Operator
Good morning, and welcome to Seplat Energy PLC's half year results 2026. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode.
Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session through the phone lines, and instructions will follow at that time. I would like to remind all the participants that this call is being recorded.
I will now hand over to James Thompson, Head of Investor Relations, to open the presentation. Please go ahead.
James Thompson
Thank you very much, John. Hello, everybody.
Good afternoon. Welcome to Seplat Energy's financial results for the half year 2026.
On the call today, I'm joined, and for the last time, our CEO Roger Brown. Alongside him, we are joined by Effiong Okon, who will be our CEO from August 1st, as well our COO Samson Ezugworie and our CFO Eleanor Adaralegbe.
We will follow the normal results process. We have our Q&A that will follow the prepared remarks.
Before we start, I'd like to take you, encourage you to take note of the forward-looking statement here on slide 2. Now I'll pass the call over to Roger for the opening remarks.
Roger, over to you.
Roger Brown
Thanks, James. Hello, everyone.
Let's run through the six months financial highlights. In terms of production, you can see there we're just slightly less than 140,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, and it's within guidance range of 135 to 155.
We've had a recovery in the Q2, you'll see a much better performance in the onshore. If you recall in Q1, we were interrupted by a shut-in of the pipeline.
We see a recovery on that, and so we can now see quarter-on-quarter, we're up 15%, and we maintain our guidance. In terms of group revenue, we've obviously now benefited from a strong oil price, and we're 30% up year-on-year, and you can see across NGLs to gas to oil, they're all up in terms of percentages.
Then in terms of quarter-on-quarter, again, Q2's been much stronger quarter for us, and we're up 16%. Looking at EBITDA, we are approaching, not far off $1 billion for the half year, so that's up last year on last year 52% margin.
Look then at the six months cash flow from operations pre-tax, again, it's almost $1 billion, up 29% year-on-year. It's a very strong set of financials in terms of the P&L.
Then in terms of dividends, you will see that we've, this has been a trend for us over a while now. We're increasing our dividends, and we've increased the second quarter dividend to 12 cents a share, and that's up 161% year-on-year.
That's a $72 million payment. If you look at year-to-date combining with Q1, we're 21 cents per share or $124 million.
We really started to return some value back to shareholders. With a new dividend guide, we would expect to outturn this year at 45 cents per share or $270 million, which is about 80% year-on-year.
Moving then to the operational highlights, Sam will deal with most of these things, but just give you a summary. Production growth, we're up 39%, we've added about 20,000 barrels a day quarter-on-quarter on our onshore working interest production, we're just slightly less than 71,000 barrels.
Strong performance across all the assets from east to west to Elcrest. Our commitment to lowering CO2 emissions, and we can see there that we've got a 29% decrease in CO2 emissions, and that's largely from the onshore with a Flares Out program.
In the offshore business, we've started to reduce CO2 emissions there as well. In terms of Western Asset, 2% flare gas, and Eastern Asset, the same, 5% gas flares with ANOH ramping up.
We would expect to be with ANOH at full production, we just expect to see those in just as routine flares. In terms of the offshore highlights, in the idle well restoration program, this is a very efficient way to bring revenues into the business, and we've added 16,000 barrels out of 15 wells, our commitment has always been about 1,000 barrels a well.
If you look for the first half, we've added 26,000 barrels from 24 wells. If you look at what that means since inception, 73 wells have been restored and added 75,000 barrels of oil equivalent, this is really material.
That's cost us $109 million, which is about $1.5 million a well, and at these oil prices, literally, these are paying back in a matter of weeks. The next point to say here in the offshore is that we have announced this morning that we have signed heads of agreement with NNPC to do the 10% sell-down.
I'll move straight on to the next slide because we have a summary of that transaction. This is something that we highlighted to you anyway in the Capital Markets Day, and it's been something that's been in discussion for quite some time.
We've now agreed this heads of agreement, which is a legally binding document. It will then go into sale and purchase agreement to finalize it.
We are selling 25% of the acquisition we made from Exxon for $281.6 million. The effective date of that transaction is 1 April 2026.
If you recall that we completed on the 12th of December 2024. We expect to close this during this half, second half this year, when we sign the SPA and have the regulatory approvals to proceed.
The observations there that we will remain operator, and that's very critical, in the JV partnership, and we have alignment fully with our partner, NNPC, who we have a very strong relationship with, and the sale proceeds, largely offset lower free cash flow over the plan period. In terms of the proceeds itself of $281.6 million, we're going to return half of that, and project to return half of that to investors, and the remainder, we will take down some leverage and also return some money to cash.
