Seascape Energy Asia plc (SEA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary
October 1, 2026
Earnings Call Speaker Segments
Operator
operatorGood morning, and welcome to the Seascape Energy Asia plc Interim Results 2026 Investor Presentation. [Operator Instructions] Before we begin, I would like to submit the following poll. And I would now like to hand you over to CEO Nick Ingrassia. Good morning.
Nicholas Ingrassia
executiveGood morning, everybody, [Foreign Language] to our shareholders in Spain. Thank you very much for joining our webcast this morning about our interim results, which were released yesterday. We have a short presentation we'd like to go through with you and then open up the floor to some Q&A at the end. Before we kick off, though, I do want to say a huge thank you to everyone for your kind messages around James. As many of you are aware, he stepped off of the Board yesterday. I and Pierre indeed are in regular contact with him, and we've passed along all these wonderful messages. It is definitely helping him in his recovery. So thank you very much for all of the kind words and keep them coming. We will be passing them along. So for those of you who are new to the story, we'd like to start off with this initial slide, which just gives a quick recap on what our portfolio looks like. And after that, we will go through the portfolio in quite a bit more detail for those who are more familiar. But these are our 3 PSCs here in Malaysia, starting in the West in Peninsular, where we've got the Temaris Cluster. This is our flagship development. We're the 100% owner and operator of this. There is a 250 Bcf gas development that is underway, and you're going to be hearing a lot more about that with huge amount of upside and first gas really only 18 months away from our field development plan, which will be going in at the end of the year, with quite significant production and then a huge amount of upside that can be targeted after that, and you'll hear a lot more about how we're building the project for success. Moving eastwards, we've got Block 2A, which is a deepwater Sarawak block. This is the giant Kertang prospect. Very excited that, that is going to be drilling in under 12 months now. You're going to hear a lot more about that from Pierre and the progress that's been made by the operator, INPEX. We've got a full uncapped carry on that. So we're all very, very excited to watch that drill in under 12 months. And then moving shallow water in Sarawak, we've got the DEWA Cluster. This is a nonoperated stake in a series of gas developments being operated by EnQuest. Again, significant production, interesting development and was one of our first assets there. Seascape is a Malaysian E&P pure play. We are listed on the AIM exchange in London. Our market cap is around GBP 70 million. We've got a robust cash position. We'll talk about that in a minute. A significant amount of 2C resources, which will be -- some of which will be converted to reserves as we move through the development process for both Temaris and DEWA, and then a huge amount of prospective resources, which Pierre will take you through shortly. So because this is our interims presentation, I will just do a quick romp through the numbers. At the end of the day, there isn't a huge amount to say as a preproduction business. So the thing I think that is important to focus on really is our cash position and how we're spending that. You can see we've continued to keep a very tight control on our costs. So our admin expenses are very, very low. And indeed, that figure also represents the capitalization of our Temaris project costs. So all of the work that's going into that is being capitalized against the project. And indeed, we would expect to receive a significant portion of that back from a farminee when they join the project. Our loss for the period, a little bit below that because of our fantastic team in Kuala Lumpur, who's taking a very active role in managing our cash balances. So that's been great. Our cash position as at the balance sheet date was a touch over GBP 7 million. This includes our restricted cash that is placed in bank guarantees for our work programs. Most of that was actually released, about 60% of that was released post period end. That's in relation to Temaris and all the great work we've been doing on that. And you'll see an increase in our noncurrent assets, which really represents the investment that is going into Temaris and DEWA in terms of moving those assets forward towards the sort of development phase. So the thing I think I'd really sort of take away here is that we've got a really robust cash position that takes us through to the Temaris project FID in Q1 next year and indeed beyond that point, after which we expect to have a farm-in and debt to finance the project going forward. So the business will start to look a lot different as we move forward. And that robust cash position is in part because of the successful fundraise that we had in Q1 this year. Before we go into detail on the assets, and I hand it over to Pierre, I thought it was also useful to go through just a little bit of the macro. There's a lot going on in the world, and it actually really does impact us and the wider commodity space. As all of you will know, the Middle East conflict really does continue to disrupt global commodity flows. And I think that the fact that we have not seen a much larger spike in prices is really down to the fact that there has been a huge drawdown on stocks. So we've seen this. I've seen a lot of data around the Chinese who have drawn down on their stocks to maintain prices kind of where they are. I know they are at elevated levels. But the reality is I believe that they would be much higher had people not been drawing down on those stocks. We see -- and as part of that, really, this is a global commodity market, but it is becoming more regionalized. Security of supply is really at the forefront of people's minds these days. And that is impacting all of us and how companies are thinking about their investments going forward. And we're watching political events really upend those flows. Some of you will have seen announcements by the U.S. looking to potentially stop diesel exports into Europe. And so these are the sort of things we never would have thought about in the past. But actually, it makes people think much more regionally about having that security of supply, indigenous investment to ensure that they're not exposed to the whims of politics and things that are happening very, very far away. For us, what this is translating into is a heightened interest in the Asian upstream. These are growing economies. They're very power hungry. And as you can see on the chart on the right, in terms of consumption, still, there is a massive amount, an absolutely massive amount of energy that is supplied by oil and gas. Well over half of the energy consumption is by oil and gas. And then, of course, a huge amount of coal as well, which many of these economies are looking to wean themselves off of. We also see a lack of opportunity here in Northwest Europe. I mean we see it, obviously, Seascape itself is not involved. But being in the London market and being in contact with lots of companies, they are seeing a real -- they're really struggling here in Northwest Europe to expand their businesses, and that's forcing them to look further afield. And still, I think in Asia, there's not a huge amount of competition. It's traditionally been an area that has been dominated by state-owned companies. So there remains a huge opportunity set, and we're really seeing that as that play out real time in terms of our farm-out and all the excitement around it and the types of companies that are looking at the asset and trying to understand what we're doing. We get lots of inbound just people asking, hey, what's it like out there? We are very quick to say what a fantastic place Asia and in particular, Malaysia, is for investment. So I think that's enough of an overview, and maybe I can hand over to you, Pierre, to start taking us through the asset update.
