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Kosmos Energy Ltd. (KOS)

Q3 2015 Earnings Call· Mon, Nov 2, 2015

$2.97

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, everyone. Welcome to Kosmos Energy's Third Quarter 2015 Conference Call. Just a reminder, today's call is being recorded. At this time, let me turn the call over to Neal Shah, Vice President of Finance and Treasurer at Kosmos Energy.

Neal Shah

Management

Thank you, operator, and thanks to all of you for joining us today. This morning, we issued our third quarter earnings release, which is available on the Investors page of the kosmosenergy.com Web site. We anticipate filing our 10-Q with the SEC later today which will also be available on our Web site. Joining me on the call today are Andy Inglis, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Tom Chambers, Chief Financial Officer. Following our prepared comments, we will have a question-and-answer session. Consistent with prior calls, I request that you ask only ask one primary question and one follow-up question. This will ensure we get to everyone on the call. If there are questions we aren't able to get to within our 45 minute timeframe, please contact me later today. Before we get started, I'd like to mention that this conference call includes certain forward-looking statements based on our current expectations. The risks associated with forward-looking statements have been outlined in the earnings release and in our SEC filings. We may also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures in our discussion. Management believes such measures are important in looking at the Company's historical and future performance, and these are commonly referred to industry metrics. These measures are provided in addition to, and should be read in conjunction with, the information contained in our financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP and included in our SEC filings. At this time, I'll turn the call over to Andy.

Andy Inglis

Management

Thanks, Neal, and good morning everyone. Through the quarter we maintained our disciplined approach to executing our strategy and are well positioned both financially with a strong and motivated organization to continue to execute our plans to create value for shareholders. As I go through my remarks today, there are three points I want to emphasize. First, we have a consistent, proven business model that has been executed with discipline over the last decade and is designed to create shareholder value in a low commodity price environment. Second, we have a world class production and development asset in Ghana with a strong cash margin even with today’s oil price. We expect to double gross production within 15 months which will continue to grow our cash flow. Third, we believe we have one of the best exploration portfolios in the industry and they are focused on maturing our existing portfolio and adding strategic new ventures. In addition to the Mauritania and Senegal basin which we opened earlier this year, we have continued to high grade the portfolio with additional high quality basin opening opportunities. Our first point of differentiation is our consistent, proven business strategy. While the oil and gas industry is facing challenging times today with many companies refocusing strategy and reducing spend, Kosmos remains focused on executing the same disciplined strategy with its creative success since the Company was founded over a decade ago. We can do that because our business was designed to compete and most importantly to create value in a lower commodity price environment. It is only when commodity prices drop that you see which companies have been managed for the long-term. As a result our differentiated strategy, assets and balance sheet are distinguished from our peers. Over the last few years, we prudently build a…

Tom Chambers

Management

Thanks, Andy and good morning everybody. Financial performance for the third quarter was very strong. Kosmos exited the third quarter of 2015 with 1.9 billion of liquidity and 517 million of net debt, which was down slightly compared to the previous quarter. As Andy mentioned, during the quarter we completed our semi-annual borrowing base redetermination and we retained full access to the $1.5 billion RBL facility. Our balance sheet and liquidity remained strong allowing us to continue to focus on executing our strategy. We finished the third quarter with two crude oil liftings generating oil revenues of $97 million. This excludes derivative settlements of $61 million over the quarter. When you add our revenue to our settled hedges in the quarter it reflects a realized price of approximately $85.09 per barrel. For the quarter, we generated net income of $60 million or $0.15 per diluted share, adjusting for the impact of one-time items that affect the comparability the Company generated adjusted net income of $7 million or $0.02 per diluted share for the third quarter of 2015. On the cost side operating expense for the quarter was $23 million or $12.52 per barrel sold versus 15 million or $10.46 per barrel sold in the third quarter of 2014. The increase in operating expense is primarily related to increased sales volumes, as well as non-routine maintenance on the FPSO, including expenses to repair the gas compressor. Exploration expense for the quarter was $19 million reflecting ongoing seismic processing primarily in Senegal and Portugal. General and administrative costs for the quarter were 27 million compared with $41 million incurred during the second quarter of 2015. The sequential decrease was driven by lower equity-based compensation expense and lower cost during the quarter. Depreciation expense was $36 million or $19.46 per barrel of oil…

Operator

Operator

Certainly. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, in the interest of time and so that other participants have the opportunity to ask their questions during the conference as well, we ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question during the Q&A. [Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from the line of Ed Westlake with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead with your questions.

