Hi, everyone. Welcome to Valeura Energy's 2024 Results Webcast. I'm Robin Martin, Vice President, Investor Relations, and joining me here in Bangkok is Sean Guest, our CEO; Greg Kowalski, our COO; and joining from Singapore is Yacine Ben-Meriem, our CFO. We are recording the event today, March 26, and we'll make a replay available through our website later today. Running order for the day, I'm going to hand over to Sean and Greg and Yacine in just a moment to take you through some prepared slides that we've got. They're also available on our website if you'd like to download a copy. After that, we'll get into a Q&A session. There's two options for that.
We can take your Q&A in typed form by using the MS Teams Q&A feature you see at the top of your screen, or you can press the button with a hand that says "Raise," which will be a cue to me to make your microphone available, and then you can ask your question live. With that, I will hand it over to Sean. Go ahead.
Thank you very much, Robin. Thank you very much, everyone, for joining us here this evening or this morning, wherever you're located. A lot of the results for us in Q4, sorry, 2024, will have come out over the past few months, you know, our production results, our cash at year-end, and then people will have seen that reserves were announced just over a month ago. That information is out there. What's kind of important today, beyond the financials and the other financials, is also just to recap that because it was an extremely good year for the company. If I just step down to really the results, if you look at production, production in 2024 was up 12% on the year before, 2023. This was on the back of bringing Wassana on and having the Wassana field on for most of the year.
We also developed a new area of the Nong Yao field, Nong Yao C, and that was successfully brought on in August. Now, important also was that we had a drill rig working for the full year, doing a lot of infill development drilling, which really supported that production. Important for us as a company is really on the reserves, and we had another stellar year of reserve replacement in that area. Even though production was up, we actually had almost a 250% reserve replacement ratio on the 2P numbers, and the life of all of the four fields that we are operating were all extended, and that has taken them out into now the 2030s, all of the fields.
In addition, the 2C was increased 140%, and we drilled three exploration wells and a number of appraisal wells while doing our infill drilling and had success across all of those, which are going to support more appraisal and development drilling in the future. On the efficiency side, we reduced the OPEX down to $25.7. We came in on our CAPEX below our guidance, and even with that, we actually drilled more wells than we were planned. The efficiency we saw in the drilling really came not just in cost savings, but also in more activity. Finally, with some very good work by the team, we saw we were able to reduce our emissions intensity by approximately 20% in our first year of operation, and we've got more coming on that in the current year.
Now, all of those elements then really lead into the cash flow, and that's where we saw exiting the year-end with $259 million in cash. Importantly, we also completed in Q4 the corporate restructuring to bring the Thai III companies together, and that will actually access about $400 million in tax losses. As we kind of say, that's really going to supercharge our cash flow in the near future. When you put that together, then we've really seen the net asset value, and that's the value of the cash and the 2P reserves value, is just over $1 billion now. If you look at that in share price, that's over CAD 13 a share. In doing all of that and all of that activity, we're also extremely pleased. We had no environmental or serious safety incidents. A very good result for the year as well.
Now, how does that work out for shareholders? If we look back to January 2024, actually, we were trading at under $3 a share at that time. Now we're seeing ourselves bounce around $8. There's been a significant increase there. We also saw recognition in 2024 externally. From the Energy Council, we were the Energy Company of the Year in the Asia-Pacific region, Executive of the Year. When you look at our environmental performance, we were awarded by the Ministry here in Thailand for actually our work on two of the fields in our environmental monitoring on those fields and our performance there. Finally, with that strong share price growth, with the revenue growth that we've seen, we're recognized in Canada. I think we were number eight out of over 400 public companies they analyzed for the top growing companies in Canada.
Again, a very good performance for the year. What is really important as we look at this is also the value of the company going forward. What underpins that and the increases in share price is really down to the reserves, right, and the future of the fields. Looking at that and just reiterating what we put out just over a month ago, when we took over these fields just over two years ago, we had about 29 million barrels of reserves. We now, at the end of year 2024, are having 50 million barrels of reserves. We found about 37 new barrels of reserves. It is important to note that because that is actually more than we actually acquired with the Kris Energy and the Mubadala acquisitions at the time.
