2024 Executive Chairman Letter to JSE Shareholders

Jadestone Energy PLC

30 December 2024

 

Dear shareholder;

2024, and in particular the second half of the year, has been a pivotal time in Jadestone's evolution.  Our production has grown strongly to record levels, primarily driven by the start up of the key Akatara gas development in Indonesia.  We achieved a major milestone in early December, when Akatara successfully completed the formal performance test, concluding the commissioning phase at Akatara and transitioning day-to-day operations to Jadestone.

While it is still early in the asset's life, Akatara's initial performance has been encouraging, with high facility uptime and consistent gas demand from the buyer resulting in gross production rates of c.6,000 boe/d, including LPGs and condensate.  It is right that we should recognize the significant commitment and hard work of the Jadestone team and other key stakeholders, including the Indonesian government, in bringing Akatara onstream.  Our focus is now on safely maintaining high uptime levels at Akatara, which in turn will generate significant cashflow for Jadestone and benefit both the local and national economies in Sumatra and Indonesia.

Beyond Akatara, the performance of Jadestone's producing portfolio in 2024 has demonstrated the benefits of the company's diversification initiatives in recent years.  We are now much more resilient as a result.  The CWLH asset offshore Australia continues to outperform our expectations, confirming the acquisition of a 33.33% interest since 2022 was the right growth path for our Australia portfolio.  Production in Malaysia continues to benefit from the successful PM323 drilling program completed in late 2023.  Recently, Sinphuhorm production has been elevated due to the successful completion of a booster compression project earlier this year coupled with a period of high gas demand in northern Thailand. Montara's facilities uptime and production have been much improved in 2024, due to the significant spend on the integrity of the Montara Venture FPSO's tanks since the middle of 2022.  Following this work, I am confident that Montara's performance will be much improved as we prepare to sidetrack the Skua-11 well next year, the main activity in our 2025 capital program.

I am also very proud to report on an excellent HSE performance during the year, with zero incidents of major environmental harm and our Indonesia and Malaysia operations achieving c.8 million and c.2 million manhours respectively without a lost time injury.

Group production has been growing throughout the year, and we have seen production in excess of 25,000 boe/d when Akatara has been delivering sales gas at contractual levels. We are on track to meet our annual production guidance for 2024, with an outcome of c.18,500 boe/d, which would represent a 30% increase over 2023 and an annual record for Jadestone.

During the year we continued to advance both organic and inorganic growth initiatives.  We progressed the commercialization of our Vietnam gas discoveries through the signature of a heads of agreement for gas sales from the Nam Du and U Minh gas discoveries.  Converting this into a full-term gas sales agreement is proving to take longer than we would have hoped, but this is a strategically important resource for both Jadestone and Vietnam, and so it remains within shareholders' interests to continue negotiations with the Vietnamese government.  We also secured a potentially material near-term growth opportunity offshore Malaysia through the award of the PNLP Cluster PSC, a collection of existing fields which we know well and where production is currently shut in pending reactivation.  The license award is in close proximity to our existing assets, and so will benefit from our regional subsurface knowledge.  Bespoke fiscal terms more suitable for mature fields and synergy benefits from our existing operations enhance the potential attractiveness of a redevelopment plan for these fields.  Combined with the potential for further infill drilling on our existing assets after the successful 2023 campaign, our Malaysia portfolio is increasing in strategic importance for Jadestone.

There have been significant changes to the Board and management structure throughout 2024 as we position Jadestone to capitalize on and continue the growth of recent years.  I was appointed as Non-Executive Chairman in March and recently moved to Executive Chairman.  Together with our recently appointed Chief Financial Officer, Andrew Fairclough, and Chief Operating Officer, Joanne Williams, we now have a settled and focused management team in place to drive forward the next phase of growth.  Linda Beal also joined the Board as a Non-Executive Director earlier this year, bringing significant financial experience, and she was recently appointed as Senior Independent Director.  We will continue to monitor the Board's composition to ensure that Jadestone has the appropriate blend of experience and expertise to guide the executive management and provide effective governance over the wider business.

After a period of significant investment in recent years, the near-term focus of the business will be operational excellence and financial discipline.  Operational excellence will safely maximize production and revenue, while keeping operating costs under control.  Financial discipline will ensure capital is allocated only to projects with the highest return and lowest risk, that we act within a financial framework appropriate for our size and scale, and that we control overheads.  All of these efforts are aimed at driving the free cash flow generation our shareholders deserve, a strengthening of our balance sheet and a resumption of shareholder returns, which remains a priority for the Board.

A robust operational and financial platform will also facilitate the next phase of growth for Jadestone.  Our strategic aim of being the leading regional independent upstream company in Asia-Pacific is unchanged, with inorganic growth remaining a key element of delivering on this objective, as we have the operating presence, the people and the skills to seek out and realize value from assets no longer retained by larger companies.

Jadestone's recent share price performance does not reflect the successful strategic delivery of recent years and the positive outlook for the company.  Challenges at Montara and the extended commissioning of Akatara undermined confidence in the company and its financial strength.  However, these challenges are now behind us and with a refreshed and reinvigorated management team and board, my focus is on driving discipline and high performance across the business, in turn demonstrating Jadestone's cash generating potential.  When we achieve this, I am confident that our share price will rise to a level more representative of the value we see in the asset base.  In early 2025, we will set out our plans for the coming year.  We will look to communicate our progress clearly, setting targets and delivering on them.

Thank you for your continued shareholding and support for the company, and on behalf of everyone at Jadestone I wish you, your families and friends a happy holiday period and a peaceful and prosperous 2025.

Adel Chaouch, Ph.D., P.E.

Executive Chairman

 

END