Pierre Ernest Eliet
executiveThat's great. Thank you, Nick, and good morning, everybody. We have a few slides to walk through the portfolio. The first few slides are on Temaris, of course, the flagship asset. It says here, countdown to FDP. And I must say it certainly feels like that because everybody in the office working 110% towards FDP submission. So FDP submission for December this year and working towards that. And of course, it just doesn't happen cold. Of course, we work with MPM and PETRONAS, the regulator, every step of the way as we work towards that FDP submission. I guess the other big piece of news yesterday was the, kind of, the active negotiations with PETRONAS regarding the inclusion of additional acreage to Temaris PSC. And I think this is really something we've been working on for quite some time. And really, for me, it's all about capturing the play, capturing this channelized play. So maybe a year ago or so at one of these presentations, James mentioned that he thought that we were probably one of the real experts in this play in the southern part of the Malay. And we've kind of reflected on that and tried to look where else we can capture it and see it. And you can see just on this map on the right. So this map on the right is the Temaris PSC, the main rectangle. And the 3D goes beyond the boundaries of that pure rectangle. And the bright amplitudes, of course, are this channelized play, and you can see the channelized play extending beyond the boundaries of the current PSC. So we were very keen to discuss the potential of that play and extending beyond the boundaries of the PSC with PETRONAS, and see what we could do to actually include it within the wider boundary of the PSC. So that's what we've been trying to do and working towards over a few months now and really pleased to see this moving forward. And as what we said, we're in active negotiations and commercial agreement by the end of the year, certainly in terms of finalizing the details of that. We're really excited of that because of really kind of capturing the play. So those amplitudes you see extending to the north there of the actual Temaris PSC box. But also, you see the yellow polygons off to the northeast there. And those are in an area of sparser data, but we're very intrigued by that because, of course, the Mengkuang discovery, which is a secondary discovery in Temaris, much smaller, of course, 29 Bcf, and not part of the main development that we're doing right now. But it's tantalizing because it's right on the edge of the data and potentially extends into that area of, kind of, white space to the northeast. So we're very interested to kind of look at that and potentially be able to capture that in the wider sense in the one PSC. So it's very important for this to be in the one PSC because then it's easier to work on and work towards ultimately producing all the resource because it's all under one regulatory framework. So that's what we've been trying to do. So very pleased that we've moved forward with this now. And then the other key thing is really we move forward with the whole farm-out process. And I think that's going very well, very keen to see an awful lot of interest in the process, in the project. And I think the project is -- has really become much more advanced. It's very clear what the resource is, what the upside is. We now have line of sight to this additional area where the gas is going, where the costs are going to be, what the costs are going to be, where the wells are, where the platforms are going to be. There's a lot of clarity behind the project. And Nick will show you that in quite a lot of detail in a few slides' time. But -- so the project is becoming much more robust, much more clarity on the project. And so there's a lot more interest in the farm-out and the farm-out process, which is very interesting to see.
Nicholas Ingrassia
executiveI think this is the first time we've showed this image, right? Am I right in thinking?
