Hello, everyone. My name is Roberto, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Africa Oil full year 2022 results call and webcast. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star one and one on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Please note that at any time, participants on the webcast can submit a question using the Q&A box on the webcast interface. Please note that this event is being recorded. The recording will be available for playback on the company's website.
I would now like to pass into the meeting to Mr. Shahin Amini, Africa Oil's Investor Relations and Commercial Manager. Please go ahead, Mr. Amini.
Thank you, Roberto. On behalf of management, I thank you for joining us today for our 2022 results call. I'm joined today with our President and Chief Executive Officer, Keith Hill, and our Chief Financial Officer, Pascal Nicodème. Keith and Pascal will present the year's highlights and the business outlook before we go into the Q&A session. I would like to remind everyone that remarks made during this session are subject to forward-looking statements which involve significant risk factors and assumptions and have been fully described in the company's continuous disclosure reports. The information discussed is made as of today's date and time. Africa Oil assumes no obligation to update or revise this information to reflect new events or circumstances except as required by law.
The company's complete financial statements and related MD&A are available on the company's website and SEDAR. Keith, we're ready. Please go ahead.
All right. Thanks everybody for joining. Obviously kind of an interesting quarter. Some good news and some not maybe quite so good news. I think in general, we're moving ahead quite well with the company. We are gonna start with exploration because I think that's probably our biggest catalyst and the our most exciting thing coming up this year, and really focused around Venus. Venus is getting a lot of attention on the world press. You've seen several articles, you know, by the operator Total, where, you know, they claim it to be the largest discovery in 2022. It has the potential to become one of the top 10 offshore oil discoveries in the world.
You know, according to, you know, several sources, it could be quite large. The reason we're excited is because the first well that we drilled on it was well above our expectations. It's very nice light sweet crude and very high mobility ratio, 84 m of net oil pay. I think one of the one of our advantages is we're the only publicly listed independent E&P with an interest. If you want to play the Venus play that really we are the only publicly listed stock that will have a significant impact on that. I think the upcoming program, which on the next slide, is going to be quite exciting.
You know, we, I think the Impact Oil & Gas, the partner and Total, the operator, have talked about spudding the well very early in March. Hopefully within the next week or so, we'll see the spud of the first appraisal well, the Venus-1. It's being drilled 13 km to the north of the Venus discovery well and, you know, will be a big appraisal on what we call the Venus main structure. As you see on this chart, there's a very large, a very extensive program being laid out. It'll be not only the drilling of the Venus appraisal well, but also there's a large block to the west they call the Nara exploration. What we used to call West Venus.
We'll be drilling that, and we'll be running DSTs on all three of the wells, including the existing well. Then if successful in Nara, there's the idea that we will drill an appraisal well on Nara as well. I think the, you know, what the operator Total has been saying in the press is that they believe that a fast track development could be underpinned by this program. You know, you'll have seen the comments from Total that they're putting $300 million, which is roughly 50% of their exploration budget on this year. And of course, this is, you know, turning into one of the most exciting plays in the world. Next slide I think kind of gives you a little geographic perspective on this.
You know, we've always said the Orange River Delta is kind of the last big unexplored delta in West Africa. You know, where, you know, the Niger Delta, obviously the Congo Delta, the larger deltas to the north have produced most of the big oil in West Africa. This one always was kind of held back because of Kudu discovery. Thirty years ago, Kudu was discovered and it was gas, and it was a fairly poor reservoir, and I think it gave the Orange Basin kind of a bad name. Now, since then, we came in with our partners and with Shell to the east of us that we believed it could be light oil, and we could believe it could be quite big.
I think we've been proven that that's the case. Billion barrel discoveries in both the Venus prospects but also in the Shell prospects, as reported in the media that they also are finding billion barrel prospects. I think that's quite interesting for us. You know, the first two real prospects drilled in the basin. Both confirm light oil, both confirm good reservoir, both confirm the huge size. We're just scratching the surface of this basin. The basin itself is very large. I like to put the little inset map of the other real hotspot in the world, Guyana-Suriname, at the same scale. You can see the area we've got here is roughly seven times the size of the basin in Guyana.
Huge amount of running room, and we do have some good additional acreage in this basin as well. The Block 3B, 4B, which has a number of drill-ready prospects that are supported by 3D. We're in the process of looking for a partner with that, with our partner, with our partners, Ricocure and with Eco (Atlantic). The Orange Basin Deep Block, which is another deepwater block, again, very lightly explored, but has. You know, we through Impact also have an interest in that as well. This has the possibility of turning into, you know, the hottest spot in the world for exploration.