What that means in terms of dividends is that the with $140 million forecast, then we would expect to add that to the core dividend and special dividend the year and go to 410. That's the 68.3 cents per share, which is a very material return of dividends and very big proportion of the $1 billion that we've committed.
You can see that on the right-hand side, some of the metrics, the production, the capex, the reserves, which is about a 13% reduction in reserves. The important thing is that even at 30% working interest, we're committing to over to 2030.
Let me just hand across now to Sam, who can run you through the operational.
Samson Ezugworie
Thank you very much, Roger, and good morning, good afternoon, everyone. On the operational performance, we start, as always, with safety, which is our priority and core to sustained operations.
It's also good to underscore that within the first half of 2026, we recorded no lost time injuries across all our business units, onshore, offshore, with 18.8 million man-hours of work-related activities accomplished within the same period. Roger already started highlighting the key message and achievement we're making with the end of routine flaring program in our environmental stewardship across our businesses, and then the emission intensity reduction down to 16.4 kg CO2/boe in our onshore business, and also the big improvement and major improvement that we're also recording in emission intensity decline, 9% in our offshore business.
All this are all coming together to lay the foundation for the operational performance. Then going straight into the operational performance for the first half of the year, we saw strong performance in the second quarter following the recovery from the Trans Forcados Pipeline that was out for 38 days in the first quarter, and then riding on the idle well restoration program that Roger highlighted and improved evacuation across all our assets.
What you will see is a 4% growth year-on-year on our production performance compared to equivalent period in the last year, and quarter-on-quarter, you will see a 15% growth between quarter 1 and quarter 2, 2026, for the really good reasons that already been highlighted. Unit production opex also saw some decline in the second quarter of 2026 due to improved production and lower costs.
Half year, our unit production opex is at $15.8/boe, and this is inclusive of Yoho restoration costs, and ex-Yoho, we will be back to $14 per barrel of oil equivalent. Roger already made the strong statement around the idle well restoration program, which continues to deliver real value for the business, and we continue to drive those.
We have 26 of those in this remaining second half of the year, and we are on track to deliver them. If we now go straight into our midstream business, our midstream business also experienced significant growth and improvement in the period.
Year-on-year, we are up 4%, and quarter-on-quarter, also some very big significant improvement in our midstream business and gas delivery. Within the period, we have seen improved performance from AGPC, ANOH gas plant, and which also promises to unlock more value in the third quarter of this year when OB3 becomes fully operational.
Also, the Oben-OB3 (OB3) Phase 1 project is also on schedule for commissioning and achieving first gas in the fourth quarter of this year. If you recall, this is one project that will deliver additional 120 million scf per day, taking our export capacity in the offshore business to 240 million scf per day by the fourth quarter of this year.
Then I would end up with giving you an outlook for the third quarter and fourth quarter, the remaining half of this year. On the gas, I already started talking to our delivery of the Oben-OB3 gas pipeline and project that would that is very critical towards meeting our gas program for the year.
We will ramp up our production out of ANOH, and then commence LPG production. It's also important to highlight at this point that at the Oben gas plant, we signed a spare capacity program with a third party, GAC, to bring in additional gas into that plant to maximize the utilization of the installed ullage at Oben.
That is also coming in. Drilling campaign, you will see that by the next quarter, we will have a total of eight rigs drilling across Seplat businesses.
Happy to announce that we are now fully ready to start drilling offshore, with the first rig coming in, and also you would have noticed that we have signed, fully signed the contract for the second rig that is going to commence drilling activities in our offshore business by the first quarter of next year. We will continue with the idle well restoration program, targeting the remaining 26, and we will have two rigs in the Eastern Asset.
Also of importance here is to underscore the fact that we are now drilling our next exploration well in Aku, which is coming after the last one that we drilled in Sibiri in 2022. Then the Western Asset, we have four rigs coming up, and then one rig that is on continuous program in the Elcrest for the next four years.
On the integrity and restoration program, I'm sure you will also like to hear that the long-awaited Yoho is mechanically complete, and we are now going into commissioning, as we speak, in the coming days, and the volumes from Yoho will come and begin to count as we go into the third quarter of this year. Single-point-of-failure analysis continues to deliver a lot of value for us in the business.
This is one program that we have significantly used to manage deferment and unscheduled interruptions in the offshore business, and that is what we have also used to mitigate the delayed restoration of Yoho because we promised that we're going to restore Yoho by the end of June. Onshore deferment improvement continues to also get significant attention.
