Earnings Labs

Kosmos Energy Ltd. (KOS)

Q4 2021 Earnings Call· Mon, Feb 28, 2022

$2.97

+1.19%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, everyone and welcome to Kosmos Energy’s Fourth Quarter 2021 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] At this time, let me turn the call over to Jamie Buckland, Vice President, Investor Relations at Kosmos Energy. Thank you, sir. You may begin.

Jamie Buckland

Analyst

Thank you, operator and thanks to everyone for joining us today. This morning, we issued our fourth quarter earnings release. This release and the slide presentation to accompany today’s call are available on the Investors page of our website. Joining me on the call today to go through the materials are Andy Inglis, Chairman and CEO and Neal Shah, CFO. During today’s presentation, we will make forward-looking statements that refer to our estimates, plans and expectations. Actual results and outcomes could differ materially due to factors we note in this presentation and in our UK and SEC filings. Please refer to our annual report, stock exchange announcement and SEC filings for more details. These documents are available on our website. At this time, I will turn the call over to Andy.

Andy Inglis

Analyst

Thanks, Jamie and good morning and afternoon to everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our fourth quarter results call. I’d like to start today’s presentation looking at the company’s strategy and the defining characteristics which differentiate Kosmos and position us very well in a rapidly changing oil and gas sector. I will then talk about the operational momentum we saw in 2021 before handing over to Neil, who will walk you through our financials. I will then outline our plans for 2022 and the key investments we are making to deliver significant shareholder value in the next 12 to 24 months. We will then open the call up for Q&A. Starting on Slide 2, looking back, 2020 was a year of survival for the sector, in which Kosmos took the opportunity to high-grade its investment options to create a stronger company for the future. 2021 was a year of resuming operational delivery and strengthening the balance sheet, both of which were significantly enhanced by the Oxy Ghana and Tortue FPSO transactions. 2022 is the year in which Kosmos can really start to thrive. We have the right portfolio for the future and the boxes on the left of the slide highlights the key characteristics that define our portfolio. First, we have low cost, high quality assets. The company is underpinned by world class fields that have a longevity to deliver sustainable, high margin cash flow. That gives us the ability to invest in our existing assets to materially grow production and free cash flow while simultaneously reducing debt. The right hand chart shows the company’s production is forecast to grow by around 50% between 2022 and 2024 as we bring our planned developments on stream. Second, as the chart also shows we are increasing our exposure to gas…

Neal Shah

Analyst

Thanks, Andy. I would like to start on Slide 14 by talking about the financial delivery we saw in 2021. We accomplished a lot to have positioned the company well to prosper over the coming years. First, we successfully refinanced the reserve-based lending facility, which now has a total facility size of $1.25 billion, with $1 billion drawn at year end. In August, we announced the completion of the Tortue FPSO sale and leaseback transaction, which funds around $375 million of our CapEx on the project and with key parts of the financing path we laid out in November 2020. Our producing assets generated strong free cash flow of around $175 million during the year, excluding working capital, in line with our guidance. The combination of these, along with the bond transactions we executed, have deferred all of our near-term debt maturities and helped increase our liquidity to over $750 million available at year-end. Through strong operational performance in the Oxy Ghana transaction, we materially reduced leverage during the year, ending at around 2.5x as planned. And finally, we have taken advantage of higher commodity prices to put in hedges at significantly higher floors and ceilings than we had in 2021. Around 55% of our production is hedged with an average ceiling of around $80 per barrel with the rest exposed to current prices. All in all, it was a good year for Kosmos. While there is still more work to do in 2022, we start the year in a strong position. Turning to Slide 15. Kosmos delivered a record quarter in 4Q with our highest ever sales volumes and EBITDAX. Net production of approximately 70,000 barrels of oil equivalent in the quarter was in line with our expectations. Sales volumes of 82,000 barrels of oil equivalent were higher than guidance as a result of an additional Jubilee cargo in Ghana, loading in late December. The realized price of around $65 per barrel, which includes the impact of hedging, was materially higher than the previous quarter, a trend we expect to continue in 2022. In the first quarter of this year, we anticipate a realized price net of hedging of over $80 per barrel. Costs were all in line or slightly below previous guidance, which helped to drive today’s positive 4Q results. Turning to Slide 16. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, we made a lot of progress with the balance sheet in 2021. And the chart on the left of this slide shows that liquidity remains at a healthy level. This quarter, we expect to complete the refinancing of the RCF pushing that maturity to late 2024. The chart on the right shows that we expect to have no material debt maturities until late 2024 at the latest although we do plan to utilize our flexibility to prepay some of our existing debt well before that. With that, I’ll hand back to Andy to take you through the year ahead.

