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Golar LNG Limited (GLNG)

Q4 2023 Earnings Call· Thu, Feb 29, 2024

$52.89

+0.10%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to the Golar LNG Limited Fourth Quarter 2023 Presentation. After the slide presentation by CEO, Karl Fredrik Staubo, and CFO, Eduardo Maranhao, and there will be a question-and-answer session. Information on how to ask a question will be provided then. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. I will now pass you over to Karl Fredrik Staubo. Karl, please go ahead.

Karl Fredrik Staubo

Management

Thank you and good day and welcome to Golar LNG's Q4 2023 earnings results presentation. My name is Karl Fredrik Staubo, I'm the CEO of Golar LNG, and I'm accompanied today by our CFO Mr. Eduardo Maranhao to present this quarter's results. Before we get into the presentation, please note the forward-looking statements on slide two. We start at slide three and an overview of Golar today. We own two FLNGs, Hilli operating for Perenco in Cameroon, and FLNG Gimi delivered from Seatrium Shipyard in November last year, and currently moored to the GTA Hub offshore Senegal and Mauritania, which will be her home for the next 20-years. We own two LNG carriers. We agreed to acquire the Fuji intended for mark two FLNG conversion and expect to take delivery of the vessel next week. We also own the LNG carrier Golar Arctic, which is a non-core to our FLNG focus, and we are currently considering options for the vessel, including charter opportunities or a potential sale. We have two financial investments, Avenir LNG, a small-scale LNG shipping company, and Macaw Energies, a land-based liquefaction company targeting monetization of flare gas focused on operations in the Americas. We're particularly excited about the outlook for Macaw and we'll share more color on development on that later in the presentation. Turning to slide four, Golar is the world's largest owner and operator of FLNGs and the only FLNG player offering floating liquefaction as a service. This is relevant as gas resource owners of proven reserves, either stranded, re-injected or flared gas, look to monetize these proven reserves, whilst maintaining meaningful ownership and exposure to their own resource. Golar’s position as the only service provider of maritime liquefaction enables us to offer these resource owners a unique value proposition. We own and operate…

Eduardo Maranhao

Management

Good morning everyone and thanks Karl. I'm glad to share an overview on Golar’s financial performance during Q4. Turning over to slide 15, I wanted to show some of the highlights of this quarter. Total operating revenues amounted to $80 million with total FLNG tariffs reaching $106 million, an increase of 12%, compared to last quarter. FLNG tariffs is a critical metric which reflects a comprehensive approach to liquefaction revenues, including realized gains on our oil and gas derivatives. Adjusted EBITDA came in at $114 million, up 52% from the previous quarter. Positively impacted by Hilli’s performance, which exceeded her contracted 2023 production volume, resulting in a release of the remaining 2022 underutilization balance of $29 million. We had a net loss of $31 million in Q4. This figure includes a total of $117 million non-cash items, such as movements in the value of TTF and Brent derivatives, and our interest rate swaps. We closed the year with a total cash position of $753 million and total contractual debt of $1.2 billion. When considering the value of the remaining receivable from our TTF hedges, our net debt position at year-end was $411 million. Now moving to slide 16. We can see the evolution of Hilli’s EBITDA contribution over the last quarters. When looking on a year-on-year basis, Hilli generated $84 million in Q4, which is 15% greater, compared to the previous quarter. That number includes $33 million from base tolling fees. Brent linked fees were up to $20 million from $13 million last quarter and TTF linked fees of $31 million up from $28 million in Q3. Moving on to slide 17, you can see that we remain exposed to TTF prices for the remainder of 2024, while at the same time expect to benefit from locked-in gains from our…