With all this, I would now hand over to Eleanor, who will take us through the financial outcome of the first half of the year. Eleanor, over to you.
Eleanor Adaralegbe
Thank you very much, Sam, and hello, everybody. Thank you for making the time to join our call.
It's been a very busy half year for us, and we're very pleased to be sharing some of the details from the financials. Let me start with what has really driven our strong financial performance in this first half.
As Roger already mentioned, revenues increased 30% to $1.8 billion, supported not just by the stronger realized price, but also by higher production. I think what's important and I'd like to really flag here is the realized premium to Brent, which has increased by over $7 per barrel, and up significantly from $2, almost $2 per barrel in the prior period.
I'd like to stay that this premium has become a very meaningful competitive advantage for us at Seplat and continues to strengthen the quality of our revenue base. The second point I want to make on this slide is we are seeing much stronger earnings conversion this time.
Our earnings per share has increased to almost 27 cents per share, more than five times the levels that we saw in the prior period. I'd highlight also that beyond the commodity prices, we are also starting to see benefits from the combined business, both offshore and onshore, some of those efficiencies that we delivered in our onshore business, we're starting to see that come through alongside some fiscal advantages that are coming from onshore assets since we converted to PIA.
These factors are what has really supported a much stronger margin profile for us in our business. Finally on this slide, I'll just like to highlight the hedging strategy, which has continued to work exactly as we have planned.
Basically simple puts. We're taking advantage of the upside, and in a stronger price environment, that's also benefiting the shareholders.
Going to the next slide, this slide, the key takeaway here really is it's really showing the strength of our cash generation. Our free cash flow at $526 million in the first half of the year is actually almost the same as our free cash flow from our 2020 from all of 2025, so that's quite significant.
Yes, it reflects the higher oil prices, the strong operational performance, and also we got some benefit from receivables collection during this period. Now, I would highlight as well that the capex was lower because we've had that more of our capex you start to see in the second half, capex this first half was just about 27.5% of our plan for the year.
I think importantly really is the underlying free cash flow before debt, which you can see on the slide at $632 million. This is what supported the decision that we made to accelerate the debt reduction in this period.
Obviously, this has saved us interest charges and, in line with our capital allocation framework. If you go to the next slide, this is really, the strength of our balance sheet continues to show.
Our gross debt has reduced from pre-acquisition levels at $1.4 billion to around $805 million, we've effectively returned to our debt portfolio before we made this acquisition, another very positive position for us. It's showing that we've rapidly managed our debt portfolios, and within six quarters, we've basically, paid back everything that we've almost everything that we've spent in acquiring the asset from Exxon.
Total if you look on the far the top right-hand corner of the slide, you'll see our available liquidity of approximately $834 million, and that exceeds our gross debt today. With basically near-term maturities, almost, the next big ones really are in 2030, we have, significant free cash flow generation that continues to support the business and so gives us additional flexibility and to support all of our growth plans.
My final slide is on the dividend. It's usually the best slide.
We usually keep it last. Roger has really spoken to, all the benefits that we have put forward as dividend.
I think it's worth reiterating it's actually highlighting the confidence the board has in the underlying business, and this is why you saw all these announcements, in dividend. Just to reiterate, for the second quarter, we've declared 12 cents per share, which has taken the total distributions declared in the first half to 21 cents per share.
Then we've also increased our guidance, our full year guidance, to 45 cents per share, and this is after considering the potential completion of the 10% divestment. I think the second point is the additional $140 million that we have highlighted will be paid to the shareholders subject to the completion of the transaction.
This is what then takes the dividend up to the 68.3 cents that Roger mentioned earlier. I think I'll just really say that, look, we're very pleased to be making this much progress as a business.
Considering the target that we laid out during the Capital Markets Day of delivering a cumulative dividend of $1 billion, we've already delivered 41% of that commitment, and so really $410 million for 2026, very significant for shareholders. I guess, in summary, really, I'll end with just saying the message for us is very simple, stronger earnings, exceptional cash generation, rapidly deleveraged, our balance sheet, and also increased returns to shareholders.
What this is also showing going back to our, capital allocation framework is we are delivering on all the four pillars while also maintaining the capacity that we need to invest for future growth. Thank you.
I'd like to hand over to Roger. Thank you.
Roger Brown
Thanks, Eleanor. Before we go look at the guidance going forward, let's just talk a little bit around the leadership changes.
We've obviously announced this in June, but in the room here today, we have our new chief executive officer, who will take over, Effiong Okon, who will take over from 1st of August. Of course, Effiong not new to the business.