I think it's gonna be a very interesting summer as we go through and drill these appraisal wells and get the results of the tests as well. Moving on to the next slide. Again, this is kind of a repeat of the last slide. I just wanted to mostly show on this one that we are most of the big major oil companies are now all around us, so this has turned into kind of a super major playground. TotalEnergies, Shell are the dominant acreage holders, but you've seen Chevron come in there recently as well. I think we're in good neighborhood, and I think you see the industry is quite focused on this basin. Next slide.
We've also just signed two new blocks in Equatorial Guinea that we're quite excited about. You know, I think exploration still has a very strong place in the in our industry and in the transition. I think the world is coming to grips now that it's going to probably take decades, not years to fulfill the transition, and we are going to need more reserves to bridge the gap to when we have the energy transition. The two blocks we just signed up in Equatorial Guinea look quite interesting to us. We have a very large prospect in EG-31 that's already has 3D seismic and is ready to drill, and it's right next to the infrastructure at Punta Europa, and only 80 m of water depth.
It's one that we think we can quickly get a well done on and bring it on stream. They need gas in the LNG prod train on the in Punta Europa. I think there'll be a ready market for that. We've already been approached by several big oil companies about partnering with us on that block, which I think is quite interesting. The southern block, EG-18, is a little bit more like the Venus and the southern trends, where it's a submarine fan, a basin floor fan that has very good amplitudes and could be quite large as well. Again, we are already in discussion with potential partners on that one.
I think this is kind of getting back to our old exploration philosophy, where we go sign up blocks, get bigger oil companies to come in and pay our way, but keep a significant interest in it. Again, we quite like the... we quite like these blocks and are happy to have those signed up. We won't forget where our bread is buttered, which is Nigeria. Nigeria has been really the core of the company, you know, since we signed the deal in 2020. I think it's been an outstanding deal for the company. You know, we've already paid it off and more in the time that we've had it, and these fields keep giving.
You will see that we have done a little write-down of our reserves on Egina. Part of the reason is because we just haven't been able to drill as we had planned to on those, on that field. You know, we were expecting to have a rig on location last March, and we finally have a rig now drilling ahead. You know, hopefully, we've got now three years of production on that field. It does look like it's a little more complicated than we thought originally. Perhaps a little more compartmentalized than channelized reservoirs than we thought. I think, you know, we have now 4D seismic we shot last year. We're drilling...
We're gonna be shooting another 4D seismic, and we've got a rig, that's going to be there for foreseeable future. I think there's a good chance to move Egina forward, and I think our operator, Total, is very focused on making sure that we optimize this field. The other two fields, Akpo and Egina, have been behaving nicely. We did take part of our reserves write-down was on Akpo, where we've written down the some reserves associated with the gas project, which just is not economic at this time, due to the low gas price being achieved in gas developments there.
Anyway, you know, the fields, I think if you go to the next slide, you know, and you look at the cash it's been generating and continues to generate, you know, it's been a great acquisition for us. We've, we've received $650 million, and we only paid $519 million. We've paid down $500 million of debt. We've increased the cash balance in the company by $96 million. I think, you know, these are the three largest fields in Nigeria, and they're fields that continue to keep giving. One of the keys here is license extension, and Pascal will talk a little bit more about the ramifications for that. I think we're very close on that.
You know, if you ask me, our two biggest catalysts this year are probably going to be Venus drilling, but also, license extension in Nigeria. Next slide. You know, we do have a number of projects that we also want to bring in. You know, one of the best things we can do here is we've got two FPSOs that have significant capacity in them now. We've already... You know, we're very close to pulling the trigger on the Preowei development, which would be a, you know, be infill of the Egina FPSO. There's a number of other prospects. Some of the wells we are planning to drill this year will be exploration/appraisal wells in and around our existing fields, in the block, particularly in 130.
I do think that's one of the best near field exploration or near field development, you know, we as we see this as a big catalyst going forward. We are very conscious of, you know, our commitment to the ESG front. I think we've had quite a very quite a remarkable decrease in flaring over the years since, particularly since we bought it in the in the last in the last quarter. We're actually seeing a significant downgrade in the amount of flaring done. It, it reached a peak of over 100, and now we're down to about 14 MMcf a day and still working with the operator on getting that reduced even further.
I think that's especially in today's ESG-focused environment and transition environment, I think this is a very important accomplishment. With that, I'll turn over to Pascal and let him kind a talk about some of the financial results for the quarter.
Thank you, Keith. I think most investors and shareholders might have focused on the loss we posted this morning, but actually the fundamentals of the company, and especially the performance from Prime, has still been outstanding last year. Prime has continued to deleverage all over the year. They've repaid about $380 million cost of their RBL and paid self. We are at the AOC level, debt-free, with about $200 million of cash on a consolidated basis. AOC plus 50% of Prime. We only have net debt of $25 million, and Prime has a very low debt to EBITDA level of 0.4.