We have seen very good over 200% reserve replacement, and then we got almost 250% last year. When you look at that, of course, converting value, you would expect an increase, but recognize the increase in the 2P value to $752 million is actually you are looking at a slight decline in oil price during that period. I also want to note there too, important as the 2P is, you can see the significant increase in the 1P reserves value, which is up over 400% from $68 million to $359 million. Very good result across reserves. Really, the thing we have been trying to address that is important for everyone is extending the field life. We can see just under two years of operations to get to the end of last year, Manora field was extended out into the 2030s over four years.
You can see Wassana at the most was actually extended by over eight years of reserve life. We like to emphasize too, as we go towards the Wassana FID on the redevelopment, that we expect more reserves to come in once we take that final FID decision. Extending that field out well beyond 2035, likely towards 2040. All in all, extremely pleased with the operational performance, the safety performance, emissions, reserves additions. It's been a very good year for the company. At that point, I'll hand over to Yacine to take you through the financial numbers. Yacine?
Thanks, Sean. Greetings, everyone. I guess, as Sean mentioned, 2024, and I'd say even Q4 2024 has been an extraordinary period for us for the company. I think what you have in front of you is just some highlights that can substantiate how extraordinary this year has been for us. What I'd like to do is really walk you through first on Q4 and then kind of move, and then I'll expand on what the financial looks like for the full year in 2024. During the last quarter in Q4, our production averaged around 26.1 thousand barrels a day, which was higher, 18% compared to the last period. This resulted for the full year of an average production of around 22.8, which is, as you can see here on the screen, is pointing towards a 43% increase compared to 2023.
Bear in mind that these are the 2023, we only had production since we closed the transaction with Mubadala, which is in March. On a pro forma basis, as Sean mentioned earlier, around a 12% increase. Q4 also, we've seen quite a large number in terms of lifting. We've lifted more than we produced. As you can see on screen, we lifted around close to 3 million barrels at the realized price of around $67.7 a barrel. That translated for the full year of a total lifting of 8.35 million barrels, which is again 43% higher than last year, and an average realized price of 81.3, which is again at a premium to Brent. On an OPEX side, for Q4, with an increased production, we've managed to deliver a $22.8 per barrel in terms of OPEX, which is a significant increase compared to the last quarter.
You can see that in terms of the year at 25.7. OPEX came in at 39 for Q4, and for the full year is $134 million. This translated in these extraordinary results for the quarter and for the year. For this quarter, we've booked $222 million in revenues. Our EBITDA was 132, and our cash flow from operation quite substantial, 107 million, which resulted in around 114% increase compared to last quarter. For the full year, you see how this can be magnified into a 680 million in terms of revenues, an EBITDAX of close to 380, and importantly, an after-tax cash flow of around 273. As a reminder, as Sean mentioned earlier on, we've managed to do the tax consolidation, which I'll talk a little bit more about, but that only occurred in November 2024.
We've only had the benefit of two months in terms of those tax consolidation. Maybe looking at the balance sheet, as Sean mentioned earlier on, we ended the year with $259 million of net cash. Our book value has increased more than 86% to just shy of $530 million, and our adjusted working capital of $206 million. Now, sorry, Robin, do you mind going to the next slide, please? This is what, in terms of financial for the quarter, for the year, you can see, as I said earlier on, sorry, there we go, for the quarter. I would like to draw your attention really to the waterfall there on the top for the financials in terms of our pre-tax adjusted cash flow of $134 million. After that, you'll have the tax payment, which consists of SRB and PITA.
I think for people who've been with us, who've been following us for a while, you can see that this is an unusual situation where you have a much smaller PETA than SRB. That's effectively the benefit of the tax consolidation to a certain extent. Out of the tax losses that we have when we did the consolidation of just $400 million, during this period, we've consumed around $32 million of those tax losses. That resulted in a very small PETA accrual of around just $1 million. However, SRB, this is the Q4 is usually when the SRB gets kicked in just because of the calculation. We've accrued $26 million on SRB. This resulted in an adjusted post-tax adjusted cash flow from operations with a margin of around 47%, significantly higher than we had in any of the previous quarters.