Pierre Ernest Eliet
executiveYes. So this is the -- so of course, we have wider data sets and wider 3D data sets over the whole of the Malay Basin. And this is one of the 3Ds that we have access to that actually might -- that comes out of the actual box of the Temaris PSC, which is that rectangle, that north-south rectangle on the right, and shows that these channel systems extend beyond that box. So really quite keen to kind of capture that and capture the upside of that, that shows, and really the potential to really increase the resource even more on the Temaris PSC because it will all become new Temaris PSC. If you remember when we did the ERCE audit, Nick, last year, and it was published in -- so just published in January this year, that we showed that there was about 950 Bcf of mean prospective resource across the Temaris area on top of the 246 Bcf that we're developing at Tembakau itself. So a lot of potential within that rectangle of current Temaris. But then, of course, you can see the extensive potential beyond that on the 3D data set that is actually really well defined. So very, very exciting. And as a kind of an explorer, very exciting to be able to capture that potential in the same play that we know very well and kind of beyond the boundaries of current Temaris PSC. So yes, so the other thing that we've done in the past year has really been to focus on data quality. And as part of that, there was a 700 square kilometer reprocessing project that was part of one of our commitments that we did when we signed the PSC with commitment to PETRONAS to do, and we reprocessed 700 square kilometers of data. Now what was very important with that is that the data sets that existed over Tembakau were over 2 -- and Temaris, over 2 different surveys. So over the reprocessing, we've merged them, used absolutely top quality technology. Actually, it's called multiparameter full-waveform inversion is the technical term, but using lots of AI and using all the data in the seismic that was acquired to actually merge the data sets and improve the data quality. So we have top data quality, and then we have really detailed interpretation that we've done. So what that has created -- so that 950 Bcf of upside mean prospective resource we had across the block doesn't actually count this new prospect that we've been working on over the past few months. We actually presented this at the AGM back in June when we were both in London. And I remember showing this slide, it was kind of just -- we were just starting to get the data to get the impression of this prospect maturing, but now it really has. So on the right hand -- so in the middle of the map, you see the main fault working north-south, lying north-south, which defines the Tembakau Field, which is the closure to the south on the right of the fault. And now we see kind of a sister structure that's emerged that we're calling Tualang, to the north. It's about 10 kilometers north of Tembakau itself along the fault. Now what's -- when we do the numbers on this, the numbers for Tembakau, the ERCE audit was 246 Bcf 2C, so about 250 Bcf mid-case. And the numbers now, when we presented in June, we hadn't done the numbers. Now we've done the numbers on Tualang. And the numbers on Tualang, we have a structure that's about the same size of about the same resource or maybe little bit bigger. And we get to mean prospective resource numbers of about 275 Bcf. So a potential for a Tembakau look-alike sitting about 10 kilometers north of Tembakau, which, of course, is hugely exciting. Now the reason why we didn't really see this before is because it was just at the junction point of these 2 3D seismics that I mentioned before. And the reprocessing has enabled us to upgrade the data set and understand the join better, which is kind of where Tualang sits. In fact, Matthew Choo, our Head of Exploration, had pointed Tualang out to me, I don't know, when he just joined the company. But we couldn't quite see it and couldn't quite mature it. And now with this new data, it's really been upgraded. And what you can see on the image on the left is Tualang sitting up against the fault with many stacked amplitudes up against the fault, so potential for many stacked reservoirs. Before I come off this, just one point of interest is on the right-hand seismic at Tembakau, there's yellow at the bottom of the well log and those are sands. These are J sands. We call the different sands by different letters, J and I, but the bottom sands are called J. And these are high-quality sands, but they're not in pay. There's no hydrocarbon pay at Tembakau, but we believe that there's potential for -- thanks, Nick. We believe that there's potential for those J sands to be in pay at Tualang. So extensive pay all across -- all along the fault at the Tualang prospect, which is why we're getting the volumes that we're getting of about 275 Bcf mean prospective resource. So there's a distribution of volumes, and this is just kind of the mid-case volume. Of course, because of where we are along strike from Tembakau, with all these amplitudes with the new data sets, with the evidence of some gas clouds you can see coming up the structure as you come up to seabed on some of the other displays. Because of that, the risk profile of the prospect is, of course, very low. And so very high probability of success on the prospect.
Nicholas Ingrassia
executiveI guess people who are not geophysicists on the call, which there's probably many, and I'm not one either as well, just to be clear. So I guess it's worthwhile to point out that these layers here, so I'm just using this drawing tool, which I've not really used before on IMC. So this here and this here are really where we have the gas at Tembakau, right? So these are -- so those are the ones that are lighting up. I guess you can kind of see that with the well log.
Pierre Ernest Eliet
executiveActually, Nick, what's really interesting about that is that the -- on the well log and Tembakau, the main pay are in those 2 rectangle boxes that you drew. However, of the 246, 100 Bcf of that, so a big chunk of that, sits in the lower rectangle box, the lower one.
Nicholas Ingrassia
executiveYes. Sorry, this one here.
Pierre Ernest Eliet
executiveIt doesn't look much on seismic. It doesn't look much on this display, but actually 100 Bcf is sitting in that rectangle box. So if you apply that to Tualang, you can see that there are several of those in Tualang. And they don't appear huge, huge because these are big channel systems that are coming in and out of the plane, big river systems coming in and out of the plane. So at any slice, we're just seeing elements of them. But actually the majority of...