I mean, Prime has continued to generate significant dividend, $250 million last year only, which is the best year since we made the acquisition. As a reminder, we had $200 million in 2020, another $200 million in 2021, and $250 million last year. It's $650 million since we've closed the acquisition, and we've basically paid back in less than two and a half year. Last year was also the first year when we started our shareholder return program. In total, over the year between the dividend and the share buyback, we have distributed more than $63 million to our shareholders.
Of course, the one of the main highlight of last year is the Venus discovery and all the potential upside that is going to build in our share price. Next slide, please. In terms of production, I think the main highlight is that we have met our midpoint guidance, both in terms of working interest production and net entitlement production, despite the delayed drilling campaign on OML 130, which is now starting, and also the shutdown for maintenance in Agbami. So despite these negative elements, we were still able to meet our production guidance. Thank you, Shahin.
In terms of oil sale, I think, we wanted to tell you where we stand especially. There have been many questions about our hedging program at Prime level. We used to have a program whereby we were selling forward between 50%-70% of our production. That was true until mid-last year, into mid-2022, when we decided to change that policy. The fact that we sold forward our oil in 2020 and 2021 helped us to weather through the COVID crisis. The impact of this sale policy can be seen on the average price we managed to secure in 2020 in the middle of the COVID crisis.
I think we realized that as the market was picking up and the oil price was going up again, we had to change this philosophy and which we did mid last year. Instead of selling forward all our production, basically, we are now having a system of threshold whereby if the oil price doesn't go below this threshold, all cargoes are still sold spot. You will see the impact of this change between Q1 and Q2 2022, and Q3 and Q4, where the average sale price started to be above the Dated Brent. It shows on its own the success of this new marketing philosophy whereby we are now able to sell our oil at market price or slightly above market price.
Thank you, Shahin. In terms of financial highlights, at Africa Oil's level, the result you can see here on 2022 is the adjusted net income of $151 million, which is before the two impairments made. One in Kenya of $170 million, due to the delays in the farm out and more, I would say, a cautious view on the NPV of the asset going forward. We've impaired the Kenya asset, and it's now booked on our balance sheet at $58 million. Also there is the impact of the impairment of Egina from Prime, and our net share of this impairment is $41 million.
Net of these two impairments, we are actually posting a net loss for 2022 of -$60 million. Before these two impairments, which are non-cash impairments, the net income would have been positive at $151 million. Very consistent with the two previous year despite the lower production. In terms of EBITDAX and cash flow, Prime has continued to deliver consistently, so around $600 million of EBITDAX net to Africa Oil, which is consistent with the two previous year. The cash flow from operation has been hit by a one-off payment of royalties in Q4, which are actually the deep offshore royalties that have been accruing since the deep offshore law was passed.
The one-off payment was made in Q4 of $59 million, which has impacted this cash flow from operation. Do you want to take the slide or?
I mean, I think, you know, looking forward to the company, I think, you know, what you've seen kind of in this quarter was a bit of cleanup. I think we cleaned up Kenya, you know, took care of some tax issues that have been outstanding and I think wrote it down to what I would call a more reasonable value. You know, we're still hopeful that the farm-out does happen. It's just taken about a year longer than we expected. You know, the project still looks good, I think I think we're being a little more realistic on the timing of the farm-out and some of the other parameters around that.
I think, you know, for us, the big things that are going to happen this year, Venus appraisal drilling, both in Venus Main and in Nara, and the OML 130 renewal. The OML 130 renewal brings with it a few big benefits. If we get the OML 130 renewal, you'll see the other bullet point there. We refinance the Prime RBL and PXF facilities as well as the Africa Oil corporate facility. You know, if you put it in round numbers, the difference would be instead of paying $400 million of debt back this year, as would be required under the existing RBL, we would refinance that RBL and have roughly that amount of money to be able to dividend out to shareholders.
It, it's a big deal for us, and I think it really. You know, there's. If it doesn't happen, it's not the end of the world. There's nothing wrong with paying down debt. You know, in this market, we still think there's a lot of opportunities. That kind of goes to the other bullet point there of potential acquisition of strategic producing assets. I think we're quite laser-focused on what we wanna buy now. I think it's going to be production that's cash flowing. You know, we are very targeted to basically majors that are looking to rationalize their portfolios and sell off non-core assets, particularly offshore West Africa. I think we will continue that strategy.
I think, you know, obviously every time we look at a deal, you know, with our share price still what we think is underperforming, we'll have to compare that against buying back our own shares. I think the potential farm-out of Block 3B/4B is also a good one, and I think, you know, I think we've told the market this before, I think we are looking at ways of, you know, trying to clean up this exploration portfolio structure. I think looking forward, we'd like to see it a lot more clean in nature.