It's really on the back of lower taxes, thanks to the tax consolidation, and as we said earlier, on lower operating costs. Maybe I will not draw much attention on the cash bridge because I think it might be more helpful to look at it from a year-to-year basis. Next slide, please, Robin. For the full year, as I said, $679 million in terms of revenues with the royalty, with OPEX and SG&A, we end up with a pre-tax cash flow of $357 million. During the year, we have accrued and paid some of the taxes that you can see on the screen of PETA of around $55 million and SRB of $29 million, resulting in an adjusted cash flow from operation of around $273 million, which equates to around 40% margin.
You can see the difference in terms of what that tax consolidation can have in terms of that cash flow from operations margins. Now, how does this translate in terms of the cash bridge there at the bottom? We started the year with $151 million, our $273 million of adjusted cash flow, and spending on CAPEX of $130 million and ExpEx, and a minor change of capital. In addition to that, during this year, this is where we acquired the FSO, and the acquisition is and remains a highly accretive one as it helps us optimize and reduce our operating cost. I think maybe a reminder for everyone, our payback period for the acquisitions is two years, and we've already had one year under operations. We also had an additional tax that's related to the prior owner of the Mubadala assets, and that's coming at the $13 million.
We are still in discussions with the owner in terms of trying to recoup this under the SPA, and that discussion is still ongoing. With all in, we end up, as Sean mentioned, as you can see on screen as well here, we end up with a cash balance at the year end of $259 million. Next slide, please, Robin. Now, I mean, obviously, I think we've discussed this before and we've been flooded in prior discussions, but as a reminder to everyone, when it comes to the IRO, how much improvement and how much effort has been put to try to reduce that liability. I think when we first closed the transaction with Mubadala, a lot of the investors have been pointing to the size of that liability.
I think the message from our side, and based on technical and not just withstanding the extending the field life, that these numbers can be revisited. You can see on the screen that they have been. This year, unlike last year, we've managed to actually reduce it not just by extending the field life, i.e., the discount rate, but actually reducing the costs themselves, the engineering costs themselves. We end up this year with an IRO for around $84 million, a 35% reduction from last year, and indeed a 54% reduction from the day when we closed the transaction.
I think what Sean has mentioned earlier on in terms of the transformation and ongoing activities that we've been doing over the last couple of years, and how this translates in terms of the performance of the business, but most importantly, and often something that we don't really discuss much, in terms of the status of the balance sheet. What you see here in front of you is really just a description of the total asset and total liabilities and shareholder equities over the last couple of years, starting from 2022, and then how the acquisition of Mubadala has transformed the business in terms of the size. I think what I would like to draw your attention to is really what we have done in 2024 to strengthen that balance sheet.
As you can see there, in terms of the book value, we were up 86%, and that, again, is a reflection of delivering on operations. At the same time, and I have just flagged it on the previous slide, is that reduction in the liability there. From our side, what we are seeing here is not only an increase in terms of shareholders' equity, but a fundamental decrease in terms of the liabilities. At the same time, on the asset side, you see that not only do we take more cash out of the business, i.e., we are building the cash, but even our asset base is growing. That is on the back of just extending the field life, adding more reserves, and obviously, the tax consolidation has helped as well here.
With the balance sheet in this shape, it gets us very comfortable in terms of being able to pursue the organic and inorganic opportunities that we see. At the same time, it gives us that flexibility as well that we need, especially as an E&P company. How does this kind of play out in terms of the guidance for 2025? These guidance have not changed in terms of what we presented earlier on when we released this guidance. Again, in terms of the productions and adjusted OPEX and adjusted CAPEX, it's worth highlighting that these numbers exclude any Wassana FID. I think we can talk a little bit about it later, but the idea is that once FID is taken, these numbers will be adjusted.
A reminder for everyone that when we talk about adjusted OPEX, and it's something that we flagged during the capital market day, but worth highlighting it again, our expectation is that we end up at the year at $26 per barrel. Critically, our OPEX do include leases, which for other companies, they are actually excluded and put it elsewhere in their balance sheets. For us, it's really a true reflection of the actual cash cost of producing those barrels. On the exploration side, we've obviously flagged earlier on that we're going to be looking at Ratri prospect on Jasmine and also an additional exploration that potentially could be 90 to follow up on there. Now, if you plug all of these numbers into a simple model, as you can see, our really cash returns will be quite simple to follow.