Nicholas Ingrassia
executiveThese are the bits that we're excited about here is the things that we can see lighting up here, right? Which is up against this fault that goes, like, here. So it's all that stuff there. So that's -- it's that similarity there, and it sort of sits, I guess, here along this whole fault, right? So we've got a gas found here, we've got a gas here. And so actually -- and I guess it probably teases up quite nicely because into the next slide, because it's sort of talking about how we're going about this development. And let's start, I guess, it's a little bit back to front. I guess, starting on the right-hand side here. All along, what we wanted to do with this development is make sure that we're building it for success so that it can be quickly and cheaply expanded because we've seen so much of that prospectivity around. And I guess that's been the mentality since day 1 is how the engineering has been going. And so just to sort of give people an idea of, I guess, the pre-investment that's going in to allow us to quickly access that significant upside, starting, I guess, on the lower left-hand side of the right-hand box. You've got the 2 wellhead platforms. So these are very cheap unmanned wellhead platforms. So there's no people on them. The idea is to make them as light as possible so that we can potentially install them with a jackup rig, which will then go ahead and drill the wells. And the first thing we decided there was to have some spare well slots. So initially, there will be 3 wells drilled from each platform targeting the reservoirs. But what we'll have is spare slots that allow us to drill some of that upside that we see in the near-field area. And I think that we've shown on previous slides from previous presentations. And I think there's over 100 Bcf that sits really just right around there, and that's excluding stuff like Tualang. On the wellhead platform A, you can see there, which will be the more northerly of the 2, there's going to be an additional riser, which basically means that we'll be able to put another wellhead platform should we find significant volume. We can put another wellhead platform there that can go straight into A and then make it into the pipeline route that goes straight up there to the third-party host platform, which we have now identified. And I guess the third bit that is, I guess, very, very important is that we're putting in a pipeline spur, so an ability to enter the pipeline very easily, which is going to be a little bit north there. I mean, obviously, we've been talking about the increase in acreage and why we're so excited about it. But what we want to make sure is that anything that does get discovered up there can be easily commercialized and making sure you have an easy route into the pipeline you're building, I guess, is very, very important. And what we see there, of course, is that there's a huge amount of prospectivity across a wide range of different types of prospects, different trapping styles. And I guess the key is, of course, to first get the base project up and running, which itself is a very, very robust return. But I guess what we can really then do is supercharge the whole development by cheaply accessing these additional resources and looking to exploit them through that existing infrastructure once it's up and built. And I guess we've had that dialogue all along with PETRONAS. And I think that's probably one of the reasons why they've been so excited about what we've been trying to do here, and why they've been so encouraging about us chasing the entirety of the play rather than just getting very solely focused on Tembakau itself. And so on the left-hand side there, what we've tried to do is illustrate what this can look like. And just to be clear that, that pipeline, we've decided to build a 16-inch pipeline up to the third-party host platform, and we believe it can carry, sort of, 250 million scfs a day. So more than double what the initial rate is going to be going through there, around 100 million scfs a day in, sort of, barrels of oil equivalent. For those who are interested, that's like 17,000 barrels of oil equivalent, so you can get up to 350 plus in a situation where additional volumes are found and put through the whole system. So that's very, very exciting. And I guess that sort of again leads us on to this next slide here, which is talking about really how we have an execution-ready project. And that's been the mantra really from day 1, is we need to be execution ready, and that's where all of the investment has been going into. And you can see on the left-hand side of this slide, you can see the different work streams that have been going on. A lot of these are not really sort of press releasable, hey, look sort of stuff. So I think that people may have thought we've been very quiet. It's been anything but internally. It's been absolutely crazy in terms of activity levels, getting the project moving along, getting all the engineering done, getting everything ready to go. And trying to sort of, I guess, put this into context, we were awarded Temaris in the summer of '25, and we're targeting first gas for the second half of '28. So, sort of, basically 3 years from getting the award to turning on gas is just an incredible feat anywhere. It really, really is. And so full credit to Pierre, to the team, Adam, who's our project manager, who's been doing a great job pulling all these different things together. It's been truly incredible. So the seismic reprocessing is done. And as Pierre was just talking about, it's added prospectivity and it's also helping with the well placements on Tembakau itself. Resource assessment is there. We have to submit that to PETRONAS and ahead of the whole project moving forward. We've been doing the engineering on the wellhead platforms. The FEED, the front-end engineering, has been awarded to local businesses who also do some work for some of our peers in the region. The pipeline, we know which way the pipeline is going to go. We've had a great market sounding on that, which has just completed. And that we've -- gives us an idea exactly what the costs are going to be, very, very competitive. We've been very pleased to see. And all of that comes together in the sort of commercial overlay, I suppose, with -- in terms of getting engaged with the host platform, knowing exactly where we're going to go into the host platform, what mods need to be done. In fact, we already know that there's a shutdown on that platform at the sort of end of next summer, and we'll be looking to install what we need to then so that there's effectively a seamless offshore execution phase in 2028. So everything going on there. And of course, the gas sales negotiation, taking into account all of these other things that are going on is great. So this is going to be a very, very quick development. It's going to give us material gas production. And I think that the feedback we're getting from the process that has been recently restarted really has been confirming that for people. So super excited about this execution-ready project, Q4 for our field development plan submission and then FID in Q1. I guess on to our other project, DEWA. DEWA is, again, remembering that first map, so now we're heading over towards Eastern Malaysia. This is in Sarawak. It's shallow water. It's actually a series of fields, which are predominantly gas, a little bit more liquids. We have finished the development concept screening and planning. This has been supported by PETRONAS. Recently, EnQuest and some of the materials they've published have confirmed that it will go to the MLNG plant at Bintulu, one of the largest LNG plants in the world. It's going to go via some Shell-operated facilities at the E8 field, which is, I think it's sort of 20, 30 kilometers down the road. And EnQuest remains committed to the project. They just announced a major deal in Malaysia earlier this year with PETRONAS Carigali, the upstream arm of PETRONAS. And so they're very excited to be growing and growing a material business there, where it's always been, a sort of, I guess, a slightly smaller cousin to their activities in the North Sea. And they're working to make sure that all of these volumes can get into the system capacity no later than 2030. And interestingly, because of the prospectus they put out, they also have put out some figures, which are very much aligned with what our independent CPR has confirmed in terms of volumes we see from DEWA and the sort of production levels that we anticipate. So very excited that, that's moving forward. It's not our operated project. It is an EnQuest project, but we have been enjoying working with them. There's a lot of things that we've been able to learn from them and apply to our own projects. So that's been fantastic. I guess, Pierre, a few comments on the big one?
