Strike Energy Limited (STX.AX) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

My name is John Poynton. I'm Chair of Strike Energy, and I welcome you to this extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet today, the Whadjuk Noongar people here in Perth and the Yamatji people of the region where Strike operates. We pay our respects to Elders, past, present, and we extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples joining us today. Today, we're holding this AGM in a virtual format, but also are very pleased to have shareholders join us in person, in Perth. This format allows shareholders and their proxies to have the ability to ask questions and submit votes on the polls in real time. We have the necessary quorum present, and I declare this Extraordinary General Meeting open and confirm that online voting for all items of business is also open. Please note that you may submit your votes and any questions for each of the resolutions via Lumi at any point in the meeting. Any questions will be addressed at the appropriate time. At this point, I would like to introduce my fellow directors present today, our Managing Director, Peter Stokes, to my immediate left; Board members, Jill Hoffman and our new Board member, Will Barker; with Nev Power; and Stephen Bizzell joining us online. Welcome Nev and Stephen.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Our Company Secretary, Tim Cooper, rounds out the table, and I also have to pass on Mary Hackett's apologies, who is overseas and unfortunately, cannot be present today. The format I propose for the meeting is to present my address as Chair, after which I will deal with the formal business. Shareholders will have the opportunity to ask questions either in person here at the meeting or via the Lumi application. It's a privilege to address you today regarding the strategic investment made by Carnarvon. This placement marks an important inflection point for Strike. Over the past several years, we've built a unique position in the Perth Basin with 4 discovered and certified gas fields and industry-leading exploration success rate. Post the strategic review conducted earlier in the year, Strike now has a clear strategy built on 2 pillars. The first is delivering low-cost domestic gas and advancing our -- and the second is advancing our integrated gas-to-power model that unlocks high-margin opportunities while supporting West Australia's energy transition. The strategic investment from Carnarvon Energy, approximately $89 million, is more than funding. It's a strong endorsement of the quality of Strike's portfolio and the role we are playing in delivering reliable, flexible, low-cost energy to WA. The transaction with Carnarvon secures the balance sheet strength and funding certainty needed to progress our core projects, which are South Erregulla, where construction is well advanced for the first power in late 2026, delivering WA's first fully integrated gas to power project and very strongly supported by the government. At West Erregulla, a world-class gas resource, targeting final investment decision in the second half of calendar 2026. At Walyering, which despite the recent reserves downgrade, continues to generate material cash flow and underpins our near-term revenue. With the Walyering West exploration well planned for the first quarter of calendar '26, we see a real opportunity to extend production and recover additional reserves at low cost should that well be successful. The placement was conducted prior to understanding the full extent of Walyering's revised reserves position, and whilst this has understandably impacted recent market sentiment, it should not overshadow the breadth and depth of Strike's Tier 1 portfolio. With multiple near-term catalysts and funding to support our development plan, Strike is now positioned for long-term value creation. Carnarvon's investment provides the financial flexibility to prioritize the highest return opportunities, maintain momentum in construction and ensure that Strike can continue to deliver for shareholders. Importantly, it's an endorsement from a peer who has reviewed our assets closely and elected to become our largest shareholder. Whilst recent share price performance has reflected both sector sentiment broadly and our near-term challenges, the underlying value of the Strike portfolio remains extremely compelling. Our integrated gas-to-power model, low-cost reserve base and development pathways are unique in the WA market and position Strike as a critical enabler of the state's energy transition. And as I said, we're finding we're getting very strong support in that area from the government. On behalf of the Board, I want to thank all shareholders for their continuing support in these somewhat difficult times in the market as we execute on this strategy. We remain confident about our future. I now move to the formal part of today's meeting. As you know, there are 3 resolutions to be considered today, all of which are ordinary resolutions requiring a simple majority of votes cast. Voting can be conducted via the Lumi application if you've not voted already. If you wish to change your existing votes, using the application will override any votes currently cast. Voting will remain open for all resolutions until the time I declare voting has closed. As a reminder, voting instructions are now on the screen. I invite you to start submitting your votes and questions via the Lumi app. You can vote on the resolutions at any point during the meeting, and you do not need to wait until the relevant item of business. Votes can be changed up until I declare voting closed. Please note that while you can submit questions from now on, I will not address them until the relevant time in the meeting. Please also note that your questions may be moderated or if we receive multiple questions on one topic, amalgamated together. Valid proxies have been collated by the company's share registry provider, Boardroom Proprietary Limited and 454 proxies received from shareholders totaling 408,962,942 shares are tabled before the meeting. Where a proxy vote has been given to the Chair without voting instructions and subject to voting exclusions, I intend as the Chair to vote in favor of these resolutions. Proxy voting by resolution will be displayed on the screen once I've taken all the resolutions as being read. As Chair, I direct that the vote on all resolutions is to be taken by way of a poll. To ensure there's sufficient time for all votes to be cast, the polls will close 5 minutes after today's -- after the conclusion of today's meeting. The notice of Extraordinary General Meeting and explanatory memorandum has been circulated to all shareholders via mail or electronically. And with the permission of shareholders, I'll take the notice of Extraordinary General Meeting as read. Tim, have you received any objections?

