NewMed Energy - Limited Partnership (NWMD) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you for joining us this afternoon to discuss the first quarter financial results. And without further note, let me start. So in the first quarter, we achieved a little bit more than 1.15 Bcf a day of sales of natural gas, mainly to the Egyptian market and Jordan and Israeli market, reached 2.9 BCM vis-a-vis the 2.6 BCM in the first quarter of 2024. So we're definitely happy with the sales. And that followed to the EBITDA and as well the net profit, and we'll discuss it later on. We'll update on the operational side of Phase 1b of Leviathan expansion, but as well on the third gathering line and Ashdod-Ashkelon looping. And as well we discuss the progress around Aphrodite field in Cyprus. In the first quarter, we approved a development plan. We just basically approved another $20 million gross for Chevron, Shell and NewMed to run some activities around the pipeline of Aphrodite to Egypt. We as well will update that in Q4 this year, we are targeting to have an exploration well in Han-Asparuh license in Bulgaria. We are targeting the prospect, the Vinekh prospect that was basically published. It's around up to 3 Tcf with a chance of success of 43%. And we update as well that we are going to do a prepayment of $400 million out of the $600 million bond that we have in June 2025. So it's partial prepayment. The rest will be paid in June. And we announced of the dividend distribution of $60 million, continuing our dividend policy for the market. We are very committed to our dividend policy as we discuss later on. So as I stated, the main change in Q1 2025 vis-a-vis the Q1 2024 is that, first, we increased the sale from $2.6 billion to $2.9 billion. But as well, we increased the sales and actually doubled the sales to the local market from 0.2 to 0.4. That's mainly due to the introducing of the [ Ashkel ] power plant to be a customer of Leviathan field. That caused increase in sales and as well reduce a little bit the sales to the Egyptian market. On the other side, as you can see, we basically -- the average price has been reduced a little bit due to oil prices. But as you know, we are not so affected by reduction of oil prices due to the mechanism that we have in our export contracts that have a clear flow to our prices. So the effect of Brent reduction is not material to our activity in Leviathan, and we are very happy with that protection, the downside protection that we have. On Leviathan Phase 2, which is definitely the main focus for us in this stage, we are very, very advanced in the engineering and the design. We are all targeting to take investment decision Q3 this year. So we are advancing the engineering design. We are working with the regulators to approve the Phase Ib updated full development plan that we submitted as partnership for an approval. We got the green light for the basically guidance for the export permit that allow us to run and work on the main target, which is to bring a full GSPA, as we mentioned in our report, more than 100 BCM, additional 100 BCM to export to Egypt, and we are very focused on that. And hopefully, we'll bring that sign very soon. As I mentioned, we are focusing on increase immediately the capacity with the third Gathering Line project. This project is due to flow gas early 2026. We still hope to even to achieve 2025, but early 2026, and that will increase the capacity of Leviathan from the current capacity, which is around 1.2 Bcf a day to 1.45, maybe more Bcf a day and allow us to generate more revenues that will help us, again, to invest in second phase, to invest in additional projects that we have and as well to distribute dividend to our shareholders. From Midstream perspective, we are basically targeting to finish that Ashdod-Ashkelon looping by year-end. So that will increase the capacity in EMG from the current capacity, which is a little bit shy of 600 million scf a day to 800 million scf a day, 8 BCM and more to be exported to Egypt to EMG. Out of this capacity, 2 BCM is Tamar and the rest is Leviathan. So we have a massive upside from that. We are on time, on budget with the project -- with the Fajr project, the compression system in Fajr that we are due to end by the end of 2026. And we are really looking forward for this project that will double the capacity that we can export to Jordan to Egypt. And as well, we are in place with agreement with INGL to build Nitzana. That agreement will come together with Leviathan second phase FID to increase the export to Egypt with additional 600 million scf a day through Nitzana to the Egyptian market. On our next kind of activities, so we'll start with Aphrodite. As I mentioned, we approved the development plan in Cyprus. We are working with respect to the development plan according to the milestone in order to develop the field. We are working as well on the pipeline from Aphrodite to Damietta, understanding the seabed all the way from Aphrodite to Damietta, and that's kind of the focus right now. In Bulgaria, we'll start the Han-Asparuh activity with Vinekh prospect exploration well that should start in October this year. We are very, very enthusiastic about this project. And as well, we are targeting to start by year-end 3D seismic campaign on Block that we just won offshore Israel together with Socar and BP. So a lot of activities in front of us and a lot of potential growth within our assets. And now I will ask Tzachi Habusha, our CFO, to take you through Q1 financial metrics.

