Jadestone On Track in Vietnam, FID 'This Year'

Southeast Asia focused Jadestone has submitted the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the Nam Du/U Minh development project in Vietnam. 

It has also completed the front-end engineering design (Feed) studies for the offshore facilities and pipelines, it said August 27 as it announced its results for the second quarter.

Jadestone submitted its EIA in June, a milestone in environmental governance for the project, and a critical step toward achieving formal development sanction. In addition, the company completed Feed work for the offshore facilities and pipelines during Q2 2019. It expects to take final investment decision this year.

In all, the company's output guidance is reconfirmed at 13,500 - 14,500 b/day, within the larger range set out in Q1 2019, with operating expense at $21- 24/b, owing to cost reductions at the Montara oilfield in Australia which it now operates following an "arduous process in one of the world's most highly regulated regimes."

Jadestone also said it was still in discussions with Pertamina and Indonesian regulators relating to acquiring an interest in the Ogan Komering asset, with timing driven by Indonesia.

The company earned record quarterly revenue, profits and cash generation that yielded almost $100mn cash from operations for the first half of the year, thanks to higher oil prices and output. It reported record revenue of $115.3mn, up from $56.4mn in Q1 2019.

Jadestone generated an adjusted positive pre-tax Q2 profit of $75.4mn, compared with $23.7mn for Q1 and $0.3mm in the same quarter a year ago.

It said net debt had been "effectively eliminated" by mid-year, just nine months after closing the Montara acquisition with a $120mn reserves based loan. It said this year would be a "transformational year" and its forecast remains intact for organic cash flow to meet all ongoing re-investment plans, as well as generating distributable earnings for shareholders in the future.