You assume an OPEX of between $65 and $85, our expectation is that on a free cash flow perspective, post-tax, post-CAPEX, post-SRBs, post-OPEX, of a range of 112 to 227. I guess with that, I'll pass on to Greg.
Thank you, Yacine. Hello, everyone. Let me just share a few of the highlights for our activity plans for 2025. I think first of all, there is a lot of activity in our organic portfolio. We are working towards a big milestone, which is the Wassana redevelopment FID. We said earlier we are planning to take that FID around early Q2. That is still our plan. I will say a bit more about this in a moment. We have talked many times about how ongoing infill drilling is key to our reserves replacement. This year, we are also going to be drilling throughout the full year with our contracted rig. We have recently finished the drilling campaign on Manora. The rig is currently in the Jasmine field, drilling more infill wells.
Around the middle of the year, the rig will go to Nong Yao with around nine development wells planned there. It will be back to Jasmine in Q4. In that campaign, we've got a couple of exploration wells. Most importantly, we are planning to drill the Ratri prospect in the Jasmine license towards the end of Q2. We are also having a potential follow-up to Nong Yao D notionally planned for Q4 of this year. A couple of other projects I would highlight. The low BTU generator in Jasmine has just been installed in early March. We are now going through the process of hookup and commissioning of that machine. We expect in Q2 to start getting the benefits of it, which is using waste gas for power generation to reduce our OPEX and also reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
In parallel, we're working on a debottlenecking project in Manora, which should come on stream around the middle of the year. Now, in parallel to all of that busy organic activity, we are also working on inorganic opportunities. Now, let me then say a bit more about Wassana FID. Okay. First of all, I think you would recall that our reserves on Wassana at year-end 2024 are 12.9 million. And that's already a very significant growth since we have taken over the field from the Kris Energy acquisition. Now, that volume of reserves is based on a conservative notional development concept of basically replacing the current MOPU, which is in the field.
Now, on that graph on the right, you see a sort of gray circle in the middle, which shows the reach of the wells that allow us to access only a portion of the main field in Wassana from the MOPU. The concept, given the success we've had in exploration with Deeper Horizons, the success we've had with exploration drilling in 2024 with the wells we drilled in northern Wassana and Niramai, there is a lot, lot more volume in the field that we could recover even by replacing the old MOPU. The concept we are working on is a fixed platform, which will be located more or less in the center of the main field. You see with that red circle that we can recover a lot more volumes just from the main section of the field.
That is why we expect that when we take FID on Wassana redevelopment, we should see immediately a significant increase to the 2P reserves. You may recall that in our 2C volumes of Wassana, there is around 12 plus million barrels. We do expect a significant proportion of that 2C volume to be converted to 2P reserves at FID. I think the way we look at overall development of Wassana is really by analogy with Nong Yao. Nong Yao is our most valuable field, and it is also the field with the lowest unit OPEX. In Q4, that OPEX per barrel was significantly lower than the portfolio average, which Yacine talked about of $22.8 per barrel. We expect a similar story with Wassana, where we take an FID on an initial host facility, which is the first phase of the project.
This provides a basis, just like it did with Nong Yao, for additional satellite developments where we already have discovered volumes in the north of the license block and also in the south. That allows relatively low-cost satellite facilities to be connected to the main field. In terms of the key value levers for that development, we expect to more than double current production from Wassana just on that main facility coming on stream. We see this project as very economically attractive just for that initial development. Bringing in satellites would extend the plateau for a number of years and would add a lot more value to the overall license development. In terms of the timeline, I mean, as I said, we are now finished the design, working through the contracting process, and we expect that FID early in Q2.
First oil would come early or say Q2 2027. Basically two years more or less from FID. Now, with this, let me hand over back to Sean.
Thanks, Greg.