Andy Inglis

Analyst

Thanks, Neil. Across our business, this is an important year for the company. We’re investing in our key assets to drive the increase in production and cash flow that we discussed earlier. Turning to Slide 18. In Ghana, we have a world-class field in Jubilee that has the potential to produce at elevated levels for the next several years as we deliver on our plans. In 2022, we’re investing capital in three infill wells, one producer and two injectors that support the base production. With these new wells, combined with the benefits of the wells we drilled last year, we expect to deliver year-on-year growth at Jubilee of around 10%, which includes the impact of the 2-week shutdown planned for the second quarter. Around the end of the year, the partnership plans to start drilling the first Jubilee South East wells. Jubilee Southeast is an untapped area of the reservoir, where we will be drilling lower GOR wells. Once online, in mid-2023, these wells should post gross production in Jubilee to around 100,000 barrels of oil per day. On TEN, as the operator guided previously, production is expected to trend lower until we see the benefits of the wells that are being drilled later this year. The partnership plans to invest in two infill wells this year, one producer and one injector, which should help stem decline in 2022. We’re also drilling two riser-based wells, which are targeting an undeveloped extension of the NTM reservoir closer to the FPSO, allowing us to take advantage of existing infrastructure. These riser-based wells are expected online in 2023 and should have to increase production. As the operator recently communicated, the longer term plan with TEN is to double current production levels by increasing the activity at TEN with a second rig in Ghana.…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Charles Meade with Johnson Rice. You may proceed with your question.

Charles Meade

Analyst

Good morning, Andy and Neal, and to the rest of the team there. Andy, I want to go back to your prepared comments and specifically the time line that you laid out for Phase 2. Did I hear that you’re going to have a front-end engineering process sometime around midyear that precedes FID or can you just go back to that and kind of set the time line for us?

Andy Inglis

Analyst

Yes. Charles, it’s Andy. Yes, the time line is to get to the concept select decision by mid-year. And we’re working hard with BP to ensure that we fully optimize that. And as I said in the remarks, I think – we think there is real opportunity to lower the cost below the $1 billion growth for the upstream that we talked about. So that’s the process going through to the middle of the year. And then the second point with the concept selected and the way forward defined, we will do the engineering to go through the formal process of FID. For FID, obviously, the government approvals we need, the final engineering costs and we need the contracts in place. So that’s sort of the real work will kick off in the middle of the year.

Charles Meade

Analyst

Got it. So FID would be sometime in the back half of the year at the earliest?

Andy Inglis

Analyst

It’s – and again, it’s really important, I think, in the current environment, would be quality engineering done to ensure that we have the right basis of the capital and the right contracts in place. So I think that we want to ensure that the quality of this is a really good project. And we’re quite – we see a lot of opportunity actually to remove costs upfront. And we want to make sure that we do that.

Charles Meade

Analyst

Got it, thank you. And then a quick question about Gulf of Mexico, the two-well Winterfell development. Just to get kind of an order of magnitude here, should we be thinking about gross rates from that development in the range of 5,000 to 10,000 barrels a day?

Neal Shah

Analyst

Yes. I think, Charles, gross rates for the two-well development will be around 20,000 barrels a day or maybe little less that, but basically flow on.

Charles Meade

Analyst

Got it. Thank you, Neal. Appreciate it.

