BW Offshore Limited ($BWO)

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the first quarter trading update of BW Offshore. My name is Marco Beenen, and together with Stale Andreassen, our CFO, I will run you through the presentation in this call. Please note our disclaimer. Starting with the highlights. We delivered a stable first quarter EBITDA of USD 48 million and a net profit of USD 23 million. We reached an agreement to extend the BW Catcher contract to 2030, and that increased our firm backlog. We signed the FEED contract, Equinor for Bay du Nord FPSO, targeting a final investment decision in '27. And we continue our predictable shareholder distribution program with a maximum payout under our governance. And based on that, this quarter, we will pay a cash dividend of USD 11 million or $0.063 per share. We adjusted the full year guidance, reflecting the catcher contract and technical downtime on BW Opal, and Stale will come back to both in more detail. And on the strategic review, as communicated in December, -- we engaged an external adviser in response to the incoming interest against the backdrop of strong FPSO market fundamentals and a significant re-rating in the sector. And this process is active and progressing. Our Board and management are fully engaged, and we will provide a more substantive update when the process reaches a conclusion, but not before. But what I can confirm is that our operational priorities and capital allocation framework are unchanged. So we are not holding -- we're not in a holding pattern waiting for an outcome. Then moving on with the operational update, starting with BW Opal. On Opal, we completed the replacement of all export compressor seals in March. And there is only one flash gas compressor still remaining, which is due to be replaced this month. Gas production recommenced in May after a temporary shutdown in March and April, and that was to clean the heat exchangers in the Dewpoint train. The root cause analysis for the heat exchanger filing has been completed and is currently under joint review with Santos, and that includes the determination of the source of the substance that has caused the filing. We expect to gradually increase now the production towards practical completion, which is expected end of June or early July. Then I move on to BW Catcher. As I mentioned, we are very pleased with this new contract that we have concluded with Harbour Energy. And this contract will now take effect in 1st of February '26 and then runs until 2030, plus or minus 6 months. So this is about a 5-year extension. And it adds approximately USD 490 million of firm operating cash flow to our backlog. An important element of this agreement is that the previous unilateral rolling 12-month extensions have been removed, and this now provides clarity around the contract end date and it allows us to market the unit early for new projects thereafter. The updated terms include a 10% discount to the previous day rate. And for more information regarding the new terms, I refer to the appendix slides of this presentation. Then I move on with HSE and also fleet performance. We focus on maintaining a strong safety record, and I'm pleased that this quarter, there were 0 incidents to report. The trend upwards that you see is caused by reduced man hours as BW Opal is now in the commissioning phase and no new construction projects have started yet. The fleet delivered 100% commercial uptime in the quarter, but this excludes BW Opal as we're still in the commissioning phase and the contract term hasn't started. Then an update on our backlog. As mentioned, the BW Catcher contract extension significantly increases our firm operating cash flow. At the end of the first quarter, it stands now at USD 2.3 billion, of which 97% is firm. And that in comparison at year-end last year, the firm portion of the backlog was 77%. BW Adolo production was a bit above 26,000 barrels per day, slightly down versus the last quarter of last year, and that is due to well workover to replace an electrical submersible pump and also natural depletion. Furthermore, BW Energy has secured a 25-year field extension of the Dussafu field. Then Catcher already discussed and delivered uptime -- commercial uptime above 100% -- and on Pioneer, we continue to provide O&M services under a 5-year contract. And with Murphy Oil now confirming the drilling of the Chinook field in the second half of this year, we expect production to increase for the remaining part of the contract, and that will -- that benefits the management fee structure. As expected, we signed the FEED contract with Equinor for Bay du Nord FPSO, and this FEED is expected to run through 2026. That includes further maturing the FPSO design, finalization of the execution plan and commercial alignment with Equinor as well as our selected subcontractors and vendors. Final investment decision and contract award is then expected in early '27. We have now also opened a new office in St. John's, and that is to strengthen the relationship with the local supplier base in preparation of our pre-operations and subsequent O&M services. And with that, I hand over to Staler, who will take you through the financials.