The really refocusing the company on Nigeria and Venus and then, you know, having a option on Kenya, but also potentially having some structure that can give shareholders some value in some of the exploration portfolio that we have. Keeping our core principle for the company going forward is, you know, focused on production, cash flow, dividends, shareholder returns, and, you know, hopefully a big windfall on Venus as well. I think I'll give you time to look through the forward-looking statements and read them at your leisure. I think we're happy to take some questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, we now begin the question and answer session. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one and one on your telephone. Once again, please press star one, one, if you wish to ask a question. We are now taking the first question. The first question from Teodor Sveen-Nilsen from SpareBank 1 Markets. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Good afternoon, guys. Thanks for the update, and thanks for taking my question. I have three questions. First all on Venus, of course, very exciting and you saw ahead of us there. Just wonder how the news flow will look like going forward. Should we expect an updated volume estimate to be announced this spring? Will you flow test it well? Second question is on the Egina impairment. What's the book value of Egina after the impairment? Then third question, I think maybe we did discuss this before, but it's regarding the structure of Africa Energy, Eco (Atlantic), and the Impact, Keith previously said that you're looking for a kind of clean up there. If you just could provide an update on that would be good. Thanks.
Okay. Well, Venus, obviously we're not the operator of Venus. Total are operator, and I think any public disclosure will be handled by them. You know, if you look at the schedule that Total's announced, you know, the, the first well should be done, you know, in the next 60 to 90 days. I would, I would expect to see an announcement at the conclusion of that and an announcement when that rig would move over and spud the Nara well. I think the disclosure will be controlled by the operator and, you know, we are only shareholders of one of the working interest partners.
I think Impact and Total will be the main con to do it for announcements. I will say that, you know, there seems to be a lot of announcements being made in Upstream magazine and other sources, I think it's always very hard to that are this high profile keeping things secret. I can assure you that, you know, we will not be the source of any of those disclosures. I think Egina impairment, I don't have the number right now that what we've written it down to, you know, what the value is. I don't know if you have that handy.
No, we haven't gone to that level of detail.
I think, Teodore, I mean, the main reason it got written down was really because we haven't drilled in three years. You know, when we started developing this field, we actually believed that we would be drilling as of March of next year. I think, you know, we've learned a lot about this field, you know, some good, some bad, and of course with 45 that we've shot and the one coming up, you know, the operator is very focused, as is Prime. You know, Prime is doing its own independent valuation of this and, you know, this is our biggest field, and this is one that we will be focused on going forward.
I think now that we're basically in drilling mode, I think there's a lot of opportunities to bring back some of those reserves or to increase production. You know, at the end of the day, the operator is in charge of that process and they'll be the ones that will be making statements about that. You know, the field is good. It's maybe a little more complicated and, you know, the oil in place probably hasn't changed that much. It's just a question of maybe of how many wells we need to get that recovery. The current development plan is still the original development plan that was in place where we did the original reserves.
As far as Africa is cleaning up our portfolio, I think, you know, we need to stop being a portfolio company. We are an oil company, we're not a portfolio holder. I think, you know, each of these has its own individual positives and negatives. You know, Impact, I think is very focused on Venus and, you know, I think they've made public statements that they are considering selling their interest at some point. You know, we have to realize this is a 3,000 m water depth deep water field. No matter how big it is, you know, it's probably something for the majors to develop, not for little guys like us.
I think, you know, they've discussed a sale process, and I think before the end of the year, I think they would hope to conclude a sales process, hopefully on the back of positive results of the exploration drilling. Each of those three wells that are being drilled, well, including the original well that had been drilled last year, there will be three wells that are tested this year as well. Two new wells and three tests of wells, I think we'll have a much better idea of what we've got at that point.
I think, you know, some of the ideas we've talked about, spinning out some of the assets into a separate portfolio, selling off assets, you know, I think everything's still on the table, but I think, you know, we do wanna clean this structure up in the first half of this year. I think you'll see a much cleaner structure and, you know, with the resulting company really being focused mostly on Nigeria and Venus and buying cash flow and producing assets and shareholder returns.
Teodore, is that good?
Yeah. Excellent.
Yeah.
Opera-
It's good. Maybe just to follow up.
Oh, sorry, Teodore, go ahead.
Yeah, yeah. Just back on Egina. As far as I understand, there's actually some potential re-reversal of that impairment, that it's mainly lack of activity and new roles and no big reservoir, issues right now. Is that correct interpreted?
Yeah, I think, you know, I wouldn't wanna make any promises on that front. I mean, you know, we're obviously looking at the field again. You know, the operator will be the one that controls that process. I think there's opportunities. You know, when the original development plan was put in place, there were 44 development wells. We cut that back to 38, I think, you know, maybe what we're learning is that we might need to drill a few more wells to recover some of those volumes. Again, I can't presuppose the answer until the operator's done the work, until Prime has done the work and they've gotten together. We don't really know the...
what the answer will be, but, you know, I can tell you we're focused on Egina, and I think there's, you know. If there is a way to restore some of those reserves and restore that production, I think it would be a primary goal for the operator and for Prime.