Just to touch on the last slide, and we talked about at the beginning of really the increase in NAV that we've generated through these assets, through the assets that we acquired. With the cash position we've generated over the past couple of years, add on that reserves values where you end up at about the billion value. What we've seen over the past couple of years is that continual addition onto that NAV, onto the core assets to build up the value of these assets. If we look back a couple of years, what we were about on an asset value, we were about $417 million. We were able to almost double that as we went to year-end 2023. We've seen almost doubling that again.
While we feel the share price is at a discount to that, the share price is really just chasing that NAV as we move up. We really want to emphasize to people that we still see more value in these assets. We have good projects and good drilling that is going on now that we see pushing that up even higher. It has been an extremely exciting couple of years in 2023 and 2024. Earnings per share, actually, in both years of over $2. Now we look ahead at 2025, it is going to be another exciting year as we move through that. With that, I will hand back over to Robin. Thank you very much for all joining us here.
Thanks, Sean. Just give us a moment to get organized here for Q&A. Just a reminder of how this works. If you'd like to ask a live question, just press that raise button at the top of your screen, and that'll be a cue to me to make your microphone available to you. In the meantime, we've had a few questions come in by email, and maybe I'll address those first. First question, finance-related one. You lifted a lot of oil in Q4, more than your production. How does that affect your expectations for Q1 2025?
Thank you, Robin. Good question. I guess I think it's worth reminding everyone that as an offshore producer, there's often this mismatch between production and your lifting. I mean, ultimately, every barrel will get sold, but sometimes there is a mismatch between the two between what we record during the quarter. As you said, during the last quarter in Q4, we've lifted more than we have produced, and that has allowed us to effectively lower our inventory. That was really driven by timing of the liftings. I mean, this is a live business. Operationally, we can't always match the or at least meet the quarterly dates. I think for Q1, our expectation is that we're probably going to build a little bit of inventory.
If I look at the lifting schedules for this quarter and what's coming up this evening for this week, it's likely that we're going to build a little bit of inventory. Effectively, that means that we're going to be lifting less than we produce. Again, looking at that schedules, a lot of these liftings will get done and will probably revert back to normal, what we see as normal inventory a couple of weeks after the end of the quarter anyway.
Thanks, Yacine. We'll take a couple of live questions now. First one, we'll go to Charlie Sharp. Charlie, I've made your microphone available. You should be able to unmute yourself and go ahead when you're ready.
Yeah, there he goes.
Mani, Mani, thanks. Can you hear me now?
Yes.
I'm good. Lovely. Thank you. Thanks very much for the presentation. Excellent job. It's really just a question regarding the mature fields and excluding Wassana. Obviously, you've got a terrific track record so far of increasing reserves and extending field life. That's terrific. You point to potential for further increases. I know it's a bit of a crystal ball question, but how much longer, given the maturity of those producing assets, as I say, aside from Wassana, how much longer can you see that sort of progression in reserves and life extension continuing for another one or two years or even more than that?
Look, Charlie, so great here. Thanks for the question. I think as we have discussed during our capital market days, the nature of the geology and the portfolio is such that continued drilling gives us ongoing additions of volumes. We do infill drilling by bringing new wells on stream, and we continue to do appraisal objectives whilst we are drilling development wells as well. We have seen over 200% reserves addition two years in a row, and we do not think it is the end of the story. We do expect this to continue, but I would be a little bit careful with giving you exact numbers for the coming years. It is definitely not the end of the story. There is a lot more in the portfolio. I would point you to also just 48 million of 2C resources that we currently have.
During 2024, we've added more 2P reserves than we had 2C volumes at the beginning of the year. These are just a couple of the pointers, I would say.
Yeah, Charlie, Sean, I'll maybe just add on to that too, because if you look at the number of locations, drill locations in our reserves, I think it's over 100 locations now. We really expect that in the drilling of those wells, you also continue to add more with every well that you drill. Just a reminder to everyone that the reserves that NSAI report and the value associated with those reserves and the production profile assume that we will not add a single other barrel to these assets. We know even with minor effort, you can do 100% reserve replacement every year. There is still lots more upside there and lots more future.
That's terrific. Thank you.
Thanks for that. Next question will come from David Round. David, I've made your microphone available. Go ahead.