Thank you, Marco. As usual, I'll cover kind of 3 elements, which is the financial performance and the guidance. Then we'll look at the cash generation and the capital allocation and lastly, the balance sheet. So we'll start with the EBITDA performance and guidance. First quarter EBITDA, as Marco said, was $47.9 million and essentially stable quarter-on-quarter. This is a result of strong and high commercial uptime from the core existing fleet, however, offset by limited contribution from FPSO Opal during the temporary shutdown that we saw in March and April. Moving on to the guidance. We have had to revise our 2026 EBITDA outlook to between $310 million to $340 million. The reduction is driven by 2 identifiable factors, the temporary shutdown for Opal as the timing there and the amended terms for the new contract on BW Catcher with a 10% discount. Roughly 2/3 of the reduction relates to Opal and 1/3 relates to Catcher. More importantly, the underlying cash generation visibility remains very solid with these 2 units. This is driven by the long-term value drivers, the 15-year contract to commence for BW Opal and also now Catcher adding approximately 5 years of firm backlog. Income statement shows a very stable quarter. Operating revenues were just over $130 million and EBITDA, as mentioned earlier, $47.9 million. Depreciation was broadly stable, and we delivered an EBIT of $27.5 million in the quarter, again, aligned with previous quarter. Net profit was a solid $23.4 million, corresponding to an earnings per share of $0.13 in dollar terms. So the quarter itself was therefore resilient despite the limited contribution from Opal. Cash flow, of course, remain an important part of the investment case overall. This quarter, we generated $43 million of operating cash flow in Q1, which is a reduction quarter-on-quarter, mainly driven by the impact from Opal or the lack of contribution compared to expectations in Q1. We continue to incur some CapEx related to that unit due to the ongoing commission work and repair work offshore, about $20 million out of $29 million this quarter is related to Opal. The rest is funding for our project Elara together with BW Group and some CapEx undertaken by BW Ideol. The reduction in cash also reflects $33 million of Q4 announced dividend payment, which was paid in Q1, where we topped up the 2025 distribution to reach 50% of net profit. So if you take into account that as well as other recurring items, debt servicing and interest, cash net to BW Offshore was $329 million at the end of Q1 and very substantial, I would say. We retain a net consolidated cash position of $167 million per end of Q1 and equity ratio of 30% sharp. This gives us flexibility at an important part of the cycle. BW Opal is moving towards practical completion. Catcher, as Marco has now been extended to 2030 and Bay du Nord is in FEED now progressing towards FID early 2027. I want to mention we continue to present net debt and leverage, excluding BW Opal project debt, and that is because the unit has not reached practical completion and is not yet in steady-state EBITDA. Once that is achieved, we will move to a leverage presentation view, including both debt related to that unit and EBITDA, giving investors a complete picture. Nevertheless, the key message is in any case that leverage remains relatively low and very well managed and financial flexibility in the company is good. So at quarter end, available liquidity stood at $568 million, which again includes an RCF, which is completely undrawn. All-in cost of our debt remains at an attractive 4.9%. And again, I want to remind you that all our floating rate debt is fully hedged. The Board has declared a Q1 dividend of $11.3 million, as also mentioned by Marco, equivalent to $0.063 per share. And that is consistent with the framework of paying a minimum of $0.25 in dollar terms minimum per year but paid quarterly with a potential top-up in the fourth quarter to reach 50% of net profit. And overall, we continue to prioritize a balanced capital allocation framework. We want to make sure we are financially resilient. We are able to support selective growth, as also talked about earlier and which Marco will come back to. and returning cash to shareholders. And with that, I'll hand it back to Marco.

Yes. Thank you, Staler. In the next section, I would like to give you an update on our strategic priorities that are with the aim to deliver the growth of our portfolio. And I would like to start with the FPSO market. The FPSO market remains strong, and that's a result of the growing global energy demand and also the focus on energy security with multiple projects in various stages of maturity led by Africa, Brazil and Asia. There has been a clear shift from the conventional lease and operate to EPCI and O&M contract models or hybrid models like we developed for BW Opal and also for the Bay du Nord project, all with the aim to reduce project finance costs. And we are agnostic to those contract models, and we have experience with all of them. We're well positioned for both the large new build FPSOs and also smaller redeployment projects. And we have proven this through the delivery of BW Opal, which is, again, one of the largest gas FPSOs in the world. And we also have access to a high-quality FPSO for redeployment with the acquisition of Nganhurra earlier this year. We now also have clarity on Catcher, which is a very attractive redeployment candidate in 2031 after this firm term that we announced will end. And we can apply flexible execution models, including strong partners to projects that meet our selection criteria. We have a strong focus on winning new projects while we maintain a disciplined approach, and this is reflected in our ambition of winning one new project every other year. Currently, our 12-month focus is on the Americas, where we are working actively on selected projects, and those are led by Bay du Nord, Newfoundland and Labrador, which I just mentioned. But that is in addition to Albacora and Buzios 12 in Brazil and also the KAN and Zama projects in Mexico. The Brazil tenders will be done in a partnership with Saipem and the Mexico projects with our client Harbour Energy are very suitable for the redeployment of BW Hurra and also later prospects with BW Catcher. We also see opportunities to leverage our FPSO expertise to develop low-carbon energy solutions and to create future growth opportunities in adjacent business segments. We take a disciplined approach with selective allocation of capital until these markets mature, and we focus on creating the same shareholder value as in our core FPSO business. In BW Ideol, which is a floating offshore wind specialist, we have already 68% ownership, and this company is progressing multiple projects. The latest development is Eolmed, 30-megawatt project in south of France that was now connected to the grid and delivered first power in April. And earlier this month, the 3 turbines reached maximum capacity. And we also continue to progress our desalination joint venture with BW Group, where we leverage BW Water's technology. BW Elara has now taken the investment decision for the first unit with a planned delivery in early 2027. And natural other segments to consider, which are close to our FPSO business are FLNG, gas to power. And with that, we can expand our offshore energy production solution portfolio. And that brings me to the outlook. To sum up, our key priorities are, first of all, the final commissioning, production ramp-up and contract commencement of BW Opal and also to complete the FEED for the Bay du Nord in '26. And then we target a contract award in early '27. So that underpins the target of 1 FPSO FEED in the next 12 months. We also want to bring the first floating desalination unit to the market in '27. And we continue to focus on value creation for shareholders through an attractive shareholder return program as well as concluding our strategic review process. And then we're happy to take any questions you may have.