Ed Westlake

Analyst

So just on Ghana and I guess we’re getting closer to FID on MTAP so just wondering if there is a breakeven again that you can share for the projects and still seems like costs are coming down. So maybe just run through how that project is becoming on its competitive, should be fairly competitive?

Andy Inglis

Management

Yes we are getting closer to and just to remind you that the next phase of the development in Ghana of the Jubilee will include not only sort of Jubilee resource, but we’ll also include Mahogany and Teak. The project is a good project, it's clearly leveraging off the existing infrastructure, the Jubilee FPSO. So as you sort of look around the world of projects that do compete in our low price environment, this is absolutely one that does that maybe primarily because of the quality of the resource but also because you got the primary investment in the FPSO was already there. So it is a solid project and is one that we believe is obviously very competitive.

Ed Westlake

Analyst

But do you have a rough breakeven?

Andy Inglis

Management

I am not going to give you the breakeven, but what I will say is that the breakeven is sort of not dissimilar to the breakeven of the initial project.

Ed Westlake

Analyst

And then I love how you're going to go for less labor twice, but maybe give us a view of the potential resources if I mean I appreciate it's still very early but on the Sao Tome? Thanks.

Andy Inglis

Management

Yes look Sao Tome is interesting it's absolutely at the fairway of what Kosmos does well. This is a basin that we believe has been underexplored, primarily the inboard it is an area that we know well from our seller experience in actual Guinea and we’ve been able to secure through a series of deals now an entry position that is 14,000 square kilometers what 600-700 Gulf of Mexico blocks. So it is a position that’s got scale, the fundamental concepts are very similar to Mauritania we but that the quality of reservoir is outboard and the seismic that’s available on public demand clearly gives us encouragement at various --there are good structure there. So look I think this is a great example of Kosmos continuing to execute its strategy, and it's all about getting big acreage positions, being always so you can secure good fiscal terms and then having the space and running room with low commitments to do the exploration right where we will start with a seismic program and if that proves up the concept, we’ll then be able to move forward to a drilling program. So we’re encouraged by it.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of David Gamboa with TPH Partners. Please proceed with your questions.

David Gamboa

Analyst · TPH Partners. Please proceed with your questions.

So I have a one question please. So I appreciate that you guys have maintained sizeable through your strategy over the past years which have been quite successful for you guys. But now on the like of acting counter cyclically we’ve seen some of the projects and discoveries which are still in the appraisal or pre-FID space that are might be trading at a potentially cheaper or similar cost to which it would require finding new barrels from an exploration perspective. I am just interested in knowing if how you guys think about deploying capital into buying pre-FID barrels versus putting more capital into exploration with that or anything you would be interested in doing? Thanks.

Andy Inglis

Management

Yes I think it is an interestingly timed I think fundamentally you have got to come back to the key question of ensuring of our capital and human resources are being deployed in the optimal way. I think we have a very good set of opportunities internally which we've accessed at very low cost to say term they wanted that we just talked about is an example of that so as you look at barrels that are pre-FID we have to be confident that in the capital sense they compete with what we have, so we are not ruling anything at the moment but to rule it in it has to be competitive from a capital allocation perspective. And I think the second thing that we are very rigorous about is that it has to be something that we can add value to so that has to be a resource that you could grow where there is a resource base that has additional potential, so we are putting a very-very tight filter on it and I think that today’s world is providing opportunities which weren’t accessible before but ultimately we have to ensure that they compete with anything that we have internally I think you get a sense from my remarks that we've got a very full exploration portfolio things that are of high quality that we've accessed at very low cost and that we can explore efficiently so that's the comparison that we are using as we evaluate inorganic opportunities.