He is been here eight years, joined in 2018, and has been very much focused on operations of the business, more latterly in the gas business, ANOH, and brought it to first gas. Effiong will take over.
I'll step down on tomorrow, actually, 31st, and Effiong will start take over on the Saturday, actually, the 1st of August. Then also the other change will happen at the end of the year.
It will be that our current chairman, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, will step down, and Mr. Tony Elumelu will take over from the 1st of January.
Again, we've he's been on the board since 22nd of January this year. Let me hand across now to Effy to deal with the second half guidance.
Effiong Okon
All right. Thank you very much, Roger.
Thanks, Roger, for 13 years in Seplat. It's quite a long time.
Thanks for the legacy. Thanks for all the contributions you've made to the company.
I'm sure if you look back 13 years when you joined, I'm not too sure that you imagined Seplat would be where it is today. I'm sure it's a moment of pride for you as well.
I want to say thank you for that foundation, and we will build on that going forward to take Seplat to unimaginable levels. Thank you.
Done. Good afternoon, everyone, again.
For the second half, you heard from Sam, from Roger, from Eleanor. We'll continue to pretty much consolidate on performance.
We'll keep driving operational excellence. It's going to be a very busy second half of the year as we restore production at Yoho, also add gas to LNG, and also ramp up ANOH.
It's going to be a very exciting period. If you look back, Q1 was very challenging, Q2 we did recover, and then the second half, we expect and hope to recover even better so that we can deliver strong operational performance that then drives the very strong financial performance you heard from Eleanor.
I'm not going to read through all the slides. I think focus for us for second half is really, really driving that operational performance and then delivering, world-class safety, as you heard from Sam.
Then finally, if you look at our guidance, we're very much, very much confident that we should end up the year within our guidance. The only two additionals slight tweak you see on the slide on the right side is operating costs, which is pretty much tied to Yoho, you heard from Sam, and also on the cash tax as well.
Higher oil prices, we've, of course, benefited a lot from that, additional tax to be paid on that additional cash that's coming in. I think that's really where we want to end up 2026.
Thank you. Back to James.
James Thompson
Great. Thank you very much, speakers.
John, on call, I think time to open up for Q&A, please. Have we got anyone on the line?
Operator
I will give out the instructions first. For those interested to ask questions, you can submit questions in written format via the webcast page by clicking the Ask a Question button.
If you are dialed into the call and would like to ask a question, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Once again, for those that are dialed into the conference lines, if you are interested in asking a question, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad.
It seems that we have no questions on the conference line. I will now hand over to James Thompson to read out the written questions.
James Thompson
Okay. Great.
Just while we give people time to put their hand up and ask some questions, I think we can dive into things here. Thanks very much for the questions that are coming in at the moment.
Maybe we can start on capex. We've got a question here on guidance for 2026.
One, are we actually going to be able to spend the money? Obviously, we didn't spend much in the first half.
What are the components of the second half capex? Maybe Sam, do you want to pick that one up?
Samson Ezugworie
Indeed. Thank you very much for that question.
If you saw my slide on drilling activities, drilling activities is actually going to be fully loaded in the second half of this year, and that is where we are pretty confident that we are going to spend our capex for the year. I mentioned that the drilling offshore is commencing.
The rig is finalizing its operations with one of the operators in-country in the first week of August, and we'll be moving to the offshore location. In the onshore space of things, we've picked up two additional rigs, making it a total of seven rigs that will be operational in the last half of the year.
With that, indeed, we are going to not only fully recover, but do a bit more because I also highlighted the drilling of the Aku exploration well. That was actually on our program for 2028, but with all the additional capacity we built for the second half of the year, we have now accelerated that well into 2027.
I would also like to highlight and note that that rig, the well was actually spudded in the late evening of yesterday, we are already in operations at Aku location. Thank you.
James Thompson
Very good. Right.
Just have we got any calls? Hopefully that's been enough time for someone to put their hand up.
John, is anyone on the line?
Operator
Yes. We do have a question from the line of Nikolas Stefanou with Red.
Please go ahead.
Nikolas Stefanou
Hi, guys. It's Nik here.
Can you hear me?
James Thompson
Yep, we can hear you.
Nikolas Stefanou
All right, great. I would like to start by wishing Roger all the best in his next chapter in his life.
Will you tell us what you plan on doing, Roger, after this? Or is that something you want to keep to yourself?
Then also to congratulate Effy on his step-up as CEO of the company. Guys, my first question is on maybe the, how the company will look going forward.