Pierre Ernest Eliet
executiveSo of course, we all have an awful lot of affection for 2A because it was kind of the foundation of the Seascape business and the pivot to Asia. And what's great to see is that we're going to be seeing Kertang in 2A drilled by INPEX in what's, in fact, less than 12 months, which is just fantastic. And a lot of work going on by INPEX in terms of preparing for the drilling, buying and getting equipment in place so that the well can be drilled, preparing a site survey in the first part of next year, and really getting ready to drill the well. You can see some example of the well planning that we put there on the seismic. So this is the construction of the well down to the targets at Cycle II and Cycle I. When I think about this, I first started this journey on 2A with -- together with James in 2017. So it's quite the journey when we signed it under study program. So it's quite the journey to be seeing it now drilled next year on this -- summer next year in -- on the block, which is great. So the number we always say for 2A at Kertang is 9 Tcf mean prospective resource. But somebody reminded me the other day that there's no reason actually. They said there's no reason, Pierre, where it couldn't actually be bigger. The P10 volumes, so the upside volumes that ERCE did on this structure is that it could actually be 18 Tcf. And that is because the area is so big. The structure is so big. It's 220 square kilometers, that if you put the P10 column, how much gas that would be trapped under those shales. And if it is 900 meters as modeled by ERCE, the resource auditors, then you get to -- inevitably get to huge numbers. And those numbers were, kind of, 18 Tcf mean prospective resource for this structure. So I know we always hanker on the 9, but actually, there's no reason it couldn't be much bigger because we just do a distribution of outcomes. It could be smaller, it could be bigger, and the 9 is just the mean case number. But it's just interesting that I was reminded by somebody of the upside case, which is true, there's no reason why it couldn't be bigger because we see those kind of columns elsewhere in other structures in Malaysia, they're retained by these shales. So very excited. Anything more to say on that, Nick?
Nicholas Ingrassia
executiveYes. I mean, I guess we had hoped that we'd be able to announce a rig by now. The tender is still underway. We're told it's in the very final stages. We have to appreciate that INPEX, the operator is -- it's a sort of slightly complex process. It's actually a multi-well program that includes 2A. They're doing some other drilling in deepwater Sarawak. But the fact is that this is moving ahead. They've been purchasing significant amounts of drilling equipment. Obviously, no cost to us because we're fully carried, but that sort of puts any sort of fears at ease that they may not be sort of moving as quickly as we want them to. They are barreling ahead. And our hope is that we'll be able to talk more about the rig when we get to it, sort of, in hopefully another month or so. So you should watch this space. We'll let you know as soon as we know. But the fact remains, and they confirm to me that drilling is on track for next summer. So that's super, super exciting, less than 12 months away. So maybe just do a quick summary before we do a little bit of Q&A, trying to put into context where this business is and where it could be in the future. I just pulled out some of our peers here. A majority are London listed, although sort of a couple of others who are sitting in other places who are active in Southeast Asia. And the production potential we have from this portfolio, depending on how much we keep and how much we farm down, is really anywhere between 10,000 to 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent within 18 months, which is kind of crazy to think about. And if you look at that in terms of where our peers sit, that's a significant amount of production. And just trying to sort of map that against where market caps are, it's interesting to see that there is the potential for a big movement upwards in terms of where this business could be in the very near term versus sort of a peer set, which we've always looked at as much bigger than us, but I guess is well within our reach, and it's going to be an exciting time getting there over the next 18 months or so. So just to kind of summarize then, we have been focused on capturing the entire play. We are in active negotiations with PETRONAS to increase the area. We'll be able to give more details around that, hopefully soon. And so that's super, super exciting. And you can see why from the pictures we showed previously in terms of what that's likely to mean for resource increases, that it sits on the route up to our export. We are really in the countdown to the submission of the field development plan, which will allow us to deliver first gas very, very quickly into a gas-short market, which will be receiving a great gas price. So that's really positive. The farm-out is underway. It was unfortunately put on pause because of the discussions that have been going on with PETRONAS around capturing the play to ensure that we can dovetail those things together and we have an aligned partnership and we can get value for that. And there's been a huge amount of interest so far in this project, especially because of its location and indeed, because it is an execution-ready project. And I can't stress enough how important that is to people. There's a big difference between what is a discovery and something that is actually moving forward into development, and we are really on the cusp there. And of course, we've got huge upside potential. The nearest-term drilling is Kertang, as Pierre was saying, less than 12 months away. But then I guess, shortly after that, we'll be looking to try and test the upside in and around Temaris with a new partner, and that's an important part of the story. So I guess that probably wraps us up in terms of the set piece on the presentation. So why don't we see if there is some Q&A?