David Gamboa

Analyst · TPH Partners. Please proceed with your questions.

And lastly just a follow-up on the Ireland decision pulling out of that country can you give us a bit more color upon why or what's the main thing that failed, what's the main issue there in terms of drilling there any cost figure that made you pull out of the country? Thanks.

Andy Inglis

Management

Well David and again it's really unlike to the question that you just asked which is I believe that you get to a quality exploration outcome by creating quality through choice always having more things to do when you have the capital to do it. And I think Ireland was simply a process of high grading as we look through the opportunity set that we have the prospectivity that we developed versus other opportunities we had in the portfolio it didn’t like and therefore we made the decision to withdraw.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from the line of John Herrlin with Société Générale. Please proceed with your questions. John Herrlin your line is live, please proceed with your questions. Please check if you are un-muted. Okay, well our next question comes from the line of Pavel Molchanov with Raymond James. Please proceed with your questions.

Pavel Molchanov

Analyst · Raymond James. Please proceed with your questions.

I appreciate a slightly more granular guidance on the timing for TEN startup do you have a sense at this point of what the kind of trajectory of production ramp will be looked like to get to the target capacity?

Andy Inglis

Management

Look one of the basic sort of parameters that will impact that I think that we will have I mean I think current view is we will have 10 if not 11 of the wells completed so there will be a full well stock so and that well stock will be more than sufficient to sell the FPSO capacity. So I actually think that would really be dependent on the initial reliability of the facility and demonstrating a reliable up time in terms of in my due event today I believe the projects has been very well executed to-date. The FPSO is leaving Singapore at a very high level of completion and so one expects that the level of pre-commissioning that was taken place to be good so I anticipate that we will have a relatively sound build up to that plateau rate and our view is that certainly by the end of 2016 that will start in 2017 we should be able to deliver reliably at the plateau.

Pavel Molchanov

Analyst · Raymond James. Please proceed with your questions.

And then slightly broader question given that you operate in a pretty diverse set of countries have you had any discussions with any of the host governments to-date about potentially revising the fiscal terms in light of the commodity price environment to make them perhaps a little more lucrative or generous than they were originally?

Andy Inglis

Management

Initially the only answer to develop capital is no and why and I actually believe that the countries that we are in we've negotiated in a very competitive terms from day 1. Therefore they didn't visit to the sort of world we’re in today. So it is hard to go to those governments and actually sort of plead your case when you're already in a sort of relatively sound position. So we're not suffering and then not really as I've said in my remarks it has been a fundamental part of our strategy is to ensure that when we enter a country we're targeting full cycle breakevens in the $30 to $50 range. So if it doesn’t work at that level at entry we don't go in, so perhaps there is no need to have that renegotiation. And second I'm a big believer that what comes around goes around and I think we're expecting that governments honor agreements and the reverse works for us. So now we have it and I think that the fundamental why we have it is because we've got terms that work in today's environment.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of John Herrlin, Société Générale. Please go ahead with your questions.

John Herrlin

Analyst

With sands in the head can you give us a sense of what the contract terms are like vis-à-vis Ghana?

Andy Inglis

Management

In Sao Tome?

John Herrlin

Analyst

Yes.

Andy Inglis

Management

Yes I would actually just without giving you the…

John Herrlin

Analyst

Well I don't expect specifics, that is why I wanted a comment.

Andy Inglis

Management

Those are very competitive John. As we look at it in terms of the quartile of that countries we are in Sao Tome would be up there and one that would absolutely sort of match the Ghana's fiscal terms.

John Herrlin

Analyst

For the wells that you're drilling the seven catalysts that you mentioned, what’s the average time to TD 70 days-80 days can you give…?

Andy Inglis

Management

Yes and what we’re saying John is that the average time to TD is 90 days. It will vary from well-to-well but the average is 90.

John Herrlin

Analyst

And has Chevron come back to get it on Tortue?

Andy Inglis

Management

No, and they are not required to. They have essentially 90 days from when will completed the Marsouin well, so we'd anticipate them coming back to us sort of the end of the first quarter.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Al Stanton with RBC. Please proceed with your questions.