I guess, Roger, under your sort of helming was sort of an organic narrative. The company did grow a lot.
You did really a good job here. Effy, you had been more of sort of operational guy, kind of the person that gets things done in, in operations.
Are you thinking of sort of deviating the strategy of the company going forward? Any specific sort of style you think, we're going to see Seplat kind of implementing under your leadership?
That's the first question. The second one is on production.
Can you give us a steer on what the exit rate would be for this year and what we should expect in 2027 production? That would be quite helpful.
The last one is for Eleanor on the capital structure. I think I ask you this question every call.
Is there an indication from you about now, especially with this post-acquisition, what I call the 20 sorry, the notes in 2027, should that be, a fair assumption? Thank you.
James Thompson
Okay. Thanks, Nik.
You've got those, or?
Roger Brown
Yeah. Maybe, Nik, I think we need to We missed the last question.
You just broke up a bit there. Could you repeat that one?
The last one.
Nikolas Stefanou
Yeah. Following the transaction that has been announced today, does it make sense to assume that you guys would call the 20 sorry, the notes in 2027, the bonds?
Roger Brown
The bonds.
Eleanor Adaralegbe
The bonds. Okay.
Roger Brown
Got you. Got you.
Okay. Got that.
Okay. Thanks very much for your kind comments.
I haven't disclosed what the future of me is, but at the minute, my near term is to go on holiday and spend some time with the family. That's what we'll do, but I'm sure it'll come out in due course if I do something else.
In terms of where the company's going, look, let me just say one thing is we laid out a five-year plan September last year, and, obviously, in that plan, we then identified the 10% sell-down. We didn't give any real detailed numbers, but we gave some guidance numbers in terms of production going and we've given it, reiterated it today here, going from 200,000 target to 170,000 target.
When the deal actually closes and completes, we'll give some updated numbers at that point. The five-year plan, is still the five-year plan.
I would leave it for Effy to get in to seat to talk about the future, but it's a bit early, I think, to talk about that. We will have probably, with the change of chairman and everything else, I'm pretty sure that there will be a reaffirmation of the strategy going forward, and that will be put out in due course.
I think it's fair to say at this point. It's a bit early to talk about that.
Effiong Okon
Let me just add a few things there. I think if you look at the history of the company, for 16 years, the company's consistently grown, right?
From the Western Asset acquisition in 2010 to the East, and then we pretty much did the Eland acquisition. We're always looking out for how to grow the business, and then MPNU came in.
That trend will continue. Just if you look, if you do look at the next 5, 10 years.
Roger did mention, I think at the Capital Market Day, we did lay out the five years plan, right? Then we'll work out 5 years, 10 years plan, and Roger mentioned, the new chairman comes on board in January, we're going to be working a new strategy, and we'll come out to the market back when we're pretty sure about how that future is going to look like.
One thing you got to be sure is Seplat is going to grow. Seplat is going to grow to, what I call unimaginable levels, and we're looking out to for opportunities while we're working existing portfolio.
We're going to grow way, way beyond what you see even in the five-year plan. Thank you.
Eleanor, there was one on bond, right?
Eleanor Adaralegbe
Yeah. Thanks, Nik.
Yes, the bond does come up for We have an opportunity to refi. We'll look at the market at the time, and also look at the existing business, and see whether we want to take an opportunity to refi at the time.
Thank you.
Effiong Okon
Sorry, I forgot to thank I don't know the name. Thank you as well for welcoming me on board, just I think for me, I'm super excited.
I'm really delighted with this privilege, opportunity provided by, shareholders and the board of the company to stand on filling these big shoes that Roger is I've got big foot as well, don't worry. Thank you for that.
James Thompson
He also asked the question on potential exit rate for 2026. That would be good.
Effiong Okon
No, thanks, Nik, for that. I think production, you've seen the ramp-up between quarter 1 and quarter 2.
We continue to drive those improvement opportunities. I think it's also important to highlight that we are pretty confident that we will exit our exit rate will be somewhere at the top end of our guidance, which is 155 kboed.
Maybe we will come back in the third quarter again.
Nikolas Stefanou
Okay. Would you be able to give an indication for 2027 production?
Effiong Okon
Again, it's too early at this point in time, Nik.
Eleanor Adaralegbe
Usually, Nik, we will guide on '27 when we release our full year results, so that will be in February, at the end of February next year.
Nikolas Stefanou
Okay. That's fair.
Thanks so much.
Operator
Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Phil Hallam with Canaccord Capital Markets.
Please go ahead.