Perfect. Thanks, guys. Just.
You're muted again, David.
Sorry. Hopefully, it wasn't cut out now. I was just asking about the transaction we saw in Thailand earlier this week. I just suppose I was interested in whether that was something you'd looked at and if you did, any reason why that maybe didn't fit for you guys.
Yeah, a good question. Yeah, it is one that we looked at. In fact, we looked at it. We're even looking at it by the time that we were doing these initial deals. That process has been ongoing for a significant amount of time, seemed to go and then stop and then start up again. Congratulations to the guys who've managed to get that closed and do that deal with Exxon. I know it was a challenging deal, but really we looked at it in the very early stages. Once we got these deals done, no, it really wasn't of interest in us, and we were not involved in that process.
Okay. Great. Thanks.
Thanks for that. Changed gears just a little bit. We've had a few questions come in very much along the same theme. I'll sort of batch a bunch of them together here. If we don't get your specific question, feel free to reach out afterwards. We'll try and capture what people are asking about. You've mentioned Turkey more than we've seen in the past. It's throughout your year-end disclosures, including even a mention in the press release. Is there something new happening in Turkey, realizing that we've also seen a transaction recently with Continental doing a joint venture in the region?
Yes. A very good question. Because you're right, the blocks were very quiet for a while while we waited actually for the government approval of the next exploration phase. We got that late last year. In actual fact, when we went back to the government to talk about a force majeure due to the delay, they were very accepting of that, and they quickly granted another one-year extension. The current exploration phase we're in on those blocks goes to the middle of 2026. Given the discoveries we have there, we would then apply for what is a two-year appraisal period on that to take us out to the middle of 2028. We see that we've now got the time that we need in those blocks.
As Robin mentioned, with the exciting deal that was just recently done to bring Continental Resources into Turkey, there's good opportunity there. There are people who are starting to look at exploration again. There are companies that are starting to really expand internationally and unconventional. That's an exciting deal. Yeah, we'll follow up. Hopefully, we'll have some news in that area.
Okay. Very good. Next question, batch of questions here, actually, largely operational related. This will be you, Greg. Last year, given the program efficiency that you've shown, you were able to squeeze out some additional wells beyond what you originally expected. Where are you on that this year? Should we expect that you're in line with the program, ahead of the program? Any comment?
Yes, I would say it's still early days. At the moment, we are on track. We are kind of on plan. There is a lot more time to go, and we continue working with that continuous improvement mindset. I do hope for, again, a little bit more efficiency as we work through the year.
Okay. Switching to Manora, can you explain what the Manora debottlenecking project does to production once executed?
Yeah. Manora, as many of our fields, have a significant proportion of water production, that's the nature of this business. The debottlenecking facility allows us to process more total liquids and thereby produce more oil. We are increasing the capacity to just over 60,000 barrels total liquids, which should translate, or which will translate, into incremental oil production. I have to say that this debottlenecking is already embedded in our overall production guidance for the year. It's not incremental on the guidance itself.
Okay. One more question from the same person, Stephane Foucaud, by the way, is asking these questions. The satellites north and south of the Wassana redevelopment, if he's understanding—sorry, let me read the question as it's written. The satellites north and south of the Wassana redevelopment would not be part of the upcoming FID and reserve booking. Is that correct?
Yes, this is correct. The satellites will be additional upside that we will be then working to mature and take FID on in the not-too-distant future following FID and the need of that initial house facility.
Yeah. Okay. Just a couple more questions for the moment. Just a reminder that if you wanted to ask a live question, feel free to press that raise button, and we'll be able to take it live. M&A, in the beginning, you had mentioned, Sean, that there was a long-term target of 100,000 BOED for the company's growth. Is this still a goal, and is it still achievable?
We do see that it is achievable in the region. There are the assets out there. There are the changes going on that can lead to this. That is why we remain focused on really the larger type of assets. It kind of ties with the question asked earlier, was why were you not looking at the Exxon divestment? It just was not material enough for us. It was not going to move the needle. We are trying to keep our focus on the larger assets. We will also mention, again, I just want to make that point here. You can set a target out there of a number of barrels, but really for us, it is still more about what is the cash flow that those barrels yield, and then obviously how that translates into value, your NAV, and your share price. That is really what is driving it.