Nicholas Ingrassia
executiveApologies. Usually, we kind of -- all right, lots of -- so there are a couple of pre-submitted questions. I'll try and do a little bit of a juggle here and paraphrase some of these bits and pieces. Again, some nice comments about James. He's doing really well. Thank you so much. We will definitely pass along all of your thoughts and well wishes. He's still keenly watching the share price. He remains one of our major shareholders, and he's hugely supportive. And I know he wished to be here, but we're also very glad that he has the space to focus on his recovery. So that's great. I guess, let's see. EnQuest recently stated that DEWA was subject to FID. And it's dependent on haulage availability at the tie-in facility and MLNG. Unfortunately, I won't comment. It is their project. This is an EnQuest project. We very much are there supporting them and in support of them. As far as we're aware, they're having very good discussions. It's a complex discussion here between the regulator, the infrastructure owners and everything. They are moving it forward very quickly. It is a high-priority project for EnQuest, and I know they're keen to move it forward as quickly as they can against the backdrop of some of the system constraints. I guess if it were to slip a little bit, it's not the biggest issue for us. We've got a project in which we're in control of, we are the operator of, we have a very high equity interest in. And I think that probably allows us to manage our capital a little bit better as well. So I think that if it were to slip a little bit, I actually don't think that's the biggest thing in the world. There are questions around the sort of surrounding acreage. I think that, that was a pre-submitted question. I think we've addressed that. We can't really say much more. We've shown you some pictures, and we've told you where we stand with those things. So it's active -- those negotiations are very active, Pierre, I think, is the best way to describe them?
Pierre Ernest Eliet
executiveVery active.
Nicholas Ingrassia
executiveVery active, very active. So that's good news. We're pushing -- obviously, we want these things to happen as quickly as possible. But ultimately, in terms of value, capturing it is much more important than capturing it quickly. We all like things to happen super quickly, but this is a long-term business. We really are investing for the long term. And you can see from the infrastructure we're trying to build, we're trying to build a long-term project that is going to be very, very valuable. Let's see. Okay. So there's a bunch of questions around -- I guess, this is like the project, how it's coming together in terms of some of the commercial arrangements, the capital and then the debt piece. So what I would say is that we will give more detail as we get closer to the field development plan submission, which is going to be in December this year, we'll be sharing more with the market around how much and much more detail around that. Suffice to say that we are currently actively engaged with the market in terms of all these different pieces of kit, getting quotes from these various market-sounding exercises that are going on. And that allows us to get a good idea of where the project is and where it is going. So we'll be able to share with that. It's very much in line with what we've been talking about previously in terms of the overall CapEx. It is -- this is a shallow water developments, jack-up rigs. The pipeline, we've had some very interesting feedback on that. So I'm hoping that we're going to be able to bring this in at a very reasonable price in terms of what we see regional developments. And again, this is an order of magnitude different than the sort of developments that happened here in Northwest Europe. We can't really talk about gas offtake. The gas all gets bought by PETRONAS. It all is going to go through to the Kerteh gas system. We're going into a gas-short market. There's quite a bit of availability on how gas gets priced there. Again, something we'll talk about more as we get closer to the field development plan submission. Work is going on with Macquarie in terms of the financing for it, the debt financing. In fact, we're going to be out seeing a series of other banks there with some of the sort of key terms and some of the lending levels and stuff. So that is also progressing, I guess, in the background. Again, it's hard to talk about these things when they're very live. So -- but suffice to say, we are very, very focused on financing the overall project, which is going to be really a combination of that farm down, getting some of our historic costs back and the debt piece as well. So if there is a little bit of a shortfall, then it might be that we would look at other sources and indeed, potentially, equity. But as we've gone on and on about many, many times, we are owners in this business as well. We will only issue equity if we think that it is going to be value accretive to the business. And certainly, we treat our equity as very, very precious. And so this is not a business that just goes and issues equity for the heck of it. We only do it with purpose and in order to fund projects and upside that we see really benefiting shareholders. Is the Tembakau -- Pierre, is the Tembakau Field development and abandonment plan still on track for Q4 '26?