Al Stanton

Analyst · RBC. Please proceed with your questions.

Just quickly on Marsouin, is there anything more that you can say about the weather in terms of being on schedule and on budget?

Andy Inglis

Management

The well is on schedule and on budget. [Multiple Speakers], yes go ahead Al.

Al Stanton

Analyst · RBC. Please proceed with your questions.

You wouldn't say it's going to be concluded in November rather than Q4 or anything like that?

Andy Inglis

Management

No, I think in the guidance we've given to the market which remains the guidance says it was spud on the 28th of August and it is a 90 day well. So you can figure out the timing on that.

Al Stanton

Analyst · RBC. Please proceed with your questions.

And then just finally then on in terms of being counter cyclical it's an opportunity and also a problem so people like ConocoPhillips were saying the other day that they didn't want to be in the deepwater. So does that create a bit of a dilemma for you in terms of looking for an operator for developing your fields you're looking to sell on or divest after the exploration phase or conversely does it create an opportunity in the event that you might seek to operate some of your future discoveries?

Andy Inglis

Management

Well now I mean I think that sort of its one companies view and I think we need to be careful about what motivates that company to say that. I firmly believe the future growth of supply will come from both the unconventionals in the U.S. the shale plays and it will come from deepwater. Deepwater occupies around 7% or 8% of the world supply today, and as you look at meeting the forecast demand, deepwater will continue to grow, but what’s important and whether you’re looking at unconventional or deepwater is that it is the best projects in both of those areas have more progressed, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing in the unconventional onshore today in the U.S., the best basins with the best rocks are actually going forward, and I think the same will be true in the deepwater where fields that have great reservoir will have scale, that have good fiscal terms will proceed. So I'm of a view that sort of nothing's changed actually, we’re going on a big leap here and actually what’s important is quality counts and nothing's ever to changed. So from that perspective when we look at the opportunities the Greater Tortue appraisal will create and we look at the super-majors and their need to grow. I think we have a very attractive project.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Petr Grishchenko with Imperial Capital. Please proceed with your questions.

Petr Grishchenko

Analyst · Imperial Capital. Please proceed with your questions.

Can you please quantify the amendment of the Atwood Achiever contract, and also remind us what the percentage of decline in their rate represents?

Andy Inglis

Management

Yes, I think Petr I’ll let Tom to just to chime in but well essentially what happened is that we added an additional year to the contract, it's originally a three-year contract we’d executed a year of it, so there were two years to go, we added a third year, we added the third year of additional year at $285,000 per day that 285 then gets averaged with the remaining two years which are at 595 and if you do the math on that you get to an average rate of 495, yes?

Petr Grishchenko

Analyst · Imperial Capital. Please proceed with your questions.

And do you contemplate amending the cargo lease contracts for the TEN project and would it be the manageable rate card you could obtain?

Andy Inglis

Management

Can you just repeat the question Petr?

Petr Grishchenko

Analyst · Imperial Capital. Please proceed with your questions.

Do you contemplate amending the FSPO lease for the TEN project?

Andy Inglis

Management

No terribly we don’t at the moment.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Sergey Bolshakov with Invest Asset Management. Please go ahead with your questions.

Sergey Bolshakov

Analyst · Invest Asset Management. Please go ahead with your questions.

The question is from the fixed income perspective. If you can please comment on the covenants of the reserve base facility, has there been any changes, have you added any new covenants, are you still computing the debt cover ratio based on the last 12 months or have you changed it to the annualized numbers? Are all covenants doing maintenance or have there been any changes there?

Andy Inglis

Management

So yes this time there have not been any changes to any of the covenants. All the covenants as we had, as they have been previously in the documents still remain, so there is -- the redetermination did not have any covenant change whatsoever.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And this does conclude today’s question-and-answer session. I’d like to turn the floor back to Neal Shah for closing remarks.

Neal Shah

Management

Thank you, operator. We appreciate all of you joining us on the call today and your interest in Kosmos. If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Thank you very much.