No, we've not, John.

As per the Notice of Meeting, all proposed resolutions at the meeting will be conducted via poll via the Lumi application. The results will be tallied along with the proxy votes and subsequently released to the ASX. All resolutions at this meeting are ordinary resolutions. Accordingly, each resolution will be passed if at least 50% of votes cast by or on behalf of shareholders entitled to vote on each resolution are in favor of that resolution. Resolution 1 will now appear on the screen. This resolution is in regard to the ratification of the prior issue of Tranche 1 shares to Carnarvon Energy. I will pause for a moment to allow people to read the resolution before we move on to display the proxy votes received. Unless there are any objections, I will take the resolution as being read. The proxy votes received for Resolution 1 will now be displayed on the screen. Resolution 2 will now appear on the screen. This resolution is in regard to approval of issue of Tranche 2 shares to Carnarvon Energy. I will pause for a moment to allow people to read the resolution before we move on to display the proxy votes received. Unless there are any objections, I will take the resolution as being read. The proxy votes received for resolution 2 will now be displayed on the screen. Resolution 3 will now appear on the screen. This resolution is in regard to the approval of the issue of shares under the share purchase plan. I will pause for a moment to allow people to read the resolution before we move on to display the proxy votes received. Unless there are any objections, I will take the resolution as being read. The proxy votes received for resolution 3 will now be displayed on the screen. Whilst we allow time for people to vote on each resolution, I will now take any questions in relation to the resolutions. Go ahead.

So John, I'm seeing that the commitment to coming in as a major shareholder like Carnarvon to Strike at $0.12 a share. But at the moment, the shares are at $0.105. I'm just frustrated to understand how the share price from $0.49 has gone down to a commitment of participation of $0.12 and now it's at $0.105. So it's just -- so what are the Board of Directors doing when it comes to addressing this that we're getting investors in or the fact that we've got such a good resource that the share price isn't better reflected?

Yes. Look, thanks for the question. I think one thing we'd say at the start is the directors feel pain. Everybody's got stock and has written it up and down, and it's incredibly frustrating. And it seems to us that we've been disproportionately punished for a couple of setbacks in the field, certainly the 2 South Erregulla wells, notwithstanding we've got one that is successful. And that's just really continued the negative sentiment, which I would say would be a bit unfair given the previous success and the fact we've discovered a lot of gas. I think the other thing, the most recent downgrade of the Walyering reserve was both disappointing but also surprising to us in the sense that this has been producing a lot of gas, a strong cash flow. And so it's an interpretation by an external party that it's fair to say, has caused us to be a bit confused, amused because we didn't think that it was quite that bad. Having said that, the field continues to produce, and we're obviously now saying, well, we'll put another well down just nearby because there's some interesting seismic there, which hopefully would then build back reserves and mean we can keep producing gas for a lot longer. But we know the stock is heavily shorted. We know there's been some mixed sentiment about the sector. Other people have had downgrades as well. Let's put it this way, you'd rather would be a gold producer.