Phil Hallam
Hi, guys. Can you hear me okay?
Roger Brown
Hey, Phil. Yep.
Phil Hallam
Hello. Hi.
Thank you very much for the time, and well done on a great first half. I've just got one question.
I know we've already touched on M&A slightly, but it's just more your thoughts on how you view Nigeria versus the rest of West Africa, and maybe even beyond that. What opportunities do you see within the country, and in the wider area?
Roger Brown
Yep. Maybe I start that question.
Look, I think certainly what we've found over the years, Nigeria presents awesome opportunities, and you can see that with this acquisition with Exxon, the Mobil producing. It's high, high quality sands, and it's one country we know inside out and can operate in.
Nigeria is an obvious one. Now, there's a lot of divestments happened.
When we went through, there was with Exxon acquisition, there was about four others. In terms of the amount of opportunities in Nigeria are less than they were previously, but that doesn't mean that there aren't a number of opportunities, and there are, both onshore, in the shallow water.
Then ultimately, a natural step for the company in the future would be looking more in the deeper water offshore Nigeria. In terms of the other opportunities in West Africa, yeah, there are some there, but you have to apply them against the options you see within Nigeria, and we rank them accordingly.
That's the general comment. The company, as Effy said, is a growth company, and we still have appetite.
We've deleveraged the balance sheet. The balance sheet is very, very low leverage.
If a quality opportunity comes across our path, we'll assess it properly, and then we'll have the financial firepower to get after it.
Effiong Okon
You want me to add, Roger? Yeah.
I think just to add to Roger's point, I think if you look at Nigeria, to be honest, I think the government is actually doing a lot to improve the investment climate. If you look at our rating, you look at FDIs, it's actually gone very well.
Within our industry, the President has actually given a lot of executive orders, which is all driving towards encouraging more investment. You've seen the NNPC ambition of 3 million barrels per day by 2030 and 12 Tcf of gas.
That's a massive investment going into gas infrastructure by NGIC. I think, for me, if I look at what NNPC is doing under the current leadership, it's quite very, very encouraging and very bold in terms of the benefit of our industry.
Then if I look at the rest of Africa, apart from Cote d'Ivoire and probably Mozambique with all the big LNG projects with Total going back to Rovuma LNG, I think Nigeria still stands quite strategic with a lot of opportunities, just like Roger mentioned. We still expect some IOCs divestment, not very clear at this point in time, but of course, as the IOCs divest, there are fewer opportunities remaining, but we are very, very, very well-positioned to pretty much look at whatever comes up.
I think it looks real good going forward.
Roger Brown
Okay.
Phil Hallam
Great. Thank you.
Very clear.
Operator
It seems that we have no further questions on the conference. I'll hand back over to James for reading questions.
James Thompson
Okay. Brilliant.
Great. We've got a few here.
Maybe just starting with the production-related ones here thinking about the second half. ANOH got to 60%.
What's holding it back from getting to 100% capacity and what does it look like, the journey to get there?
Effiong Okon
Okay. I think for ANOH, to be honest, it's been a great plant.
Having worked on ANOH, the problem we have in our business is really third-party infrastructure constraint. If you look at all the conversations we've had today, even in the Q1 performance, TFP outage, right?
Then Yoho mechanical damage. For ANOH, the biggest constraint was the condensate export route due to TNP integrity problem.
That's been fixed now. TNP is now available for full condensate export.
Then we now have the Oando's export route constraint because we go through to LNG through Oando. At the OB-OB gas plant, there is a restriction which they're trying to sort out.
Once that is sorted, then the plant can now ramp up to full potential. In addition to that, I think Sam did mention that OB3, well, new about OB3 pretty much done now.
They're going through hydrotesting and commissioning. Once that line becomes available, it simply means that we can now put gas into the domestic market into LNG and also into Indorama.
I would say before the end of this year, we should be looking at taking ANOH to real full potential. That's the reason why ANOH is still a bit constrained, not because of the plant itself, but because of the export route to LNG.
James Thompson
Sticking with the operation side of things, when Yoho does come back up online in Q3, how long should we expect it to take to ramp back up to normal production?
Effiong Okon
Thank you. That's an ramp-up to full production at Yoho is a couple of weeks max because we've actually tested all the components, all the systems, and the instrument room is already fired up.
Full potential is couple of weeks, and then we start producing into the FSO, and then we will then do the lifting as according to the lifting schedule.
James Thompson
Following on from that, in terms of the Oso disruption, similar sort of question, actually, what's the kind of recovery profile look like and when do we see improved production on the gas side of things from Oso?