Understood. Thank you.
Thank you for your question. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone. We have one question, so we are now taking the next question. The next question from James Hosie from Barclays. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hi there, good afternoon. Got two questions from me. Just first off on Kenya and the impairment of the asset. Sounds like it's driven by a reduction in your confidence that the farm out transaction can be completed. Just wonder if you could elaborate on what's changed within that process over the last few months to prompt the write down now. Just on the dividends from Prime to Africa Oil, are you saying that 2022 dividends from Prime are on hold until you're able to complete the license extension and then the debt refinancing?
I would say. I'll take the first one, maybe let Pascal take the second one. You know, nothing's really changed on the Kenya farm out other than the passage of time. You know, I think for our board and for our auditors, you know, that we've been making a promise for a year that we are imminent on a farm out, and I think that at some point our auditors and our board started becoming more skeptical that, you know, the timing of that. I mean, it can still happen. I think there's still very active negotiations going on, you know, led by the operator, Tullow. I think we thought it prudent at this time to kind of put that down.
We have looked at as, you know, we have looked at some of the other assumptions going in as Pascal mentioned. You know, there are also timelines that are being challenged on some of those as well that did figure into that write down. I think if you look at what's happening in Uganda, I think there is some concerns about timing of pipeline approvals and things like that also went into that discussion. You know, I will say I still think Kenya is a great project and I think, you know, it deserves to go ahead and I think with the right strategic partner, I think it will go ahead.
I think, we just felt at this time, it was prudent. There were a few other things. You'll notice if you go into the details in the financials, you know, we have done a tax settlement with the KRA, and we've provided for that. We have a few other settlements being done with, you know, partner accounting issues, things like that. There were a few other items that went into that discussion. Maybe I'll let Pascal answer the question on the dividends.
No, no. In terms of license renewal, I mean, the answer is the existing dividend policy of Prime remains in place. As you probably know, we would distribute any excess cash above $150 million of cash balance at that Prime level. The answer is no, the dividend is not suspended. I mean, the Prime dividends are not suspended. Obviously, you know that the existing RBL facility expires mid next year. We basically have 18 months to repay whatever is left of the RBL facility, which is around $500 million. Our latitude to pay with the remaining amortization is not massive.
Of course, if we extend the license now and we refinance, we will have again the opportunity to reschedule the amortization of the RBL. Getting the extension now is key for us not to amortize the debt too quickly. I think this is why we are so keen on getting the license renewed. Otherwise, the dividends that potentially are going to be deferred beyond the license renewal are still there, and they will still be distributed, but at a later stage. I think, yeah, getting the license renewed now and getting the refinancing completed is key to accelerate the distribution of dividends as you know.
In terms of license renewal itself, I know we've been telling the market for quite some time that it was imminent, but, it's still imminent. I think we have very good sign coming from the country. Obviously, presidential elections have deferred a little bit the process. We are still very confident to get a license extension immediately.
Yeah. I think the other thing in there, James, you know me, I'm, I'm an oil bull. You know, oil price will have a big determinant on that as well. I like to read the Goldman Sachs report that says $100 oil is coming. I believe it's coming again, whether it's third quarter, fourth quarter or next year. I think the supply demand formula is still on our side. Obviously anything that goes up in oil price helps our ability to pay dividend this year. I will say that, you know, we currently have none of our cargoes are actually hedged in any way. We did hit two triggers in February. Those cargoes have been sold. They were less than 10% discount to the Brent price of the day.
Every existing cargo now, even those that hold triggers, is still open to the spot market, which I think is a real key for me in the new hedging strategy.
Okay. Thank you. I'll just ask one more while I have you just on Namibia and the drilling. How should we think about Nara-1? Is the assumption is that it's an extension of Venus you're targeting, Nara is really a bold step appraisal well, or are you assuming they're separate structures?
I think the answer is we don't know. We will find out when we drill. I think if you look at impacts disclosure, you know, they talk about it being an extension of the Venus structure. I think, you know, one can make that argument looking at the seismic data. I think, you know, it's a pretty big step up well. I think that's the real key. If that is a extension of the Venus or even if it's a separate extension, you know, it makes this into a really a world-class size discovery.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you for your question. There are no further question at the moment.
Thank you. Well, we've received quite a few questions through the webcast. There's a number of separate questions. I've grouped them together. It's on 3B/ 4B. A couple of specific questions, but one maybe more general one, and that is Africa Oil in a ability with its partners to drill this on the right or is a farm out important to that? Following from that, I think this is perhaps picked up from one of our partners' announcements or indeed our own announcement about an environmental consultant being selected. Is that unusual? Does that mean there's an issue? The third question is, when will the CPR be published on 3B/ 4B?