Karl Fredrik Staubo

Management

Thanks, Eduardo. So turning to slide 20 for summary and next steps. We continue to see revenue diversification with delivery of Gimi. And we now have Hilli’s three components, the base revenue; the Brent link and the TTF link, and then the commencement of Gimi’s 20-year contract with BP. On FLNG business development, we see strong progress made, both for redeployment of Hilli and the potential Mark II employment. As explained, we've signed a framework agreement with a potential customer that could utilize either of the two liquefaction solutions. The contract in discussions are for commercial terms with durations of 12 to 20-year opportunities. On the Mark II potential FID, long lead items are well progressed. Yard contract design and engineering is ready for FID and provided we order the vessel within ‘24, we see delivery within ’27. We remain with a strong liquidity position of around $800 million. The Gimi delivery allows for depth optimization. We see potential asset sales in non-core assets, in particular the Golar Arctic, and we are targeting a separate listing of Macaw once the unit has been proven. We remain committed to attractive growth and return to shareholders. We see upside to the dividend once the Gimi starts her contract. And we also see potential release of significant liquidity once we lift the refinancing. We also have continued capacity under our existing share buyback program that we utilized a significant portion of -- during 2023. That concludes the prepared remarks for the Q4 call. Thank you for dialing in. I'll now hand the call over to the operator for any questions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. At this time we will conduct a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from the line of Ben Nolen from Stifel. Please go ahead.

Ben Nolan

Analyst

Thank you and good morning, guys, or afternoon. I -- let's see, my two questions. The first relates to the Gimi appreciating the timeline that you laid out there with respect to commissioning, et cetera. How should we think about the income statement impact up until the point of commissioning both -- is there any revenue or any expense, or are those all just sort of offset against the balance sheet?

Eduardo Maranhao

Management

Hi Ben, Eduardo here. How are you? So as you correctly pointed out, so during the commission and integration phase, we will be capitalizing those revenues until the actual COD start date. So those will be, items which will be reflected in our balance sheet up until COD. They will be amortized equally distributed over the life of the contract.

Ben Nolan

Analyst

Yes, and the same is true for cost, correct? The costs are capitalized.

Eduardo Maranhao

Management

Yes.

Ben Nolan

Analyst

Okay, all right, good. So I wanted to -- now if I could jump to the Hilli quickly, with respect to the framework agreement that you have. I was hoping that you might be able to give a little bit more color as to, I don't know, how you -- where you think that is in terms of its process and if you have any sense as to when it might be something that is able to move into something more firm?

Karl Fredrik Staubo

Management

I think that the purpose of the framework agreement, which we're pleased to enter into, is that it sets out an alignment of the commercial terms and very specific next steps that both parties need to meet. We are highly confident about both parties' ability to meet the timelines put forward in the framework agreement. Where there's more uncertainty is how that aligns with the governmental bodies and sign-off. Those have been initiated. We've had joint meetings with relevant authorities. And based on the indications received thus far, they seem to be aligned to our proposed timeline. But that continues to be the unknown once we talk about exact timing of when this is due. What we have said for a prolonged period is that we want to have visibility on Hilli within ‘24, both because that provides visibility and it also helps us in planning the next phase provided that we need to move from the current location if that will be the case. So in terms of timing that remains our target.

Ben Nolan

Analyst

Okay is this West Africa frame it in?

Karl Fredrik Staubo

Management

We're talking about opportunities both places, not in several places, but the specific framework agreement is not in the West Africa.

Ben Nolan

Analyst

Okay. All right, I appreciate it. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you for your question. We're now going to transfer to the next question in the queue. Please stand by. And our next question comes from Liam Burke from B. Riley Financial. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Liam Burke

Analyst

Yes, thank you. Hi, Karl. How are you today?

Karl Fredrik Staubo

Management

Good, thanks.

Liam Burke

Analyst

Karl, you've got other investments outside of the FLNG or the Mark II? How are you balancing your investment priorities with the FLNG -- your core FLNG with these other, you know, side opportunities?