Neal Shah

Analyst

Alright, thanks, Charles.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Neil Mehta with Goldman Sachs. You may proceed with your question.

Neil Mehta

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. You may proceed with your question.

Good morning. Andy, the first question is just around your marketing strategy. Obviously, with everything going on in Europe right now, the value of Tortue and the barrels continues to move higher potentially. As you think about cargoes for either Phase 1 or Phase 2, can you ultimately market some of those cargoes into Europe and talk about how you see this asset fitting in the broader natural gas macro?

Andy Inglis

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. You may proceed with your question.

Yes. Thanks, Neil. I think that – if you sort of go back and sort of starting where we are today on Phase 1, we have the 2.5 million tons being marketed by BP. As you’re aware, it’s a 9.5% low to Brent. The real upside, of course, therefore, comes from Phase 2, where those cargoes are not sold today. And we believe there is a real opportunity for us to take greater benefit, I think, from strengthening prices for LNG globally. And I think as you look at the world today and obviously, one of the consequences of the sad situation in Ukraine is that Europe needs to look at how it can ensure energy security and look for new sources of gas. And I think in Mauritania and Senegal, we have a resource, which is low cost. The gas is low carbon. It has no CO2 in it, and it’s proximate to Europe. So I think we believe, and I believe deeply that this was an important resource for the world. Our job is to support the energy transition as a company, bring for the new sources of supply that help support energy security. I think we can do that with the gas suppliers from Mauritania and Senegal. I think the Phase 1 will come on at an important time. And as we discussed with Charles, we’re moving forward with Phase 2, which I think, again, will come on at an important time to continue to support a growing gas demand and hopefully create another source of energy security for the world. Gas is a part of the energy transition. So I think it’s becoming more widely recognized that it plays a role. And we believe that Mauritania and Senegal is therefore a part of that. So I think when you look at the big macro and a lot has changed actually since we started the journey with Tortue. I think there is a lot to look forward to. And in Pacific, around your initial question around Tortue Phase 2, I think there is a lot of optionality on the gas pricing for that.

Neil Mehta

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. You may proceed with your question.

Thanks, Andy. And as a follow-up is just around hedging strategy, obviously, ‘21, there were a lot of those barrels that were sold at a discount relative to spot price. As you roll into ‘22, remind us what percentage unhedged you are? And as you think about that remaining unhedged portion, is the intention to leave it open to give yourself that sort of exposure to potential stronger commodity price realizations?

Neal Shah

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. You may proceed with your question.

Yes. Sure, Neil. I’ll take that. Yes. So we’re about 55% hedged on ‘22 oil volumes, which was in the 45% unhedged. We plan to keep that that exposure through the rest of this year. And I think the interesting part that we’re working through now is on ‘23. So, we are less than 10% hedged today with upside to $95 on those couple of million barrels that we have hedged. And we are looking at structures that give us more downside protection and more access to the upside. So that’s the main focus for us for the next few quarters is really get ‘23 in a place where the downside is protected well, and we’ve kept as much access to the upside as possible.

Neil Mehta

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. You may proceed with your question.

Thanks, Neal.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Nick Stefanou with Renaissance Capital. You may proceed with your question.

Nick Stefanou

Analyst · Renaissance Capital. You may proceed with your question.

Hi, guys. It’s Nick from RenCap. Thank you for taking my questions. I have three to ask, please. Going to ask two and then ask a follow-up. So Andy, in the past, the idea about Tortue Phase 2 have been was that this would be a funded development from the cash flow that Phase 1 will generate. But if it is sanctioned this year, then it’s a very kind of like possible scenario for – but for maybe 6 – 5 months going to have to pay for both Phase I and Phase 2 CapEx. So can you give me kind of like some comment around how you think about or is this something you might kind of like play back towards the venture of the project? And then the second one is on the sensitivities. I don’t back to sensitivities because it looks like the reduced from last quarter to $50 million from $100 million to $5. I’m not sure if this is – is this like purely because of the additional hedges you have done quarter-over-quarter because it don’t seem to be that many? And then I’ve got a follow-up. Thank you.