Samson Ezugworie
Thank you. The Oso gas line disruption, we've finished and completed the mechanical fix of the line as well.
We are now pigging the line. We ran the last set of pigs, in fact, in the last 24 hours with the cocktail of chemicals, oxygen scavengers and stuff.
We are also very positive that in the first week of August, we would commence NGL production and then test the line again for integrity before we go full blast into gas production. That would take a stage approach, stage-by-stage approach.
What you will see coming on shortly is NGL production and then gas production will follow subsequently.
James Thompson
Thanks, Sam. Maybe switching gears a little bit, thinking about the divestment question here.
The sale of the 10%, is that it, or do we have any plans to continue selling there? Maybe just following on from that, post the sale of the 10%, does that make the board more interested in M&A and wanting to get back to that 200 kbd target?
I think just Okay,
Roger Brown
the general point on M&A is the company is always interested in M&A, always looking at the opportunity set. Does this make it any more appetite?
No, I don't think the board will change its appetite. It has appetite today to look at this.
In terms of other divestments, no, there's no planned divestments at all. This had been in discussions with NNPC for some time.
We're glad to, are delighted to put the signature, the heads of agreement, put it behind us and move on, and work closely with our partner, NNPC, that we have a very good relationship with and grow our assets. The assets, even at 30%, there's massive potential here, and that is what was laid out in the Capital Markets Day.
In reality, there's a lot more resource, and Sam was talking about exploration. This is directly we'll find more resource, I'm certain, in the offshore, and that means that we will not have any immediate need for an acquisition.
Okay? Acquisitions are done by opportunity sets of people wanting to sell, and there's no real change there from the board's perspective.
James Thompson
Okay. Very good.
Thinking about a question here on the proceeds, could we provide a rationale for the sort of 50-50 split? Any reason why we might not pay more off in debt or more to dividend?
Eleanor Adaralegbe
Thank you. It's very much aligned with our capital allocation framework.
We've talked about our policy and how we would distribute free cash flow, and so that's why we've done it this way. I think, if we present the 50% of the proceeds as dividend, the other bit will delever the balance sheet.
Whatever is left, we put back in cash. Thank you.
James Thompson
Following on just in terms of the dividend, obviously, nice to see the dividend increase in the second quarter. How much of this was a function of price?
What should we expect if oil falls back into the sort of 60-70 range on dividend?
Eleanor Adaralegbe
Thank you. I think two key things.
We've assumed an average of $85 per barrel for 2026 for the full year, and that is delivering the 45 cents per share. I think there's a lot of strength in our underlying business.
We're expecting to grow production, and this 45 cents also considers the potential 10% divestment. Last year, average oil price was just over $70 per barrel, I think we're basically driving growth from production, and we'll start to see, once we start to see higher volumes, if oil prices stay at these levels, and obviously, we can expect similar levels in the future.
James Thompson
A final one on the dividend. Is it a general intention to give a full year dividend guidance going forward?
Eleanor Adaralegbe
I think that because of the commodity price and what we've seen this year with oil price, it felt, quite important for us to let shareholders know what they can anticipate. We've run our numbers.
We also run a number of sensitivities, and we're very confident with this price environment and what we're doing with our operations that we can deliver this. Because we have that information, we felt it was good for us to share that.
You'll notice that in the first quarter, we'd already lifted the dividend to 9 cents per share, and now with the second quarter, there was quite a bit of recovery around operational performance, and with our forecast and all the drilling activities happening in the second half of the year, that's demonstrating that we're very confident as a management team that we can deliver on promise, and so we felt it was good to share that. This is the first time we're doing it.
We'll see whether we'll continue to do in that way, but again, the market, this market environment, has basically given us that opportunity to do so. Thank you.
James Thompson
Couple of questions here on more third-party elements. Could we give us any more details on UTM?
It's and the arrangement there? It's not a company I'm familiar with in the LNG world.
Roger Brown
It's a Nigerian developer, but has top-rated equipment manufacturers, shipyards, etc. It's a project that's been developing for some time, and we signed the gas sales agreement last month.
Actually, earlier this month, in fact it was. It's a new developer, but it's using very experienced constructors, etc.
We have confidence that they'll deliver on the project, which is why we're happy to sign that GSA. Yoho itself is stranded anyway, it's not connected to the rest of our assets, and therefore, it really does need a sort of floating LNG solution.
It's a good solution for the Yoho asset. Okay.