Yes, definitely. But when you see Carnarvon come in at a price that they paid, and at the end of the day, the sentiment should be favorable that the price should least be holding north but absolutely, that's gone the other way.

Well, we certainly agree with that. Yes, we certainly agree with that. And I think perhaps later in, when we finish the formal meeting, the Carnarvon executives are here and also the Chair and another non-exec director. So I'm certainly sure they'd be happy to talk to you about that.

You can see the share price improving like I've been hanging out for a long time in that respect. But like I've been with Strike and since Eagle Mining days, way back whenever. So many, many years. And now I'm 3 years retired, my commitment to Strike has always been positive uplift and...

Well, we certainly appreciate that. And the key really, obviously, and as I indicated earlier, I mean, obviously, cash flow is a good thing, and it pays the bills. And ultimately, if you have enough, you can pay, you can either spend it on more exploration and/or pay dividends. Clearly, for us, we want to extract gas from the reserves we've already got. And obviously, the main reserve we have is at West Erregulla, so we're now working with our joint venture partner to try and ensure that we can do that as soon as we can. Obviously, they made that acquisition of the Ellison assets, the MinRes assets, and then spent some time evaluating that and have now come back to talk to us about West Erregulla, but we certainly understand exactly what you're saying. We want the share price to recover, and we want to be producing more gas from the rest of our reserves.

And just one other point. Is there a need for a capital raise coming up? Or are we pretty well covered when it comes to future relationship?

Well, I guess you'd say that was the reason -- the ultimate reason why we did the deal with Carnarvon to ensure that we weren't going back to the well the whole time metaphorically and in a market sense. We have a substantial amount of funding now. The combination of the Macquarie facilities, the funding from Carnarvon and hopefully, shareholders backing the SPP. And so yes, I mean, obviously, there's lots of things for us to spend our money on, but there's no contemplation of any additional capital required at this point. Do you want to add anything, Peter?

No, I don't -- I think for us, the key is to make sure we deliver on the assets that we said we have. The refocus in the business to the 4 key assets, not looking at any other things, making sure we deliver on those key, particularly delivering South Erregulla. But as John alluded to, we will drill West Walyering early next year. We plan to do a follow-up well for Ocean Hill based on that resource that we've just announced last week. And then as John also talked about West Erregulla, we are actively engaging with Hancock and how we take that project to FID by the end of next year, including the additional well we're both committed to do as well as the 2 workovers to get that to a point where we can take FID jointly or keep our options open about how we take that gas forward from West Erregulla, but focused on getting FID at the end of next year.

So our relationship with Gina is good by way of good conversation going on. But also, when it comes to the peaking gas support from government, state government, is there any commitment when it comes to it -- I don't understand how gas supply being paid for, but also energy into the grid being paid for? Is there any commitments?

Yes. There is. So there's what they call capacity credits for that, which are issued every year. So we have capacity credits for the first year, which will be the year that starts from October 1 next year. And then November this year, the government commits to capacity credits again for the following year. So you see that...

So there's work on that power then?

No, no, that underpins. So what you do is you get effectively it covers your cost of capital of that investment. They have a mechanism of how they calculate that, but it's based -- currently based on battery costs and things, which they're adjusting. And the following year, it looks like that capacity credit underpin increase by somewhere around 40% or 50% because of the shortage in the market. So we think that...

Is it still being firmed up by way of clarity?

It is, but there will be -- so the year from 1 October '26 to 1 October '27 is already clear, and we have an underpin of that plant around $20 million. And then the following year, based on what we're seeing now, that number is going to be north of $20 million, and that will be confirmed in November. And so that's -- and we're also, the other thing we're doing is doing everything we can to bring that go-live date earlier than 1 October, to John's point about creating additional cash flow in the business. And you get the capacity credits can be used up to 3 months ahead of the 1 October date. So if we have it online earlier or when we get it online earlier, we will have access to the capacity credits ahead of the 1 October date.