Okay. We have some questions that has come in. I'll read those and then I'll try and distribute it as I see best fit. First question is related to the strategic review and maybe you can reiterate what you're saying. The first is asking whether it's possible to provide more details about the strategic review and also around the timing and how far the review is.

Yes. Well, I think I said what I can say, but I want to emphasize again that this process has the full attention of our Board and management and the process is ongoing, and we conducted in a professional manner. What I can say is the underlying business that you've seen today, the backlog, the fleet performance and the financial position, Bay du Nord, all of that is the foundation of which any outcome will be assessed. And I also want to emphasize that our primary obligation is to create value for shareholders, and that's the lens through which this process is being conducted. But yes, we will communicate further when there's something more definitive to say, and that's not right now.

Next question. Could you update on BW Hurra opportunities and condition and likelihood of a new contract in 2026? You did link it to some of the project opportunities you talked about in Mexico. Maybe you want to elaborate a little bit.

Yes. I think it was covered in the update on the market and where we what our targets are. So the targets in Mexico for the targets in Mexico BW Hurra is a strong candidate because it gives a very strong starting point for the whole and the gas turbine solution. So that's definitely a market for we also see some opportunities in Asia Australia for Hurra. So there's 3 4 of those out there.

Yes. Next one, is there an increase in local content around the world or at least local competition, making it more difficult to win FPSO contracts? This is another one for you, Marco.

Yes. I think you can chip in, Stale. But well, I would say there is always a drive and an increasing push for local content for all areas where oil and gas is being developed. I don't recognize so much to comment on local competition. I don't think that's the issue. Local content matters. It also matters for us, and we're actually quite proud of our track record of delivering very high local content in our operations everywhere we operate, close to 100%. For construction, currently, it's only Brazil that really pushes for a significant amount of local content. And while that is built into the price and into the project execution models by the whole FPSO industry. In other places, that's less the case and it's simply because it will result in noneconomic projects.

Yes. Maybe as a comment, I think you said, I don't necessarily see that changing that lot. It has been -- there has been a drive in certain jurisdictions and Brazil, in particular, for construction. But when it comes to operations, we see this as a natural part of it. U.K. has a very strong focus on local operations. We do the same in Australia. will be the same in Canada, et cetera. I would say it's more about predictability. So the visibility on what terms you're working on, so you can plan ahead. And as you say, well, otherwise, we just welcome it because that's how we have always done it. We're used to it. So nothing that I would say that concerns us.

Yes, exactly.

Next one. Can you explain more about your evolving project execution model? Does it mean you're securing a preferred shipyard and other contractors for future contracts?

Yes. I think we also said it before in other updates. But as we see that these FPSO projects are becoming larger and larger and the CapEx number becoming higher and higher, it's important that we make sure that we bring this project within a risk level that is appropriate to the size of our company. And therefore, the updated project execution approach is very much focused on carving out some of the EPC risk and margins to partners, and that's either joint venture partners, but it can also be to carved out EPC subcontract, large part of the scope, EPC subcontracted to shipyards or topside contractors. And that reduces the overall risk for us. Of course, it also reduces the margin, but it brings it in the right risk/reward balance relative to the size of our company.