Andy Inglis

Analyst · Renaissance Capital. You may proceed with your question.

Okay. Why don’t we let Neal take the second question first, and then I will come back to the Tortue Phase 2 timing.

Neal Shah

Analyst · Renaissance Capital. You may proceed with your question.

Yes. Nick, so just on your question, yes, most of it is just a function of where we are in the oil price now. So again, I think what we’ve said for which is still accurate on hedge base, it’s a $5 move is around $100 million change in an annual sort of free cash flow sense. And so what’s the guidance we gave is around sort of $50 million for ‘22. Basically, 55% of our production, like I said, is hedged and therefore, that sort of the upside. And again, the average ceiling on our hedge is around 80%. So we’re right around that pinpoint. So it’s maybe a little higher than that from 75% to 80% and then a little lower than that from – just given the staggering sort of ceilings that we have through the hedge book.

Nick Stefanou

Analyst · Renaissance Capital. You may proceed with your question.

Okay. Got it. So it’s just linear for where we are now by was very much, much lower plus, not anymore?

Neal Shah

Analyst · Renaissance Capital. You may proceed with your question.

Correct, yes.

Andy Inglis

Analyst · Renaissance Capital. You may proceed with your question.

And then on Phase 2, Nick. It sort of goes back to Charles’ point. I think that we will start to incorporate CapEx for Phase 2 from sort of midyear, which will be the sort of the fee spending that’s incorporated in our current budget. I wouldn’t anticipate any significant spend on Phase 2 to commence until 2023. And therefore, the overlap with Phase 1 is almost exact, not quite, but almost exact, yes. I think the second thing that I think it’s important to recognize that as we have said we think there is real opportunity to drive down the upstream costs for the project significantly. And therefore, the net outlay to Kosmos is getting less and less. So, I think I feel good about the ability to actually self-fund it and enjoying, if any, is very small. So, we are well placed here. I think we have got a follow-on project, which is really exemplary. It will fully utilize all of the built-in infrastructure we have from Phase 1. Therefore, the capital costs are coming down, and we are finding those savings as we speak. So, I think the overlap between Phase 1 and Phase 2 that is going to be relatively small.

Nick Stefanou

Analyst · Renaissance Capital. You may proceed with your question.

Okay. Fair enough. And my other question is on that G13 discovery you made in could give me a few years back. So, last year was more about the fleet drilling of those wells, which did deliver results. So, I was expecting this year to be kind of like a fresh logo was going to be in EG. And it doesn’t seem to be – seem to be much activity or must kind of like talk about what is covering more. So, just wondering how you think about it? And what are the next steps for EG?

Neal Shah

Analyst · Renaissance Capital. You may proceed with your question.

Yes. Nick, I am happy to take that. I think where some sort of our S5 sits is ultimately continues to sit in the appraisal camp. We do have additional plans for drilling in EG. And the question for us is how do we maximize the value of the existing discovered resource that we have across the portfolio. So clearly, we have opportunities in Mauritania and Senegal. Ghana, EG and the Gulf of Mexico that we are moving forward. We can move them all together at the same time. And so we are phasing out the development projects. And if we can find more resource in EG, which we talked about potentially a ‘23 additional drilling campaign, we could make a new development more attractive from a risk-reward basis going forward and then would be in a position to allocate more capital to it. So, I think that’s kind of – yes, it’s there, we will continue to move it forward, but we would like to continue to de-risk it and make the economics better.

Nick Stefanou

Analyst · Renaissance Capital. You may proceed with your question.

Okay. Excellent. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Mark Wilson with Jefferies. You may proceed with your question.

Mark Wilson

Analyst · Jefferies. You may proceed with your question.