Okay. So what you're saying is if that could be clarified to the shareholders by way of understanding how it actually works, it could be a good thing because I've seen that being built, but we're not seeing -- look, I'm not seeing how it actually when it comes to interacting.

Yes, it's a good -- another, there's a solar company, Frontier is building with, looking for capacity credits from the government as well. We had -- they've got a very clear explanation of how the capacity credits work, and we plan to put a similar update out to our shareholders so that people understand how that works and what it underpins on the plant.

Yes. We obviously, BHP pull out of their solar array when it comes to up north type thing. So again, better clarity, it's good that we get understanding of how things are positively moving forward that we can attract more investors.

I think we talked, I mean, maybe people are a little critical about the outcome of the strategic review, but as we were undertaking that, it became clear that the government's commitment to closing coal-fired power didn't necessarily contemplate the need for more firmed gas. And so over time, we've had much better engagement because we understand the government needs power. Now obviously, we look at this Ocean Hill opportunity as something to really focus on in terms of if we can monetize that what looks like a pretty interesting 2-year resource. There's an opportunity to do a lot more power because the government seems to be quite keen to engage with us to supply that. Now it's all obviously subject to. But what I guess I'm saying is it's a macro environment, which is supportive of our strategic direction. So -- which is, again, just to remind you, is actually supplying gas to the users in the South and whether that's for feedstock or power again. And then there's obviously what we call molecules to electrons, which is to start replacing some of that potential lost electricity when coal gets shut down.

I really like the fact that Strike's commitment when it comes to the supply of gas for energy in Western Australia compared to shipping it overseas, like it's like the dog's breakfast that's over east when it comes to all of our -- all the gas over there essentially going offshore, that Australians don't benefit at all. So I appreciate your ethos, the gas that you have is able to supply the energy need for Western Australia is a good direction. Not to say you couldn't piecemeal bit off for export, whatever, generally speaking.

Well, we were part of the push to allow some of the domestic Perth Basin gas to be exported. And the reason for that is, obviously, on a netback basis, you get a higher price. On the other hand, there is such demand now both for gas down here, but also electricity that you go, okay, well, let's cross that bridge when we're ready to go. The government really obviously politically doesn't want to hear about a whole lot of gas being exported if there's a shortage. So we're trying to cooperate with them in a way that's a win-win.

I've got a question. The placement to Carnarvon came as a surprise, I think, to most of the shareholders. And I'm just wondering whether there were some catalysts that caused a necessity to have this placement at $0.12, when we were assured only a short time prior to that, that the share was worth considerably more?

Yes. I mean, obviously, the Carnarvon people forged a pretty good bargain, when we did that transaction. I think what I would say is part of the strategic review and Jill was very much involved in that as the acting CEO at the time, identified that we had all these opportunities but we had a funding issue. And so what we were doing pretty much that whole time was identifying the ways we could actually organize and arrange the funding. Obviously, when someone comes along and says, "Right, well, I can actually supply pretty much all the funding you're going to need for those priority opportunities that you've identified." It becomes a lot easier, if you like, or a lot better than trying to negotiate with, perhaps, you might say, rapacious institutions that might want to just take a quick placement and then flip it out, which we've seen before and which many other people see as well. So I think our view was this in one fell swoop really gave us the opportunity to, if you like, exploit the opportunities that we had before us, with a partner that is a peer and also technically competent and can help us in other ways. And so that was the rationale. At the time, I think we were concerned that $0.12 looked like a pretty cheap price. Obviously, the stocks continue to fall after the Walyering announcement, which is unfortunate. But like I say today, all those opportunities that were there before remain ready to be exploited, and we're actively working the whole team on making sure that happens as soon as possible for obvious reasons.

So you had a concern with the funding, say, let's say, from Macquarie Bank, and you couldn't proceed with confidence. What about, if you commented on that and whether we can get some money from the government to support the building of the Peaker and also this, the blowout in the cost with connecting to Western Power, it seems.