Pierre Ernest Eliet
executiveAbsolutely. Everybody working towards that for submission mid-December. Interesting, there's a question here also on whether Tualang is part of Temaris FDP. And so that's completely separate. The FDP is just for the Tembakau development for the 246 Bcf developing that. The rest is upside. What's interesting is that we're getting this kind of additional resource in the PSC coming out with this detailed work we're doing now doing. And we have prospects like Tualang, which are actually really low-risk prospects emerging across the block, which is great.
Nicholas Ingrassia
executiveYes. And I guess, that kind of -- that actually feeds quite nicely into another question I see here, Pierre, which is around how should shareholders think about the partner process, which is you are looking for someone who's just interested in the base project or someone who's looking at a broader sort of sense in terms of creating a hub here in the Southern Malay Basin.
Pierre Ernest Eliet
executiveYes. Well, it's really about having a like-minded partner, right? Who can work on this together and who's really focused on the long-term vision for the block and for the upside in the whole area, and can understand the upside prospectivity on the block and then work together on kind of tapping that and maximizing that potential.
Nicholas Ingrassia
executiveRight. Let's see. I've got another one around the sort of timing of the farm-out and the potential and the extension of the Temaris acreage. I guess it's suffice to say that we see all this stuff happening together. There's not a chance that we're going to bring someone in and then not sort of announce that. So there'll either be -- either we'll get -- it will all be part of the, sort of, same process. And I guess we'll either -- I'm hoping we'll be able to talk more about the additional acreage in the sort of coming weeks and months. But certainly, anything that we do, do on it because it will be -- it will effectively be one PSC. So it won't be a sort of a separate -- or a separate sort of thing. So I think necessarily someone is going to be coming into the whole piece, which will include the sort of enlarged area. I have another question around trying to understand, okay, so field development plan submitted in late Q4. And then when do you expect project sanction? I guess we showed a slide earlier a couple ones ago about sort of the timing on things. I guess FID is expected in -- so FID being final investment decision, is expected in Q1 next year. And really, what ends up happening is you submit the field development plan that gets accepted by PETRONAS perhaps with any sort of tweaks or any comments. I don't think we're really expecting many because of the engagement we've had so far. But then it's just about sort of completing things, getting final paperwork sorted, and then lining up all the finance that is already available for when you pull the trigger, sort of, finally. So that gives you that period of time to make sure to dovetail all of these sort of different work streams coming in together. And certainly, we'd be looking to not only have announced but also completed the farm down by that point. Because at that point, we are just going. I think if you have a look at the chart -- the time line, we're showing that even in Q1, we want to be out doing site surveys. There's kit to be ordered. The real spend goes, if we're going to be doing this in 18 months, we really got to be getting after it. A few questions around -- let's see here, some detailed ones. I won't comment on the Temaris process. It's obviously a confidential process, and we can't comment on that. So I'm going to park any of that. But just suffice to say that there's a huge amount of interest in it. And again, I think this is -- we've used the time very wisely from when we paused the process previously until now. Really, we've been focused on increasing and capturing the entire play, but actually, it's also allowed us really to move the project forward to that sort of execution-ready phase, so we can sort of see that. Let's see. How much of the E&D additions was capitalized, personnel and administrative costs? Yes. I mean almost all of the sort of stuff that we are spending money on now is really around the engineering and the people cost. So it's almost all getting capitalized against the project. And indeed, what we would look for, if you recall, when we farmed down 2A, we received a lot of our historic cost back. In fact, all of the historic cost back from INPEX. And so we'll be looking to do a similar thing here. People appreciate that we've been spending a lot of money. In an order of magnitude, I think by the time we've got the project ready to sort of field development plan, we'll have spent a little bit over $10 million getting the project into an execution-ready phase. So that's kind of how serious we are. And again, the way that people address us back because we've done that is really, really interesting. Let's see. I'm just trying to see. Gas sales negotiations are underway on Temaris, who is the counterparty? Just to be clear, I think I stated it, but I'll just be very, very clear that PETRONAS -- so the state, buys every single molecule of gas in Malaysia. So it is all sold to PETRONAS. And we can go through -- at a later date, we'll sort of explain a little bit more around that. And as we're getting closer to the field development plan, I think we'll share with everybody what some of the details are starting to look like, and so that you can do an assessment of the project yourself. So that's good. Will you retain operatorship post farm-out on Temaris? Pierre?
Pierre Ernest Eliet
executiveOf course, we fought very hard to get operatorship, yes, Nick. And I think we worked really hard for that. So I think it's one to keep. And I think PETRONAS really liked us being operator and moving forward to the project. So I think it's one to keep, isn't it?
