan, Aphrodite. We as well submitted a bid in the fourth bidder round in the Israeli, in the Israeli offshore, we are continuing delivering as well a yield based on our result. Without further ado, we'll we continue.
Where we are in the BP and ADNOC, we're basically in a place which the deal has been finalized. We have two main work streams that we are having with the BP and ADNOC. The first one is with respect to a shareholder agreement. That's basically us, the Delek Group, and, and NewMed, and the BP and ADNOC. This is in a very advanced stage. I think we, we don't see any showstopper, and we definitely in advanced step. The other work it's within the independent committee or between the independent committee and BP and ADNOC. This is a totally independent engagement, which we are not having a visibility to that, and we yet told that it will take faster than, than where we are today.
According to the Israeli regulation and law, we need to provide to the independent committee basically their space, and this is what we are doing. They are running this show mainly with respect to the purchase price directly with BP and ADNOC, and practically, we don't have a lot to say about that. This is ongoing process of negotiation, and once we'll know where we are, we'll obviously update. That's that's basically with respect to the BP and ADNOC transaction. With respect to the result, as you can see, during the second quarter of 2023, we were selling 2.5 BCM, vis-à-vis the 2.8 of the second quarter last year.
The main gap coming from sales to the Israeli market, 0.8, vis-à-vis 0.3. This is some of it have been covered by increasing the, the, the, the export to Egypt from 1.4 BCM to 1.6 BCM. The main reason that we couldn't cover it all is infrastructure. Technically, we, we exhausted all the capability of the connection between Israel and Egypt, I will take you through that. If we look on the, on the basically, the first half year, vis-à-vis the first half year of 2022, you will see that we sell 5.3 BCM, vis-à-vis 5.5, and we realize average price of $6.11, vis-à-vis $6.09, so very similar.
The results of the first, the first, half is very similar to the result of the first half of last year, and I will take you through that. Going forward, when we look on prices, as you can see, although we are seeing some of declining Brent prices, we maintain very stable Leviathan prices due to the escrow formula that we have in the Brent prices, related the GSPAs, and, and that allow us practically to maintain the average price that we see as well from, from, from last year. This is one of the strength of our activity and the visibility of cash flow many, many years to come.
With respect to the regional connectivity update, this is really to make sure that we are continuing and creating more capability to flow gas to Egypt. The first one to be entered is the Ashdod-Ashkelon connection. This is the INGL pipeline, the Israeli grid manager. They was supposed to be there, you know, a few months ago, but due to some complication, it will end by year-end. This is the current timetable. That will increase the capacity of EMG from 5 to 8 BCM by year-end, and allow us to flow more gas to the Egyptian market. On top of that, few days ago, Israel government, they published the regulation for Nitzana export route, so additional pipeline that can connect the Israeli grid with the Egyptian grid.
This pipeline will enable us to flow, eh, additional 6 BCM out of it, according to the regulation. More than 50% is, is basically required in capacity. When we, we look on additional connectivity, we want to increase the capacity that we are flowing to Jordan, to Egypt. Eh, what we are-- what we want to do is, is basically, eh, install a compression system in the Rehab area in Jordan that will enable us, eh, to flow more gas to Egypt. If I'm looking for, kind of the end game of all those three activities, we will have 8 BCM to EMG, total of 6 BCM to Nitzana, and around 7 BCM on top of the Jordanian consumption to Jordan.
More than 20 BCM connectivity to Egypt by the end of the decade, that definitely allow us, and actually everybody, Tamar, Leviathan, Karish and Tanin. Even if everybody's working on a full capacity, we can supply the Israeli market, Jordan, and have more than enough capacity to flow to the Egyptian market from the Israeli market. Before we move to the expansion, I think one of the most important key issues is that we are still on target for the our published DCF for this year. We are basically looking forward for, and we are seeing good activity in the sales this quarter to the three market, Israel, Jordan and Egypt. On the expansion of Leviathan, we are continuing with the pre-FEED of the FLNG.