Well, I'd say a couple of things. Firstly, I wouldn't necessarily say it had anything to do directly with Macquarie. I mean, Macquarie is obviously a bank, and they keep a close watch on cash flow and assets. But you're aware of the opportunities before us. Our part of West Erregulla is very prospective. We've got some work to do at Walyering. But again, that's a significant cash flow generator. South Erregulla obviously is an interesting opportunity in the sense that it's cash flow and it's directionally supportive of what the government is wanting. And then finally, Ocean Hill, which we had a resource there, and we've been doing a lot of work on upgrading it with seismic to come out recently to say there's a whole new target there. So essentially, what we were saying is we want to make sure that we don't keep having to go to shareholders for more cash or worse, delay the opportunities that might bring earlier cash flow. So it's always one of those things. And it's easy with the benefit of hindsight to say or maybe you should have done this or that. This was an opportunity in one particular stroke, if you like, to raise sufficient funding from a single source, supportive of our strategic direction that actually put beyond doubt our ability to go forward to these things. As far as the funding from the government, that's a topical point because there are things they do and say, which sound supportive and are. But what we're trying to do, I guess, is say, well, that's all very well but what tangibly can you do to help us? Governments don't really like writing checks to private enterprise corporations. But there's plenty of things they could do with approvals and capacity credits and those sort of things, which we're looking to get commitments from them.

What about that blow out and the cost of connecting the peaker to Western Power, I think, what was that?

That is an issue, too, and we're in strong negotiations with Western Power and also all the way up to ministerial level to say, well, if you say you want the gas, you could make it a bit easier for us if we didn't have to write a big check to connect, that's work in progress.

I'm just interested in the comment earlier on in regards to Strike's relationship with Gina. And if there's anything that we should understand and know why that question was asked or is it obvious?

We've alluded in the past to some difficult relationships we had with counterparties, and it's probably not worth dwelling on any of that. I think what we're focused on is that there is a completely different and refreshed relationship with Hancock. The main thing from our point of view is that they have committed to monetizing the West Erregulla reserve. And part of the problem, I guess, in the market has been people when they acquired the MinRes assets, the Lockyer assets, we're not sure whether they were as committed to as our joint venture partner monetizing that asset as perhaps now they had a bigger and different play that they controlled completely. So over time, that relationship with them has improved, it's very constructive. It's a good working relationship. And we're working forward, as Peter said, to FID with them committing to that, both to the government and to us. Now obviously, there's a fair bit of work has to be done in terms of shoring up the reserves. There's some workover work to be done on a couple of the wells as potentially a new well. But we are now funded to cover our share of that. And it indicates that there is this momentum to go forward to the FID, which perhaps until a few months ago, was not particularly clear. And to be fair to them, they have paid $1 billion to acquire those assets and wanted to understand exactly what they had, including where a processing plant might be located.

Just come back to -- sorry, just coming back to the query on the peaking power plant, say, 1st of October next year, we're ready to go, and we're not connected to the grid. Do we still need capacity credits?

You mean why if we were delayed in getting our connections through. We need to be connected to do that. But we -- I mean we have a 90-day testing window with Western Power, which we're alluding to is the way that could come forward. So there's a window of 90 days up to about August, end of August, where we'd be looking to bring the power in then. So we've got some leeway to definitely be in before the 1st of October.

Any other questions from the room?

Emma, do you have any questions from online?

No, John, I think you've covered them all online.

Thank you okay. Well, if everyone is happy, that concludes our discussion on the items of business. Please ensure you've cast your vote on all resolutions and will allow you time to finalize these votes and the polls remain open for another 5 minutes or so before closing. There being no further business, I declare the meeting closed. The results will be tallied, along with the proxy votes and subsequently released to the ASX. And thank you for those who have attended in person and online. Those here with us, we invite you to join us for some light refreshments in the lounge and happy to answer any more questions. Many thanks.