Karl Fredrik Staubo

Management

That's a relevant question. So when it comes to Golar, as you know, for the last 2.5 years have been through a bit of a reorganization focusing our efforts on FLNG. In that respect, we have one legacy investment in Avenir LNG, which is a small-scale shipping company that was core to us when we owned Golar Power or Hydro Energy Transition. It's less core to us now. So the way you should think about Avenir is it's an investment we like, but we're not planning to deploy any more capital into it and we'll be opportunistic as to our ownership in Avenir. When it comes to Macaw Energies, that is something we see to be very much aligned with what we're doing on the floating side. So what it is, it's liquefaction of proven reserves, and in this context, flare gas in particular. We can use the expertise that we've built up over FLNGs to capture what we think is a massive market opportunity, both economically, environmentally and politically, to capture flare gas. We see that as a faster way of deploying or getting return on capital investment, which is why we started Macaw at this point in time. However, the absolute majority of our capital will be directed for FLNG growth project. Hence, we're evaluating a separate spin-off of Macaw to accelerate that business. It's not one where we as Golar expect to deploy any significant capital beyond what we have. And our capital is for FLNG and FLNG only.

Liam Burke

Analyst

Got it. Okay. And on the dividend policy, is that -- are you looking to maintain that dividend through the cycle or is that something that you'd consider when you've got these other investment opportunities going forward?

Karl Fredrik Staubo

Management

When we reinstated dividends last year, we said it's very important to us that they're stable, predictable, and increasing over time. Hence, the reason why we put it in initially at $0.25 is because we see that as highly sustainable. We do expect that we can increase dividends over time, but when we do, we want to ensure that it's a sustainable level. Hence, we want to see the COD of Gimi take place before increasing unless there are other opportunities we see to increase it. But shareholder returns is extremely high on the agenda now and going forward.

Liam Burke

Analyst

Alrighty. Thank you, Karl.

Karl Fredrik Staubo

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you very much for your question. We're now going to transfer to the final question in the queue. Please stand by. And our final question comes from Christopher Robertson from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Ben Moore

Analyst

Hi, good morning. This is Ben Moore calling for Chris Robertson here at Deutsche Bank. As we look at the LNG landscape in the coming years, new capacity will be coming online in the U.S. Gulf Coast and then Qatar in the near future. As you look at the landscape of FLNG opportunities in this context. Has your perspective changed in the last few quarters as to what types of opportunities are out there?

Karl Fredrik Staubo

Management

No. We think it's very beneficial because basically when you saw the spike in LNG prices that you had following the Russia-Ukraine situation, in particular the North stream pipeline accident or incident, you saw gas prices go to a level where there was a very strong incentive for end users to substitute away from LNG and natural gas. We think it's in the industry's interest that you see long-term, plentiful supply of LNG and further increasing supply sources. So a more stable price environment we think is extremely helpful to end-user demand, which should be very good for industry. In particular, talking about the expansion of Qatar and U.S. volumes, and in particular U.S. volumes, we spent some time on slide five to explain that we see landed cost of these volumes to be pretty much double that of the FLNG projects we're currently in discussions for. Hence, we see self-regulating when you have such a large part of the growth in LNG supply with a break-even of twice what we will hopefully have. That should be a self-regulating measure in further underwriting the attractiveness of the project that we -- so we welcome the development.

Ben Moore

Analyst

Thank you. Maybe as a follow-up, can you talk about the current configuration of the Hilli as it relates to the composition of the gas stream? Is the current design equipped to handle wet gas opportunities or is this something that it can be adapted to in the future as you look forward to re-contracting opportunities? We just wanted to try to get a better picture of the types of the fields and opportunities this asset could be deployed to?

Karl Fredrik Staubo

Management

So across all of our FLNG design and the founding principle of our FLNG technology is that we have a generic design. We do not customize to the gas composition. The liquefaction plant is based on pipeline gas quality entering the vessel. To the extent the gas composition of the fields we are evaluating does not fit that quality, the units are dependent on a pretreatment facility that treats the gas strip liquids enters the FLNG. That's part of the reason why we're able to achieve the cap expert on that we are and the operational efficiencies that we have achieved. We see it as far more beneficial and safe for operations to separate the two if there is significant gas treatment required.

Ben Moore

Analyst

Wonderful. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

At this time -- thank you very much for your question. And at this time we've run out of time, so I'm now going to hand it back to your speaker, Karl Fredrik Staubo, for any closing remarks.

Karl Fredrik Staubo

Management

Thank you all for dialing in and listening to the updates from the company this quarter. We're excited about the development and look forward to reconnecting in the next quarter. Wish you all a good day and have a nice day.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.