Thank you. Good morning, good afternoon gentlemen. First question is on the 100,000 barrel a day target for 2024. Just to get some of the bigger moving parts in that. I hope to say that expectation that TEN could double from here. It sounds like one of them and the other would be that Jubilee is over 100,000. Would those be those main moving parts? And also, would you expect both Ghana and Equatorial Guinea to be higher than they have produced in the past year?

Andy Inglis

Analyst · Jefferies. You may proceed with your question.

Yes. Hi Mark, it’s Andy. I will take that. So, if you think about the buildup from where we are today to 100,000 barrels a day. Clearly, in ‘24, Tortue is on stream net on a BOE equivalent. That’s about 18,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. So – and then the next increment is Jubilee. We are talking about growing that to 100,000 barrels a day with the – at our current working interest, that adds an additional 8,000 barrels a day. And then Winterfell and that would add about 4,000 barrels. So, if you sort of do the quick math on that, you sort of get to the 100,000 barrels. Underlying that, you then got additional contribution from TEN. We have a lower working interest. And you have the Gulf of Mexico. And you have Equatorial Guinea benefiting from an infill program in ‘23. So, I think if you take those contributions against the underlying decline and you can see your way to a healthy 100,000 barrels a day. So, the big contributor is Tortue. The growth in Jubilee and TEN, Jubilee being the most significant part, the addition of Winterfell and then the underlying activity sets in Equatorial Guinea.

Mark Wilson

Analyst · Jefferies. You may proceed with your question.

Got it. Okay. Thank you for that. And then also, you gave guidance towards where the $700 million guided for this year, how that tapers down towards ‘24? But just thinking about next year with Jubilee Southeast, with Winterfell, I suppose, theoretically in there. But before we get to a Tortue Phase 2 and post- Tortue Phase 1, we’d expect to come down into ‘23 overall?

Andy Inglis

Analyst · Jefferies. You may proceed with your question.

Well, clearly not giving any guidance yet, so it’s a little early. But I think you have talked about the moving parts, okay. So, there is a moving part in Tortue Phase 1, where we are moving from the sort of ‘22 is a big year of spend. We drop the fabrication activities going on. We moved to a different phase in ‘23. So, clearly a lot lighter. We have that coming down, yes. We have the sustaining spending in Jubilee Southeast. We have an additional spend in Winterfell. So, I think we are sort of – we are on a blind path which sort of when we have shown ‘22 and ‘24 is the chance, but we are on a glide path of decreasing CapEx, we are on a glide path of increasing production, which ultimately will create incremental free cash flow growth in ‘23 over ‘22 and then a growth in ‘24 over ‘23. So, I think I feel good about the shape we are building now going forward. ‘22 will be a full year of delivery followed by ‘23 and ‘24. But we are clear about the things that we need to do. And as Neal said, we are being very conscious about the capital inputs. Some is about ensuring that we don’t put capital into things which we think you are going to make a material difference on the – we need to be sure that we are putting the capital into the highest quality opportunities. That was a clear with Tortue Phase 1 and 2 with Winterfell and the Jubilee Southeast. So, we are very clear about the activity set. We are clear about the capital and the contribution that it will make in growing cash flow through ‘23 and into ‘24.

Mark Wilson

Analyst · Jefferies. You may proceed with your question.

Got it. Okay. That’s very helpful. And just one last one, if I may. The Shell exploration payments, what are the steps and certification hurdles to be done from here to get any money in from that? What would be – what should we be looking for?

Andy Inglis

Analyst · Jefferies. You may proceed with your question.

Yes. Well, look, again, Mark, what we understand that Shell had a successful initial well. I think what’s interesting is that they decided to go and drill a well and back-to-back and have a second well ongoing as we speak. And I think that we would see that as a positive sign. In terms of the steps forward, the payment comes when they submit an appraisal plan. So, the current well, I suspect will – was probably a couple of months away from a result appraisal plan and then we get to a payment. So, those are the steps. I think they clearly chose not to submit an appraisal plan at this stage because it would have slowed down the ability to move ahead to drill the next well back-to-back.

Mark Wilson

Analyst · Jefferies. You may proceed with your question.

