Dana Gas PJSC ($DANA)

Good morning and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us today. This is Nour Eldin. And on behalf of Arqaam Capital, I'm delighted to welcome you to Dana Gas' Q1 2026 Results Conference Call. I have with me here today, Richard Hall, CEO; Chris Hearne, CFO; and Head of Investor Relations, Mohammmed Mubaideen. With no further delay, I will turn over the call to Mohammmed to outline the presentation.

Thank you, Nour. Welcome, everybody, to Dana Gas' Q1 2026 Financial Results Call. For the purpose of this call, Richard will be taking you through Slides 5 and 18 covering Q1 performance highlights and summary of the quarterly results. The full presentation is available on our website and will be used during the Q&A session for reference. I would also like to draw your attention to our disclaimer on Slide 3, which we encourage you to read carefully. Before we begin, I would like to note that we will not be discussing the broader geopolitical situation on today's call and will focus on the company's financial and operational performance during this quarter. After the presentation, there will be sufficient time for a Q&A session, which will be handled by Richard and Chris. I will now hand over the call to Richard to discuss the results.

Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you for joining. The company entered the first quarter with strong operational momentum, and we reached our highest production level since 2018 with group output exceeding 70,000 barrels a day equivalent in January following the early completion of the KM250 project. At the end of February, due to an outbreak of the regional conflict, this momentum was impacted and operations at the Khor Mor facility were temporarily suspended. Operations subsequently resumed in March at reduced capacity. But despite these challenging conditions, the company adapted quickly, maintaining production levels stronger than most, if not all operators in Kurdistan region of Iraq, while continuing to reliably supply customers with gas and LPG. If we turn now to the numbers on your Slide 5. Net profit for the quarter was $74 million, up 72% year-on-year. But please do note that this includes a $48 million one-off positive adjustment relating to a sales gas metering reconciliation at Khor Mor, which encompass quite a few years of gas production. On an underlying basis, net profit was $26 million for the quarter, which reflects the full KM250 cost base coming through alongside the impact of the temporary lower level of production. Revenue, as you can see, increased to $145 million. That was up 59% year-on-year, once again benefiting from the one-off adjustment. But on an underlying basis, revenue increased by $6 million year-on-year, supported by higher production in Egypt and the sales gas volumes in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Our group production was just over 53,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, which is broadly in line with last year's levels. In the KRI, we demonstrated exceptional operational resilience. If you turn now to the Slide 7. Following early completion of the KM250 expansion, Khor Mor gas production exceeded 700 million standard cubic feet a day in January. That translated into around 15,000 barrels a day of additional production, taking our group output to around 70,000 barrels a day equivalent for the first time since 2018. So we've demonstrated that our capability is strong, and we expect an increase in further capacity usage later this year when the common user pipeline is on stream. Development of the Chemchemal field also remains a priority for our growth with Dana Gas and its partners progressing this important project under a $160 million investment program. To secure demand from the field and diversify our customer base, we've signed 7 new gas sales agreements in January to supply up to 142 million standard cubic feet of gas per day to industrial customers, and there's more to come. In Egypt, we're starting to see early results from our investment and our production in Egypt increased year-on-year, marking a return to growth for the first time since 2018, where recently we achieved production of 70 million standard cubic feet per day. Moving on, please, to liquidity. The business remains in a strong financial position. We ended the quarter with $228 million of cash of that $95 million is held at Pearl. Collections during the quarter reached $68 million. In the Kurdistan region of Iraq, collections were $60 million, reflecting the company's good relationship with the KRG, the Kurdistan Regional Government. In Egypt, collection rates were 50% during the period. However, in April, we received a $20 million payment in U.S. dollars, which completed the settlement of overdue receivables and thus bringing our receivables position current. On the banking side, we also secured a $75 million bank facility in March, which was fully drawn in April, and this significantly improves our liquidity and financial flexibility. Shareholders also approved an increased $124 million dividend at the April AGM, which will be paid later this month. So if I may summarize, we started the quarter from a position of strength. We demonstrated the capacity of our systems and proved our resilience through a period of disruption by maintaining reliable supply to our customers. At the same time, we strengthened the financial position of the business with strong collections, full settlement of Egypt receivables and a new larger financing facility in place at lower cost. And importantly, we've continued to deliver on our dividend commitment with an 18% increase in our dividend from 5.5 to 6.5 fils per share. From here, our focus is on maximizing the use of our production capacity and pursuing our growth projects. And as conditions normalize, we are very well positioned to increase revenues, support growth and enhance shareholder value. Thank you. Chris and I will now take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] We have our first question from Gus.

I just wanted to get a sense from you, I mean, given the macro backdrop in Iraq right now with the difficulty in exporting oil because of the Strait being closed, what are the implications for Kurdistan? And obviously, how does that cascade into Dana's payments? I mean obviously, your payments are still very strong given the strategic nature of the asset and your arrangements there. But I'd just like to get a sense for that. How much of the flows to Kurdistan are coming from budgeted versus direct sales of oil? And just if you could give us some insight on to how that impacts you?

Gus, I mean, situation in Kurdistan is not really something that affects us too much. Condensate the LPG is offtaken by local offtakers and sent to market. That hasn't affected us apart from the price has been much better for us. And our gas is obviously pipeline gas. So we have security of supply there. The big thing is demand and demand is driven by Kurdistan sales of their electricity into federal Iraq and obviously, weather and other factors. So -- but really, the macro situation is one of costs benefiting us, but obviously, the uncertainty is something that we have to be very cognizant of.

[Operator Instructions] We have a question in the Q&A box from Chen. Do you provide any guidance for 2026?

We have talked about production in the past. Obviously, we now have expanded capacity in KM250 going forward. Obviously, reacting to events in the region and also the demand as we go forward. Looking forward to increase to full capacity in KM250 over time. Egypt, we've been producing better than we had previously as we went through the presentation. We expect that trend to continue as the investment program that we've been doing in Egypt continues.

[Operator Instructions] There are no further questions. So I'll give it back to Dana Gas management for closing remarks.

Thank you very much, everybody. Also, we are available if there are any follow-up questions. So I'm available, you can reach out any time. I think also we have a couple of conferences coming in June. We'll be available, and we'll be happy to take one-to-one meetings with you guys. Thank you very much, and have a good afternoon, everybody.

Thank you. This concludes our call for today. Thank you so much.