Capricorn Energy PLC (CNE) Q4 2023 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Welcome everybody to the Capricorn Energy 2023 full year results presentation. Speaking today will be Jeff Probert, Chief Operating Officer, Nathan Piper, Director Commercial, and myself, Randy Neely, CEO of Capricorn. Following our presentation, we will open the floor to questions. First, I want to start out with a quick review of the year, our achievements and milestones, as well as a snapshot of what we've been working on so far in 2024. Following on the stated objectives and strategy outlined during 2023 to right-size the organization, maximize the return to shareholders, exit the non-core positions, particularly exploration commitments, et cetera, and resetting our corporate culture, I can confidently state that we have achieved these. We declared $550 million in dividends and started a $25 million share buyback. The buyback continues, and we hope if volumes improve, we will complete it as quickly as permitted. We transformed the organization through the reduction of our staffing contingent to less than 50 people. And when all of the legacy elements are worked through, which we expect to achieve this year, we'll provide for a G&A run rate of approximately 20 million, which is an 80% drop from the 2022 gross G&A costs to the organization. We have now exited all of our non-core exploration ventures in Mauritania, Suriname, and Mexico, with some administrative cleanup ongoing in Mexico to ensure a proper wind-down of those activities in order to minimize potential liabilities and maximize any recoveries. Culturally, we have taken an organization where cost was no object, including high-profile real estate, company cars, and pretty much every oil and gas software subscription available, to a culture where it's the shareholders' money. And every expense needs to be c...