As you know, we are expecting result Q4 this year, so working in progress. In parallel, we are doing the all what necessarily in order to be able to run forward with the project. We submitted to the Israeli government and asked for an export license, and basically, we are working on the different spheres, technical, commercial, regulatory, financing, with promoting this second phase of Leviathan and certainly the Floating LNG project. On Aphrodite, during this few weeks ago, we finalized the A-3 appraiser well, which will be a development well as well. The results are as expected and basically allow us to continue and work on the development of Aphrodite.
We submitted an update, the development plan, to the Cypriot government, practically looking on using existing infrastructure in Egypt in order to develop the Aphrodite field. We are in a negotiation with WDDM facility owners to use their facility and basically show them the timetable in line forward with the Aphrodite project based on WDDM infrastructure. When you are looking on the second quarter financial metrics, you can see that basically the different will be the sales, as you can see in the next slide. What we are, what we are seeing is practically that sales have been a little bit lower Q2 2023, vis-a-vis Q2 2022, and this is mainly the effect on the result.
As I mentioned, the target for this year stay the same. You can see it in this slide, basically in the first half, net profit, we basically have in 2022, $208 million net profit, vis-a-vis $214 in the first half of this year. Quite similar on the activity, automatic pilot from our perspective on sales to the Israeli, Jordanian, and Egyptian market. I will ask Tzachi Habusha, our CFO, to dive into a bit more details of the result, and then we'll come back to Q&A. Please, Tzachi.
Yes. Hi. Thank you, Yossi, and thank you all for being with us. I'd like to share a few points related to the 6th and the three-month report, which ended on the 30th. As Yossi mentioned, the net profit for the first six months of 2023 is approximately $214 million, compared to approximately $205 million during the same period last year. The increase in net profit derives from a decrease in cost and expenses, mainly due to the disposal of a new project during the same period last year. This was offset by a decrease in net revenues.
The net profit in the second quarter, 2023, is approximately $93 million, compared to $121 million during the second quarter last year. As I, as you'll see, I mentioned before, the net profit decrease is mainly derived from a reduction in the natural gas revenues after royalties, in the sum of $35 million, out of which $5 million are due to the decrease in the average gas price per MMBtu, which is partially linked to the Brent oil price, and $31 million are due to a decrease in natural gas quantities, from a previous level of approximately 2.8 BCM to 2.5 BCM in this quarter.
In this point, I'd like to point out that Leviathan's long-term and strong contracts have a take-or-pay mechanism and limited exposure to Brent price decline, floor price per MMBtu. In other words, we don't get a 100% adjustment when the Brent price increases. However, we have a limited risk when the Brent price decreases. Let's go to the balance sheet slide. In relation to the balance sheet report, Gil. In relation to the balance sheet, balance sheet report, I'd like to mention one point. There is a dramatic reduction in our current debt position. This is due to the fact that on June 30th, we redeemed a Leviathan Bond Series 2023, in the sum of $5 million.
We can see in this slide, the reduction in our current debt position compared to the past. In addition to the redemption of a Leviathan Bond Series 23, at the end of 2021, NewMed Energy repaid its Tamar Bond and the Series A bonds. As of June 30, the total debt is approximately $1.75 million, which comes from Leviathan bonds with maturity in 2025, 2027, and 2030. It should be, and I think it's very good point, it should be emphasized, and it's very good point that there is no impact on the world interest rate changes on these bonds, since they have fixed interest rates.
This, of course, puts us in a very positive financial position and will have a positive impact on our financial costs in the upcoming days. Before I finish, let's say the bottom line, the PNL, and again, before the distribution, the bottom line is the, the fact that, despite the result of the quarter two, the net profit for the first six months of 2023 is higher than the net profit during the same period last year, while our debt has decreased. Here, the distribution, as you'll see, I mentioned, the partnership declared a $50 million profit distribution. This is in addition to $50 million in the first quarter, and a 200 mil- and $10 million distribution in 2022. That's it for now.
Yeah. Thank you, Tzachi. If anyone has a question, you can submit them through the Q&A chat, please give us a second to gather the question. Yeah. Maybe I will start with a few of the questions that related to the independent committee. First one was, what is the objective of the independent committee? Basically, as you know, the deal is mainly to buy the free float. By regulation, the independent committee are responsible to negotiate on behalf of the free float and to get to a place which they can say, "Yes, it's a fair value, and we vote in favor to take it to the next step." They have a very wide authority. They can basically check the models, build the models.