Okay. Thank you. I will turn it over.

Andy Inglis

Analyst · Jefferies. You may proceed with your question.

Great. Thanks Mark.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Matthew Smith with Bank of America. You may proceed with your question.

Matthew Smith

Analyst · Bank of America. You may proceed with your question.

Yes. Hi there. Thanks very much. I just wanted to ask around the future opportunities in Mauritania and Senegal. So, I mean quite rightly, we are still sort of talking about the long-term potential of Bir Allah and Yakaar Teranga. I just wondered whether equally, the optionality for a Phase 3 or a further expansion of the Tortue project is still on the cards as the potential next step rather than going into one of the other two projects? And then linked to that, just on Bir Allah and Yakaar Teranga, I just wanted to ask whether you thought there would be any potential or any appetite for you to down interest in those projects at this early stage, or would it be fair to assume that, that value crystallization point would be closer to a development concept?

Andy Inglis

Analyst · Bank of America. You may proceed with your question.

Yes. Thanks, Matt. Yes, good questions. I think that our focus on the Tortue at the moment is to sort of maximize the value from the infrastructure that we have laid in. And I think as we have discussed on prior calls, hitting the 5 million tons is sort of fully utilizing or the leading infrastructure in terms of the full capacity of the FPSO, the pipeline issue, etcetera. So, I think the focus is to – I think the focus is, therefore, to ensure that we get that. We get it underway. And I think when that has been achieved and we have some production history from the reservoir we will be in a better position, I think, to fully describe what Phase 3 would look like, yes. So, I think that it’s absolutely remains an objective to increase beyond the 5 million tons. But I think we have some work to do and some production history to Ghana we fall in a position to make that next step. And I think being disciplined around the capital that we put into that is critical. Then I think it’s about how do we progress the other given resource, which is significant. The BirAllah and Yakaar Teranga developments are different. But BirAllah, there isn’t as large a need for domestic gas in Mauritania. There isn’t even other as large as there is in Senegal, but that ultimately would be an export project. We are working hard now with BP to define a development concept. And again, as we discussed in one of the prior questions, it has to sort of compete against gaps from the U.S., but there is a growing need for it in Europe and how can we put together a phase scheme that enables us to start in…

Matthew Smith

Analyst · Bank of America. You may proceed with your question.

Perfect. Thank you, Andy. And then one final question, if I could, would just be on the Shell sort of continued consideration, obviously, up to $100 million. Could I just clarify how you might get to that $100 million in 2022? So presumably, we are hoping for $50 million in Namibia, if that’s right and then where the opportunity might come for the residual and to hit that cap?

Andy Inglis

Analyst · Bank of America. You may proceed with your question.

Yes, there are – the drilling plans we believe for Shell will be when the rig finishes in midyear. It would then move to where it would drill the juck-up well, so that would be the next well in the program. And then beyond that, there are the wells issuing that. So, I think in Shell been very clear about there in fact the score we get on with our exploration program. And so I think we will see those wells being progressed after there is going to be second.

Matthew Smith

Analyst · Bank of America. You may proceed with your question.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of James Hosie with Barclays. You may proceed with your question.

James Hosie

Analyst · Barclays. You may proceed with your question.

Hi. Thank you. I have a couple of questions. Just firstly, does the 2024 production free cash flow outlook on Slide 5, does that incorporate the impact of the Ghana preemption process that we presumably have completed by then? And then just Mauritania and Senegal, just wondering if the work program you have now got for BirAllah and Yakaar Teranga, is that intended to get the assets to a point where you could look at monetizing them? And what sort of market do you see for those assets today?

Andy Inglis

Analyst · Barclays. You may proceed with your question.

Neal will do the first one, James, I will just come back to the second.

Neal Shah

Analyst · Barclays. You may proceed with your question.

Yes. So, just all the numbers in the presentation and all of our guidance doesn’t include preemption. And like we said, preemption has about a 5,000 barrel a day impact. Now clearly, we said it’s greater than 100,000 barrels a day. So, there is some flexibility around that. But it does everything throughout the presentation does include the impact of preemption.