Three good questions. You know, I think our strong preference is to have a partner, a super major come in and be the operating partner in the 3B/ 4B and pay for at least one well if not two, and possibly some cash up front. That's what we're working towards that goal. We've had discussions with several companies, and we continue to be in discussions with those companies. If we can't do that, then we will probably test the market and see if there's a way that we can finance it ourselves because, you know, we really like the prospects. You know, we've got the nice thing that came with 3B/ 4B is a full 3D survey that's never been drilled upon.
We've reprocessed it, and it's very good quality data and we have several high quality drillable prospects. I'm fairly confident we and the partnership will be able to find a partner to come in and do that. If we can't, then I think we will have a good go at trying to drill it ourselves. I think, you know, again, that's probably not our first choice, so. As far as the environmental permit, you know, the signing up an environmental company, that's very standard. We've done it on every block that we've got, and we're starting the ESIA now. I think, you know, in the current climate, especially in South Africa, you have to make sure you do things right completely on all fronts.
Not only the environment, but the community engagement and all of the things that you need to be able to tick the boxes because there is a fairly strong environmental movement trying to stop a lot of the hydrocarbon activities. I think we proved when we drilled Gazania-1, even though it was an unsuccessful well, we proved that we did our homework right there, that we got all of the necessary permits, and we did not have any significant opposition to our drilling. That's what we want in 3B/ 4B. I think for bringing in a partner, I think it's a useful thing to have an ESIA done. We've got a CPR, a Competent Person's Report being done that should be done in March for sure.
We will publish the results of that. I think, you know, again, we really like this block. I think we picked it up at a opportune time before the basin got hot, and I think we, you know, our goal will be to farm it out. If we can't, then we may look to try to fund it ourselves.
The one on CPR?
Yeah. If that-
Yeah, you're happy with that. Okay. Maybe we can change tack and maybe put this to you, Pascal. This is shareholder capital returns. What is the scope? There's also a question on buyback specifically. I mean, the questioner is saying, "Well, it's been kind of irregular." Basically, can you provide your thoughts on the way for the outlook?
Yeah. Well, as Keith mentioned, I think we have several opportunities here. I think one top priority remains to purchase producing assets. Any asset we would see as an opportunity, we would basically put that in perspective against the share buyback. Unless we have confidence to be able to close an acquisition which makes sense for the company in terms of metrics, returns and so on, otherwise we'd always balance it against the share buyback. We believe that our share price is still significantly undervalued at the moment, it would always make sense to buy back our shares unless we have a compelling acquisition opportunity.
I think that's, that would be, probably the number one criterion when we decide on the share buyback opportunity going forward.
Yeah. Of the 10% that we announced last fall, we've used about half of that money. We've still got half of that we can do under the Normal Course Issuer Bid. That doesn't necessarily constrain us if we do, you know, particularly if we get license extension and have a higher dividend. You know, we can always look at a special... I don't remember the acronym. Special Issuer Bid?
Substantial Issuer Bid.
Substantial Issuer Bid. You know, I think buybacks still are... You know, we are continuing the dividend that you saw in our release. We've announced, you know, the board has approved the dividend for March. I think we see the dividend continuing. I think we certainly have heard from our shareholders that they like the buybacks and we will continue to opportunistically pursue those.
Pascal, you earlier touched on OML 130.
Mm-hmm
... renewal. We have a question that says, "You talk a lot about 130. Can you shed some color on 127?
Yes, of course. Actually, Prime has started the conversion process of OML 127, which means that they want to convert it into the new PIA terms, which are more favorable in the current state as the PSA that and the fiscal terms we are having today as under the Hydrocarbon Law. It makes sense from a general perspective to convert to PIA. Of course, on 130 we run because it's such a large value percentage for us, we want to negotiate the conversion to the PIA at the same time as we get the license renewed.
On the 127 it makes sense to convert to the PIA now. Prime has started the procedure to do so. They target first of April as a completion of this conversion to the PIA. In terms of license extension, of course, this is another priority for Prime. Maybe less at the top of the list compared to OML 130 because of the size, relative size of 127 compared to 130.
Thank you, Pascal. Three questions on EG. Let's tackle the strategic one first. I knew this would come up. Basically, the question is that we've obviously been very much talking about our focus on producing assets, and the question is saying, "Well, you could talk about producing assets and now you've gone and picked up two exploration pieces. What gives?" I don't know if you wanna tackle that, and then I'll quickly-
I think at the end of the day, we spent $7 million to pick up these licenses, a fairly small amount of money. If we're right about being able to farm it out and have partners do it, to pay the money for us, we'll not only get that $7 million back, but we'll be fully carried for the exploration work program. I would say we're not putting a lot of our attention and our money into, to the exploration side of things. When we see great opportunities like we did in Venus, we will still jump on those. I think the one thing we won't do is sign up exploration opportunities that are gonna take a decade or more to come to fruition.