Nicholas Ingrassia
executiveYes, it's important to us. Being able to drive the process in a sort of purpose-fit way, being able to tailor the whole thing, I think, is very, very important. So we'll be looking to retain that.
Pierre Ernest Eliet
executiveAnd of course, it's -- we've got to a stage with PETRONAS that we're actually working really well together, and it's kind of -- all the work is dovetailing. So everything we do, we kind of work with them and show them and keep them on board with everything we're doing as we get into FDP. And so I think they really like this kind of openness collaborative approach that we have, and then we bring maybe something slightly different to some of the other players, which is great.
Nicholas Ingrassia
executiveYes. No, absolutely. One of my favorite questions I've seen so far, in capitals, can you confirm, confirm INPEX will pay 100% of the 2A costs? I can confirm that it is a fully uncapped carry, not only for the first well, but also on the contingent well, and there's also a discovery bonus. So I can confirm categorically that we have no cost exposure to 2A. So that's great. It says if Kertang is a discovery, what's sort of the time scales before first gas?
Pierre Ernest Eliet
executiveWell, and there's also a question on what is the kind of appraisal strategy? And I think that has -- well, of course, it's such a large area, there has to be an appraisal well. In fact, there probably might be a few appraisal wells. But -- and what's really important is, of course, the first appraisal well, as Nick just said, is also carried as part of the INPEX deal. So appraisal well. And then, of course, gas. What's very interesting about the timing of Kertang is there are some other developments in Malaysia, big gas developments that have been delayed for whatever reason, different reasons. And so the timing of first gas from Kertang getting gas back into Bintulu will be very important for sustaining Bintulu production. And we've seen that in the early 2030s and mid-2030s if the gas were to arrive at Bintulu, that there's a significant demand from the MLNG trains for gas from Kertang at that time.
Nicholas Ingrassia
executiveYes, absolutely. I mean there are a lot of questions about how you get to, sort of, get Kertang to first gas, if it's a success. I think we've been pretty clear all along that is a mega project. It really is, and it's unlikely that we would be able to see that all the way through. I can guarantee you there are going to be a lot of buyers for 10% of 9 to 18 Tcf in Sarawak. So our path on that one is much more going to be around monetization rather than seeing that through to first gas. So that's -- we're driven by value. And I think that, that would probably be the best and most realistic route to value for a business like ours. But we're also keeping our eye out for other opportunities. Pierre, I mean, I know we can't really say too much, but I mean, I guess we are still active on the new venture piece as well. I don't know if you want to comment on that?
Pierre Ernest Eliet
executiveYes. And of course, there's a Malaysian bidding round that's currently active and looking a lot at that and the opportunities available in that, and what could be complementary to our business and build -- and be kind of natural bolt-on and add-ons to our business would be the way I look at it, really. And always looking at innovative ways where we, as a small entrepreneurial team, can really add value. And if you look at all the assets where we worked on, whether it's DEWA or 2A or Temaris, we've really fundamentally added huge value to all those projects through the subsurface. So really focusing on assets that have been overlooked or ignored, and how we can add significant value to that asset and that overall conversation. So I think that's the kind of the strategy we've been trying to follow.
Nicholas Ingrassia
executiveAbsolutely, absolutely. Well, I think we're coming up on 51 minutes. So it's probably about as much time as everyone wants to hear from us. Look, thank you. We've got great feedback. We've got a great set of shareholders. The communications and has been -- hopefully, you've appreciated the communications. I know we've gone through periods of being quiet, but I can guarantee you that it is not because we're not doing anything. It's quite the opposite. We are just working our tails off. There's a huge amount going on. We're delivering a huge amount for what is a relatively small business. We've got really exciting time ahead going through the end of the year and then into '27. It's just everything is just going to take off. We couldn't be more excited. We really appreciate all the support, and we'll make sure keeping you guys all updated -- guys and girls all updated with everything that's going on in the next few months and hopefully go into a little bit more detail where we can.
Pierre Ernest Eliet
executiveAnd Nick, the energy in the office upstairs here in Malaysia is palpable with everything we've got going on, which is fantastic.
Nicholas Ingrassia
executiveFantastic. So thank you very much, [Foreign Language].
Operator
operatorFantastic.
Pierre Ernest Eliet
executiveThank you very much. Bye-bye.
Operator
operatorYes. Thank you very much indeed for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you'll now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback, which will help the company better understand your views and expectations. On behalf of the management team, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good morning to you.
Read the full transcript via the API
You're viewing the first half of this call. Get the complete Seascape Energy Asia plc transcript — plus 255,000+ transcripts from 12,000+ companies, speaker segments, AI summaries and full-text search — through the EarningsCalls.dev API.
Get the API View API docs →This call discussed
For developers and AI pipelines
Programmatic access to Seascape Energy Asia plc earnings transcripts and 255,000+ others is available through the
EarningsCalls.dev REST API. Plans from $24.99/month — full transcripts, speaker segments,
full-text search, and the recently-added /api/v1/transcripts/recent polling endpoint for ETL pipelines.