They took advisors, they took investment banking, et cetera, and they need to make sure first that it's a fair value and no better deal on the table, and this is basically part of their, of their job. Once the committee approved or negotiated and get to something, then it's moved to the second phase, which is board approval, and it's go to court approval by scheme of arrangement. That's the process, but really the main process is within the independent committee, with the, with the wide authority. With respect to the regulatory approval, we use this time to update the regulators about who we are, with the player, et cetera, et cetera, and we are not seeing any showstopper from regulatory approval.
Actually, as, as you, as you know, the, the, the modern area, that's kind of the approach of the Israeli government to try and bring more international investors into, into the, into the activity here. Part of that have been vocally stated in the fourth bidder round that have been run lately. I cannot comment on what and whom we, we submitted in the fourth bidder round. That was a question, and once we will finish, you, you will understand the, the, the whole package. Basically, I can definitely say that NewMed was submitted with a in a consortium with two other international players. That's for, for this question.
Uh, with respect to, uh, one, one, one, one question on, on the, on the deal, uh, uh, exchange rate and, and other parameters affecting the deal, this is for the committee, and I'm sure this is, uh, in front of the committee, and I'm sure everything is taking into a, a, a, um, you know, i-into, into the, uh, the committee activity. So obviously cannot comment on that. Um, and question about, uh, Aphrodite. So the dialogue, we have basically submitted the updated, uh, development plan to the Cypriot government. They learned that, they asked question, there's engagement around it, and, and, and this is what we are doing. In parallel to that, as, as a consortium, Chevron, Shell, and us, we are negotiating the service agreement with the, the infrastructure in, uh, in Egypt, the WDDM infrastructure.
We are trying to do our best to push forward the project in, in the parallel route, and, and this is the activity around Aphrodite right now. That's for another question. Yeah, with respect to the floating, as I say, in the end, what we are doing right now is a pre-FEED. Result of the pre-FEED, we are expecting by Q4. That will enable us to better understand the floating opportunity. We have parallel pre-FEEDs. We get probably different result to see and, and to choose what is better for us from commercial technical perspective. And I have to say, this process is going forward as expected, and we are very happy with, with the team and the process up until now.
Let's see if I, if I missed any other question.
Give us a second. We'll gather a few more questions.
Question again, with respect to Mitzrah, we don't have yet timetable carved in stone. We are working with INGL to basically have agreement around this project based on the Israeli regulation. Rough numbers I can say that we are expecting Mitzrah to be online early 2027, but once we finish negotiation, have a timetable with them in an agreement, we will update. That fit the purpose for us. The first thing that we are really target is to finish the Ashkelon-Ashdod connection. That will allow Leviathan to have a capacity of 6 BCM in that pipeline out of the 8 BCM updated capacity, will be more than enough for us to serve us together with the Jordanian route for not only the existing capacity, but as well the third flow line capacity.
We'll increase the capacity from 12 to 14 BCM by early 2025, and that activity will EMG and the current Jordan will enable us to maximize the the the sales from Leviathan. For the full second phase, we would like to have Mitzrah in place and the conversion system in Jordan in place to, to do that. Why we need that? If we are pushing ahead the Floating LNG, that was a question. We'll have early gas. The upstream side will be ready much before the Floating LNG. We'll have few years that will allow us to sell all the capacity, the up, the updated capacity, and to regional market, and we are working to make sure that we have the connectivities ready to, to do that.
That's kind of the main target. With respect to second quarter, the main reduction we sell to the Israeli market was mainly because Energean came into the market, once we and we took that in consideration when we set the target of sales for this year. As you know, on the second half, we are in the more or less the same numbers that we had last year. Last year, we finished 11.45 BCM. Once the target for this year, according to the DCF, is 11.09, we are much within the target right now and expecting to have that in place. Let's see if I covered all the questions. Yeah.
I think we've covered it all. Of course, if you have any additional questions or you want to reach out, we are, of course, available for you, during the past, during the coming week and, and, and, and, and afterwards. All of you, I guess, have my email or you can reach out through the website. We are wishing you the best, August. Thank you very much.
Thank you for participating. We are here. If you have additional question, through Gil, through the website, don't hesitate.
Thank you.