Okay. Another question is coming in. This one will be for Yacine. Tax-related question. Can you give us some color on forward timing of tax payments, and when does the tax consolidation benefits actually start kicking in for us?
Good question. Let's start first in terms of the benefits, and then we can talk a little bit about timing of the tax. The tax benefit, we already are getting them now. We are already benefiting. I think that's kind of highlighted in the PETA payment that we accrued in Q4. If you remember in the slide, we only accrued $1 million, which is not related to any of the Thai III assets. Effectively, we're not paying any taxes on these. It's for something else. It's for adjustment. In terms of benefiting, we're already starting benefiting. In Q4, we've already—I think I've mentioned it earlier on—we already consumed effectively $32 million of those tax losses thanks to that consolidation. In terms of timing, I think we flagged it as well earlier on when we announced the consolidation.
Usually, our tax payment occurs in Q2, and it's usually in April where we pay those taxes. That's PETA and SRB. However, because we did the consolidation in November, we need to make the payment in Q1. In Q1, we will be making tax payment, which otherwise would have been paid in April. Just to give an example, in Q1, we would pay the equivalent of around $40 million to cover the SRB and the PETA for the various assets, Type III assets, up to November. There will be another payment which reflects the period between November and the year-end, which is December. That will be in the usual time, which is April. There will be a tax payment of around $40 million in Q1 related to the tax consolidation.
Okay. Thanks for that. Next question is, with your large and growing cash position, do you have a plan to add a regular dividend?
It's a discussion we've had a lot, and it's a question we've had a lot too. You know that last year we implemented the share buyback program to start to return some of that capital to shareholders. That's been our focus. We still believe that we need to be a larger size. We have more confidence in that cash flow to really get into a regular dividend-paying company. That's one thing we'll kind of be discussing again with the board as we move forward. At the current size we're at, we didn't really see that a regular dividend is the way to go. We still need to get to be a larger size.
Okay. Another question on M&A. I think this is our last question. If you have anything that you'd like to ask, get that in now. Otherwise, this one is, given your strong cash flow and your net cash position, what type of portfolio expansion best fits with the current strategy? Is your preference to lean more toward a large development asset, or are you still looking exclusively at things that are cash flow accretive?
Yeah, a good question. Our preference would always be things that are really cash flow accretive. As we've kind of mentioned before, we would do a development opportunity. You are looking at that kind of delay in cash flow. If you can get the right opportunity at the right price, then it is really what is the cash flow in the near term? How fast would that development opportunity pay back to then start yielding those much stronger cash flows that you get from that new development coming on? We do kind of look as we have our assets, which are really delivering very good cash flow, and we are pushing them out to extend that cash flow further. You are looking for things that you want to be coming on at some point in time that you can start to grow that production, grow that cash flow.
We do have the cash flow now that's supercharged to really underpin a development activity.
Great. Okay. We've had no further questions come in. I will just remind the audience that if there is anything that you'd like to go into more detail on, feel free to reach out to us. Our website addresses and contact information are at the back of this pack and also available on our website. Over to you to wrap up, Sean.
Yeah. Just again, I'll reiterate kind of what we talked about at the beginning. Thank you, everyone, for joining us and supporting us on this journey. It has been an extremely exciting time. We're very pleased with how the assets have worked out. What I can also say is really a hats off to the team that we have in Thailand. We showed how we managed to achieve our guidance in production last year. We achieved our guidance on OPEX. It was not without the challenges. When we look at production, we know that Wassana was down for about five weeks. That cuts into your production. Nong Yao was a key development that was delayed several months. In actual fact, the team, really knowing the portfolio they had, were able to adapt the portfolio, adapt the drilling to fill those gaps that were being created there.
As we've moved now, we're in our second year of operating with the team in Thailand. They're extremely good, and they've really worked out very well for us. We see lots of opportunities to really leverage the strength of the team as we look to develop further in the region and the country. Thank you very much, Graham, for joining us. Let's see how 2025 goes. It's going to be exciting. Thank you.