Andy Inglis

Analyst · Barclays. You may proceed with your question.

Okay. And then just on the second question. Look, I think the world is – the world of LNG continues to evolve. I think as a company, we have been strong on the underlying demand for LNG. And I think that picture remains unchanged. I think what’s sort of changing is that the supply challenges for new projects to set forward to meet that, that demand. I think there are various forecasts out there of short hauls by the end of this decade. So, I think there is going to be real opportunity to move projects forward that have the right characteristics, not just like I keep repeating myself, but it has to be low cost. It has to be low carbon gas so that it doesn’t have the disbenefit of CO2 to with it. And it has to address the market shortfalls in a geographic sense that are emerging. So, I think we – our strategy sort of remains unchanged. We see real value in the undeveloped resource in Mauritania and Senegal, where we are excited about the optionality that a Phase 2 of Tortue brings because not only is it low cost leveraging from the prior investment in Phase 1, but we believe we can get greater access to the price upside because the gas is un-contracted. And that’s where we would want to go for instance, with BirAllah where we would be bringing that gas to market, and I think we have the ability to benefit from the optionality that the market would bring. So ultimately, would that provide an opportunity to monetize, it may. But I think what we have to do is demonstrate first the value in the assets. And I think we are doing that well. We will talk to you Phase 1. We are doing it well with Phase 2, and we need to do it with BirAllah. So, I think the work that we will undertake this year will be an important part of that. And I think that the backdrop – the macro backdrop for LNG is only supporting the inherent value of those assets.

James Hosie

Analyst · Barclays. You may proceed with your question.

Great. Thank you.

Andy Inglis

Analyst · Barclays. You may proceed with your question.

Great. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of James Carmichael with Berenberg. You may proceed with your question.

James Carmichael

Analyst · Berenberg. You may proceed with your question.

Hi. Thanks guys. Just a couple of quick ones. I guess just press on Winterfell. In the release, it says targeting a lower carbon development that we develop. So, just sort of wondering what that really means lower than what I suppose? And how are you going to look to achieve that through the development? And then just a quick second one, apologies if I missed this earlier. And I appreciate it’s difficult to be precise, but is there anything that you can or have said on the timing of likely timing of preemption? Thanks.

Andy Inglis

Analyst · Berenberg. You may proceed with your question.

Yes. I will do the preemption first, James. The first step in the process was to agree all the transaction documents with KEL and we worked very closely with them since they announced that we are going to preempt. That documentation is now complete and will be submitted shortly to GMPC and the Government of Ghana for their approval. So, the timing will therefore depend on that process. But in terms of ourselves and Tullow, I think we are – we have made a lot of progress and the pipe work is done and will be submitted shortly. On Winterfell, I think the point we are making is simply the Gulf of Mexico, as you know, has a very low carbon intensity for its oil production, why, because the reservoirs are typically driven by natural aquifers, so they don’t have a huge amount of water injection. And secondly, gas is pipe for sure. The third thing, of course, is that you are using the existing facility. So, your incremental use of energy on those facilities to bring onboard a tieback is well. So, Winterfell will be a buyback. We will start with a two-well development. There is existing infrastructure around the field. And therefore, the combination of drive, not flaring and the use of existing facilities where the incremental energy demand, all of those meant for a lower carbon oil project. And that’s why one of the things I believe the Gulf of Mexico has a role to play is that it has the infrastructure in place that enables you to develop at a lower carbon quote. So, that’s the prescription of Winterfell and why we feel it’s an important part of our portfolio going forward.

James Carmichael

Analyst · Berenberg. You may proceed with your question.

Great. Understood. Thank you.

Andy Inglis

Analyst · Berenberg. You may proceed with your question.

Thanks James.

Operator

Operator

Since there are no further questions at this time, I would like to bring the call to a close. Thanks to everyone for joining us today. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation. Enjoy the rest of your day.