James Thompson
On the Dangote refinery, the refinery is now sourcing, a very significant proportion of its crude locally, up to around about 80%. Is Seplat in discussions or interested in a long-term crude supply agreement with Dangote on this basis that they are much more present locally?
No,
Eleanor Adaralegbe
thank you. Yes, Seplat's always open to conversations.
We have contracts with traders that we've signed up to. We've also had opportunities where some of our crude has been sold to the Dangote refinery.
If those opportunities are open in the future, we're happy to sort of get into those conversations.
James Thompson
Any interest in the Dangote IPO? I'm not sure we need to answer that.
On the next question, in terms of the realized premium to Brent in the first half, $7 a barrel, much higher than we've seen historically, is that just the Middle East or is something else at play here?
Eleanor Adaralegbe
It's mostly that, the volatility that's coming out of what's happened in the Middle East is part of the reason that we're seeing that. I think also the quality of our crude is also very strong, we've seen, in our business, we've had premiums periodically.
We're happy to be reporting this level of premium in this half in this first half. Thank you.
James Thompson
Okay. First half was obviously another pretty strong period of cash conversion.
Does this ratio change at all in the 2026-2030 plan? When we think about cash conversion, and actually there's a related question on cash taxes, 35% of CFFO, these two similar questions, are these the sort of things that we will see through the planning period and are they affected at all by the divestment announced today?
Eleanor Adaralegbe
Thank you for the question. Again, oil price is a very strong factor, and so when we did our planning, we planned at fairly conservative oil prices.
I think cash conversion is driven by a number of things. We are beginning to invest in the offshore business to start to see tax efficiencies come through.
We stated in our plan that we would try and be below 40% of cash flow from operations, and I think that still is the case. The divestment does not really change what our plan is.
I think some of what we're seeing in the lower well, the lower value of that divestment is already we're not going to have to pay as much in cash calls, it almost sort of nets off, and that's why we've maintained that we'll retain the $1 billion target that we've laid out for dividend. Again, just to reiterate that even at 30%, it's a very strong business.
We're very confident that we can still deliver similar levels of cash generation over the period.
James Thompson
Thanks, Eleanor. John, any more hands raised at all on the call?
Operator
At this time, there are still no hands raised in the conference line.
James Thompson
We've just got a couple more then. Just going back to the bond, what are our thinking right now in terms of calling the $650 million bond, which is callable from March 2027?
Then similar related questions, thinking about the growth outlook for the company and capex ambition plans, how are we thinking about financing that growth? Are there any more plans to enter the bond market to finance the growth?
Eleanor Adaralegbe
Thank you. Yes, we do have an opportunity to call the bond.
It's going to depend on, obviously many things. Our business is cash generative, and you could see from our results already that we're delivering good cash, and we're deploying that to some of the activity.
Into 2027, our capex profile will increase, and you saw that laid out in the five-year plan, and so we will, continue to deploy some of that cash to drive growth in the business. We also have an undrawn RCF that we can also leverage, and depending on, opportunities that will present itself, we could potentially, take, go to the bond market for opportunities, but it's going to obviously depend on what is available at the time that we're making that decision.
Thank you.
James Thompson
Going back a little bit to the M&A theme, but thinking about the value chain in Nigeria, how are we thinking about investing in the value chain? Are there any plans to invest in the downstream or just thinking about our general value chain exposure in Nigeria?
Specifically, are we thinking about investing in the downstream?
Roger Brown
It's a bit early. Look, I would say that the company's always looking at We've set out a three-pillar strategy.
We're always looking at expanding of that strategy. It's a bit early to start talking about going down the value chain, etc.
I think that will be discussions that the company will have, and then we'll come out in due course. Short answer is too early to discuss.
James Thompson
Okay. Very good.
With that, I think we've got through all of those questions, which is very good for timing. With none Just to final check, John, there's no more on the call there?
Operator
Still no questions on the conference line.
James Thompson
Brilliant. With that, maybe I can hand over to Roger to close the call.
Roger Brown
Yeah. Okay.
Thanks, everyone. Some really good questions there.
We're we're delighted to put out the H1 results today. It is It's been a great performance by the team, and what we're seeing ahead of us in in well, second half this year, we should see a lot of the production coming back onstream, and we should have a strong Q3 and Q4.
For me, I want to obviously this is my last call, I want to thank everyone. I've really enjoyed it.
It's been great fun. It'd be nice to be on the next conference call, but not actually talking on it, but actually maybe on the call as asking questions.
Thanks, everyone. Have a great day.
Thank you.
Eleanor Adaralegbe
Thanks.
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