Next question. Can you please provide more color on the new capture terms? What's the new annual EBITDA contribution towards 2028 and from 2028 onwards? There's a couple of questions here. I'll take them one by one. I can start with this one. So we have provided the updated guidance in the analytical slides further back on -- I think it's on Page 22. So now we're guiding on between $140 million to $160 million with $150 million annual EBITDA contribution as being a midpoint here, which is 10% down from what we have guided on earlier, in line with the discount provided under the new contract. From '28 onwards, there has always been a step down in the contract where the base rate steps down by approximately 25% from where it is today and a production linked KPI system kicks in, which is effectively that we get 25% of produced kind of barrels above 6,000 barrels a day, multiplied by the Brent oil price that is there and also cap to it. Under the new scheme, the same mechanisms apply, 10% discount to the charter rate, both now and also after 2028 on the lower rate. But the KPI schemes kicks in again. there are some lower caps, which probably from a practical point of view, will not make much of a difference. But I think analysts and investors and others can do their own calculations on production levels. As a guidance, I could indicate that if you have -- if you're producing, say, 12,000, 15,000 barrels and oil prices in the $60 to $70 range, you will end up with somewhat of the same all-in rate for capture post 2028 as you would before 2028. But of course, this depends on the exact production and it depends on the oil, the prevailing oil price at the moment. But I believe that updated information, we should give anyone a pretty good avenue to calculate and estimate the sensitivity to this.

Yes. And you said KPI scheme, I know you mentioned -- you meant the production tariff scheme.

Yes, sorry, production tariff scheme.

So the rate reduces 25%, but then it's kind of replenished by a production tariff scheme, as you explained.

The next question was related to Opal and projected CapEx for Opal to ensure contract startup. I presume this is related to remaining cash out. Remaining forecasted cash out is between $110 million to $120 million on paying all outstanding bills. In terms of growth that we have seen as a result of these delays and additional work that have been done, that will be in the range of $30 million to $35 million to the CapEx overall, just kind of give both angles to this. Remaining kind of cash out is more linked to just things that are to be paid when milestone based, et cetera.

But important to also note that we also received more income ahead of the contract term.

There's a natural offset pre-contract as you produce. The last question is from the same person, is the Baylor FEED generating any free cash flow? The answer is it's cash neutral. There was never an intent that we would make any free cash flow or any profit on the feed. It is a cash neutral engagement driving us towards FID on the project. So we are basically getting reimbursed what's being spent for engineering and design and development activities. Next question. As of Q1 balance sheet, what is remaining CapEx related to Opal and the responsibility of BWO? I believe we have just answered that one. Also, are you able to recover any of the costs related to Opal start-up challenges from either equipment suppliers or the client? I believe this is related to the repair activities and the root cause analysis. I'm not sure what you want to say on that, Marco, whether we are able to recover any of these additional costs.

Yes. I would think the delays that we had in the last, I would say, couple of months linked to the heat exchanges, that was obviously an unprecedented event, and it took a while to fully understand the source of this. And I think our view is that this was not under our control. And as such, that is a topic for a discussion for cost recovery.

But given we are difficult to speculate on that now as we are focusing now on bringing production back up to kind of stable levels, working constructively with Santos doing so. And then we'd rather come back to the outcome later when that the conclusions are made.

Yes, that needs to be fully concluded first and then these discussions will also take place.

The next question is following kind of Bay du Nord and Opal. The question is which other gas projects that BW Offshore is considering?

Yes. So I mentioned we have -- for the next 12 months, we have a strong focus on Brazil and Mexico and several tenders are progressing there. For gas projects, we are looking at Indonesia developments. There are several interesting gas projects there that could be the next gas project.

Yes. And then there is another question, but it's more of a clarification to what we talked about earlier on Catcher. Just to confirm that the day rate step down from -- is it a 25% reduction versus the original base rate or fee -- sorry, 25% reduction of the new rate effectively 2026. Well, yes, the rate in '28 pre-contract amendment will drop by 25% from where it is today. So with the 10% discount that we are providing, there is a further drop from the original rate in 2028 because the way we measure it is the transition is consistent. There was 25% drop in the rate from today and into 2028. And with a 10% discount on today's rate, there will be a 25% drop from that new discounted rate to the new base rates being used for 2028 and onwards. Hopefully, that is clear. For Petrobras project, which BW Offshore is bidding such as Albacora and Buzios 12 where minimum local content being imposed, what are the measures being taken when partnering?

Yes. So well, there are clear expectations for the Petrobras tenders for the Albacora and Buzios 12, the clear local content expectations, which we will comply with. So together with our partner, we are developing a local content plan and approach. But we're in a competitive process. So I don't want to give further details on that exact plan.

Okay. Then, just trying to see...

Any more questions?

No more questions popping up. That seems to be the end of it. And I think I give it back to you, Marco, for closing remarks.

Yes. Okay. Thank you. Well, I'm looking at it if there's anything popping up still last minute, but it doesn't look like that's the case. So with that, then we have also answered all the questions, and I do want to thank everyone for participating in this call and also for asking the questions as you did. And wishing everyone a good day. Thank you very much.