Again, as much as I like Kenya, I don't think I'm gonna sign another Kenya that's gonna take 10 to 15 years to bring on to production because I think there will come a point when the transition has moved on and, you know, maybe we won't be able to monetize those and they could become stranded. I do think, you know, exploration still has a place. I think we wanna make sure that we don't focus a lot of time and money on pure exploration unless it's like this, very advantaged and very special and unique.
We've been quite clear in our messaging for the last quarter or the last couple of periods we reported where it's infrastructure-led exploration. As you said, short cycle, essentially high IRR projects.
Yeah.
Very good. Staying on the ESG, could you just shed some color on, share your views on potential timelines to a possible farm out and a drilling activity?
I would say neither... The drilling will not happen until we have a farm out on either of those blocks. You know, I think within the next year we have a pretty good chance of getting both of those blocks farmed out, you know. Possibly with different partners because there'll be different drivers on both of those blocks. I think, you know, we're not looking to write big checks out of our account. We need a, you know, my board has told me the proof is in the pudding. If you can go find a farm out partner, it means it's good enough that it should be moved forward. If you can't, then, you know, we could be out $7 million.
I have to say the response we've got since we've announced these, I will be a bit shocked if we're not able to bring in a good partner on both of these blocks.
The third question on EG is would you consider buying producing assets in that jurisdiction?
We have looked at several of those. I do think it's a jurisdiction that we like. You know, I think the, you know, obviously there's been some very successful companies over the years there. You know, Marathon, Exxon, Chevron. You know, I think there's a number of companies that have done quite well. Kosmos more recently. I think it's a place that we would very much consider doing business there.
Pascal, in the past we spoke about the Equinor security deposit receipt for Agbami. There's still a couple of questions. Is this still an issue? Is this still a kind of like a restricted cash consideration? How is that accounted for now?
no, it's not restricted at all. You probably saw in the Prime financial statement that their cash balance has significantly reduced. The way we found to use that consideration is basically to pay the cash flows on OML 130 from that deposit. It's been called a deposit, but in effect it's well belongs to Prime cash balance and indirectly they have been distributing dividends from that deposit.
If we do the license extension, the payment that would be our share of that payment would essentially draw that amount down to zero.
Yeah.
Very good. Excellent. There is a question here about saying how dependent is our guidance, our production guidance for 2023 on the success or performance of the infill drilling on OML 130? Well, we spent a lot of time as a team. The technical guys have done a fantastic job. We've gone into a lot of detail, and we have obviously looked at a number of scenarios for potential outcomes of that. We have accounted for it, and we are very confident in our guidance.
Well, I think the good news is we understand the field a lot better now. All of our reservoir models are performing quite well. We've got history matches for three years. I think we've gained a lot of knowledge on that field. Not all of it has been positive knowledge. Some of it has pointed to it being a bit more complicated. I think the guidance we put forward is, I would say if anything, slightly conservative on the results of the infill drilling and the number of wells. Because there hasn't been a commitment to do all of the commitment wells that we would like to see done.
I think the guidance you see this year, we feel pretty confident that even with, I'd say, modest results of that infill program, we're going to be able to meet our guidance.
Couple of sort of off the main track questions here. Would you consider changing the name Africa Oil, considering a lot of our peers have gone from either something oil to something energy? I think the question is the oil in the name.
That's true, and then we do take a bit of abuse about that. We do point out that the name Africa Energy is already taken by one of our sister companies, so the easiest one to change to would be Africa Energy.
Yeah.
I do think, you know, we take the transition, we take our ESG responsibilities very strongly. We didn't go through it on this call, but I think we did on the last. We've been one of the largest rating agencies in the world. EcoVadis has basically given us a platinum rating. We're in the top 2% of all companies that they rated out of 80 something thousand companies, and we were the number one company, oil company in their rating system. I think, you know, we take, you know, the ES and G, all three of those components quite strongly. I think we've always been very good on the S.
We've had a number of awards from our second-largest shareholder, IFC, where we've, you know, set, setting, I would say, the gold standard of how to operate socially in countries. Governance obviously in, you know, conformance to EITI principles. On the E side, I think we're making great progress. You know, you saw the. Our biggest E problem is flaring from Agbami. If you can see, we've made great progress on that in the three years that we've been here, and I think, you know, we'll continue to do that. I do take your point. I think there's not that many companies that have the word Oil left in their name, and I think at some point we probably have to remedy that.
Thank you, Keith. Why is it so difficult to get or find and close a good acquisition of producing assets?
Yeah, I ask myself that many times. We've been, you know, we've been to the altar about three, four times now, but haven't been able to get anybody to say I do. I think each one of them had a different reason. You know, number one, we're not going to be overpaying for assets. In some of the competitive bid rounds that we've been in, people have paid prices we think are over the top, you know, more like $70, $80 a barrel type oil price. You know, we like to buy things on the kinda $60 oil price threshold, and then if we're right that oil prices are going to $100, we're very happy. If we're wrong and oil prices go to $50, it's not gonna break the company.