Thank you, Yossi. Thank you all for being with us today. Let's run through the P&L report. So as Yossi mentioned, we are summarizing the first quarter of 2025 with revenues of approximately $288 million, about 9.95 BCM produced from Leviathan reservoir. These are higher numbers than the Q1 in 2024, which was $263 million and 2.6 BCM. The last bottom line, NewMed net profit for Q1 is approximately $116 million, slightly lower than the profit last year due to a decrease in financial income, which was mainly offset against an increase in net revenues from natural gas and condensate sales, and against a decrease in the cost of natural gas production. I think here is a very good slide that show us the main changes in the net profit compared to the same period last year. The net revenue for Q1 increased by approximately $20 million. This includes a $10 million decrease due to a lower average gas price per MMBtu and a $26 million increase due to a higher natural gas sales and a $4 million increase due to a higher sales of condensate, which began on March 7 last year. The net financial expenses increased by $23 million. This is mainly derived from a revaluation of commission and royalties, which were recorded as a financial income last year in the sum of approximately $22 million compared to financial expenses of $4.4 million this year. Just to remember, these royalties were recognized following the sale of NewMed interest in Karish and Tanin leases. As of the date of this financial statement, the fair value of these assets is approximately $262 million, which is presented in long-term assets and short-term receivables. Regarding the balance sheet or the financial debt, the total debt is about $1.6 billion, consisting of Leviathan bonds with maturity dates in 2025, 2027 and 2030. The 2025 series is presented in short-term liabilities with the buyback deducted. As we can see, we have significantly reduced our debt position. By the end of June 2023, we repaid the first series of Leviathan bond in the amount of $500 million. As of the date report approval date, we repurchased approximately $154 million from Leviathan bond series June '25 as a part of our partnership buyback program, and we are fully prepared for this next repayment. We also notified the shareholders of the bonds of the partial early redemption of the series June '25 for $400 million. About the distribution. Yossi?

Yes. So as you can see, we are continuing with our clear distribution policy and we'll continue with that. So -- and we don't -- not only you get used to the $50 million, but we are responding with the dividend policy to better earnings, better results, and you are enjoying that as well as our investors, and we'll continue with our policy in parallel to the investment in Leviathan second phase in Aphrodite and in the growth story of NewMan. So basically, we have now -- we present a very, very strong operational results that allow ourselves to continue with second phase of Leviathan, to continue with the development of Aphrodite, to continue with exploration activities around Bulgaria in Block Han-Asparuh together with seismic campaign that we are running Block and revisiting the seismic of the Morocco license that we have. That all will bring us to a great potential for internal growth. And in parallel, we are continuing with the dividend policy and reducing our debt in order to prepare ourselves to the investment in Leviathan second phase and in Cyprus Aphrodite development plan. Thank you very much. Any questions?

The question is about the demand in Egypt. I think that it's very clear that there is a very robust market in Egypt. Egypt is a country of more than 100 million people, and there is a clear demand that our assumption today stand around 7 Bcf a day. That demand is -- on top of that demand, we have additional LNG plants that are currently sitting idle. So we have another 2 Bcf a day of LNG plants sitting idle. So potentially, we are 9 to 10 Bcf a day in 2030 onwards. the Egyptian market will need a lot of gas, and will be there, second phase of Leviathan with Aphrodite to try and cover some of this demand. But definitely, they will need more development into the market. FID date on Leviathan expected in Q3, Leviathan second phase, right, Q3 this year. So we are really focused on bringing the GSP in place, the export permit, and that will allow us to take FID. And around the future oil drill, our focus right now is to do a very focused seismic campaign on Leviathan deep. We truly believe in this potential. We want to make sure that we analyze with all the tools that we have and all the new technology before we take a decision to drill for Leviathan deep. And this is currently our focus I think this is it. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you for joining us. If you have any questions, you have Guil Bashan available to you, and we are looking forward to see you in the next quarter and maybe even before.

Thank you, Yossi. Thank you, everyone. Bye-bye.