Kosmos Energy Ltd. 2026 Q2 Earnings Call

Thank you, operator. Thanks to everyone for joining us today. This morning, we issued our second quarter 2026 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 that we note in this presentation and in our U.K. 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'll turn the call over to Andy.

Thanks, Jamie. Good morning and afternoon to everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our second quarter 2026 results call. I'll begin today's call by reviewing the progress we've made against the four 2026 goals that we laid out at the start of the year before giving an update on each of our business units. I'll hand it to Neil to talk about the financials before I wrap up with closing remarks. We'll open up the call for Q&A. Starting on slide three. When we released our full year 2025 results in March, we laid out four key objectives for Kosmos in 2026, which is shown on the slide. I'm pleased to say, in the first half of the year, we've made excellent progress across all four. We've grown production from our core assets, namely Jubilee and GTA.

We've delivered significant absolute and per BOE cost reductions year-on-year with a specific focus on operating costs. We've delivered a meaningful reduction in net debt already this year and are making good progress towards hitting a 20% reduction in net debt, a target we increased with our first quarter results in May. We've continued to advance our high-quality growth portfolio, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico, with minimal capital input. Through these actions, we're delivering a stronger and more valuable Kosmos, a company with high production, lower costs, and lower debt that is more resilient to future price volatility with significant upside from our deep hopper of future growth opportunities. I'll now go into more detail as we move through the slides. Starting with Ghana on slide four.

We've seen a lot of positive progress in Ghana this year with an active drilling campaign that is delivering towards the upper end of our expectations, demonstrating Jubilee's potential. We've used the chart on this slide for the last few quarters to highlight the ramp-up in Jubilee production since the start of the current drilling campaign in the second half of 2025. Since we reported first quarter results in May, two new producers have come online, J76 and J77. The final producer well of the campaign, J50, is the completion of a previously drilled well, is expected to start up in the coming days. With J50 online, we expect Jubilee gross production above 90,000 barrels of oil per day. J76 in particular came in at the top end of our expectations, and based on performance so far, is the best well we've seen at Jubilee in over a decade.

The well is an example of the upside potential of the asset and shows there is a lot of future value left to play for, particularly as we start to integrate the results of the 2025 OBN seismic into our future well planning. With seven months of production, we have a robust track record that underpins our full year guidance for Jubilee, which remains unchanged at 70,000 to 80,000 barrels of oil per day. The performance of the latest wells continues to support the upper end of this range. An important takeaway from the chart at the top of the slide is the correlation between activity and performance. During periods of drilling, high FPSO uptime, and sustained water injection, the field has performed well.

We are therefore working closely with the operators to secure a rig for the 2027-2028 drilling campaign for up to 10 wells, with the objective of starting in mid-2027. This campaign will benefit from both the fully processed 4D and fast-track OBN seismic, which will help refine and high-grade future well locations and give the partnership the best opportunity to maximize future reserve recovery. In summary, it's an exciting time in Ghana. Jubilee, our highest margin production, is performing strongly at a time of higher oil prices, helping us to deliver our debt reduction targets for the year. Looking forward with the benefit of new technologies, we're working closely with the operators to plan and progress next year's drilling campaign. Turning to slide five. GTA has continued to perform well this year.

In the second quarter, gross LNG production was around 2.65 million tons per annum equivalent, in line with our expectations. Nine gross LNG cargoes were lifted during the quarter at the upper end of guidance. For the full year, our guidance of 32 to 36 gross LNG cargoes remains unchanged, with 18.5 lifted in the first half of the year. During the second quarter, one condensate cargo was jointly listed by Kosmos and the NSZs, with around 300,000 barrels net to Kosmos. An additional condensate cargo is expected late in the third quarter, which is also expected to be assigned to Kosmos and the NSZs, with around 400,000 barrels net to Kosmos. Due to the seasonality that we've flagged in the past, daily LNG production expected to remain slightly lower during the summer months because of the warmer sea and air temperatures.

Volumes should pick up again later in the year as cooler temperatures return. On costs, we remain on track to hit our 50% reduction target for OpEx per MMBtu this year and see scope for further reduction in 2027. On the phase one expansion with domestic gas to power, which should materially enhance project returns, there's been good progress on the ground in both Senegal and Mauritania so far this year. In Senegal, the land has now been cleared for the onshore section of the northern segment of the gas pipeline, which will connect GTA to the 250-megawatt Gandon power station being built near Saint Louis. The photographs on the top of the slide show the gathering in China in May to celebrate the completion of the fabrication of the onshore pipeline before it was shipped to Senegal.

The pipeline is due to arrive in country in the coming days after taking a longer route than initially planned to avoid the Middle East. In Mauritania, the country just signed a 25-year agreement with the Saudi Power Company for the development, finance, construction, and operation of a new 230-megawatt gas-fired power plant in Nouadhibou, which is expected to use gas from the GTA field. These developments in Senegal and Mauritania are important steps for both countries to enhance domestic electricity generation, reduce reliance on imported fuels, and support the country's long-term energy security and industrial development. Turning to slide six. Production in the Gulf of Mexico for the second quarter was in line with expectations, with continued solid performance for our operated Odd Job and Kodiak fields. On Winterfell, the number 5 well was temporarily abandoned by the operator due to casing issues encountered during drilling.

Turning to the gross side of the business. Following final investment decision in March, the Tiberius project is making good progress. Last week, we successfully completed a highly competitive farm down on Tiberius, bringing Navitas into the project as a 33.33% partner. Following the farm-in, Kosmos will remain as operator with a 33.34% interest. OXY, the owner and operator of the nearby Lucius facility, will have a 33.33% interest. The farm-in proceeds are a mix of upfront cash, carry for future development CapEx, and future milestone payments. We expect the carry element to cover all of our Tiberius CapEx in 2026 and fund our share of the development through the first half of 2027. Tiberius is a low-cost, high-margin development. We now have an aligned partnership to move it forward, with first oil expected in the second half of 2028.

Elsewhere in the Gulf, as previously discussed, we entered into a strategic exploration alliance with Shell earlier in the year. As part of the alliance, we exchanged interests across multiple blocks across the Norphlet play, which houses several material exploration prospects. Shell plan to start drilling the first of these, Trailblazer, in the first quarter of 2027. Trailblazer is targeting around 200 million barrels oil gross equivalent resource, and Kosmos is designated as a development operator in the event of success. I'll now turn it over to Neal to take you through the financials.

Thanks, Andy. Turning now to slide seven, which looks at the financials for the second quarter in detail. As Andy mentioned, it has been a strong quarter for the company, with production around 12% higher year-on-year, driven by the new wells coming online at Jubilee and the ramp up at GTA. Realized price was higher year-on-year, reflecting the elevated pricing seen in the second quarter following the war in the Middle East. As flagged last quarter, some of the pricing of our production has a lag impact, so we should also see some benefit of the 2Q pricing in the third quarter. On operating costs, we have seen a material reduction in both absolute and unit cost year-on-year. Absolute operating costs in the second quarter are around 25% lower year-on-year, consistent with our ongoing efforts to drive down costs across the business.

With the EG disposal, we have now sold our highest cost barrels. We would expect absolute operating costs and cost per unit to continue to fall through the second half of the year. The rest of the cost lines for the quarter were in line with guidance, but it is worth highlighting the interest expense reduction, which we expect to continue as we deliver on our debt reduction targets for the year. In terms of guidance for the third quarter and the full year 2026, we have updated the table in the appendix to reflect the Equatorial Guinea sale, which was completed in June. The two main line items that have been updated are production and operating costs.