I think that's one reason we've lost at least two of the ones. I think world economic conditions, obviously the huge price spike of 2022, particularly in the first half and indeed the gas spike, we were looking at a gas project, you know, those have made it very difficult to close transactions. I think when oil prices have returned and gas prices have returned to a little bit more normalcy, it may make it a little easier. You know, we're in three processes right now looking at assets and, you know, I think there still are some good assets on the market, and I still think there's a good chance that we could close one .
I go back once again to the premise that it has to be better than buying back our own shares. You know, we still believe our shares are trading at a significant discount for Nigeria alone. When you add in all the other things that could be, you know, positive for our company, particularly Venus, you know, you know, we still might be better buying back our own shares than going out and buying a producing asset. We're on this. I mean, we're focused on this, and I do think, you know, there are still more sellers than buyers out there. I think there still are opportunities to pick up some good projects.
Pascal, would you mind sharing some of your views from a CFO perspective in terms of doing an acquisition and from the funding side, the banking side as well?
Yes, of course. I think, we at Africa are lucky because first we have a clean balance sheet and we have debt available from existing banks. We have five banks in our syndicate today, which are keen, most of them to support us in an acquisition going forward. Obviously, the landscape, the banking landscape has changed significantly in the last few years. While some banks have exited the market, some new banks came in. We talk more frequently to African-focused institutions, multilaterals to local banks like South African banks, Nigerian banks. I mean, even though the landscape has changed, we still have good access to debt capacity.
I think we just need to nurture these relations in order to make sure that going forward we would still be able to fund acquisitions on a debt basis. We still believe that bank debt is more affordable than bonds at the moment. The bond market has been closed in the recent months. I think it showed that we were right in that sense. I mean, last year when we were talking about a very large acquisition, we were able to raise in two months about $500 million of debt underwritten by two institutions. There is still liquidity. It's just that we need to knock on the right door.
Very good. Thank you so much. I think you've already, Keith, sort of... well, maybe we need to tackle this once more, but the question is specifically on 11B/ 12B, Brulpadda, and Luiperd. Obviously, again, you're limited in what you can say, considering we're a shareholder in Africa Energy. Just looking at the portfolio, do you want to share any further views on sort of what we could see happening with the portfolio companies that we have?
Well, I think if it's specific on 11B/ 12B, I mean, I think the operator Total has been diligently looking at solutions to try to monetize that gas with the various opportunities in South Africa. I think that's the key to unlocking that value. You know, I won't presuppose to speak for the operator there. I think, you know, we are quite happy to have a company like Total representing our interests there. I think they will do so. You know, I think how it fits into the portfolio of the greater Africa Oil, you know, I think it's one of those things that, you know, we need to think about how we wanna deal with it going forward.
You know, I think we've talked about in the past, you know, spinning out some of the pure exploration things. We still think there's a lot of potential in 11B/ 12B. You know, we've only looked at one small part of it. We drilled two prospects in that little string of five prospects. There's a whole eastern side of the basin that we think looks quite interesting. You know, I think, again, you know, one of the ideas that we've toyed around with is spinning out some of these into a separate exploration-focused vehicles. That might be a candidate. 3B/ 4B might be a candidate. Even Eco Atlantic might be a candidate.
I think we're, you know, we're looking at a number of options right now, but I think, you know, the message was clear from our shareholders and our board that we need to clean up this structure. I think before the middle of the year, I think we will come to the market with a solution to make this a cleaner, more streamlined process where, shall we call it the mothership, Africa Oil, is really focused on Nigeria and Venus. That, you know, potentially, there's another focus on pure exploration, perhaps in another vehicle.
Thank you, Keith. Sadly, we only got about 60 s left. I don't know if either of you has any final comments or...
No, I think, you know, once again, I feel the company is in great shape. You know, we spent three years now cleaning up our balance sheet. We were quite extended when we bought the Angola oil field. I think time has proved that it was a great acquisition. Now we've got Venus on the horizon, we've got some other good stuff too, you know. I think don't discount exploration because there's not an oil field in the world that didn't start with exploration. Like I said, the transition is going to take 30 years, and oil and gas is going to have a significant role in that transition.
I think, you know, the world is going to need energy, and, I think, you know, it's our job to give opportunities to move that forward.
Pascal, none of us slept at all last night as we were trying to get the results out. Speaking in more normal times, are you sleeping well at night as a CFO?
Well, a CFO who doesn't have debt on his balance sheet is a happy CFO.
Thank you. Very good. Well, thank you everyone. I'm gonna hand over to the operator for the final remarks and the closing remarks. Thank you. No, actually, we could just end now, operator.
That conclude the conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.
Thank you.