GeoPark Limited - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Transcript

Speaker 6

Good morning and welcome to the GeoPark Limited conference call following the results announcement for the second quarter ended June 30, 2025. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question at this time, press star one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press the pound key. If you do not have a copy of the press release, it is available at the Invest With Us section on the company's corporate website at www.geo-park.com. A replay of today's call may be accessed through this webcast in the Invest With Us section of the GeoPark corporate website.

Before we continue, please note that certain statements contained in the results press release and on this conference call are forward-looking statements rather than historical facts and are subject to risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described. With respect to such forward-looking statements, the company seeks protections afforded by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These risks include a variety of factors, including competitive developments and risk factors listed from time to time in the company's SEC reports and public releases. Those lists are intended to identify certain principal factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in those forward-looking statements, but are not intended to represent a complete list of the company's business. All financial figures included herein were prepared in accordance with the IFRS and are stated in US dollars unless otherwise noted.

Reserved figures correspond to PRMS standards. On the call today from GeoPark, we have Felipe Bayon, Chief Executive Officer; Jaime Caballero, Chief Financial Officer; Martín Terrado, Chief Operating Officer; Rodrigo Dalle Fiore, Chief Exploration and Development Officer; and María Catalina Escobar, Shareholder Value and Capital Markets Director. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Felipe Bayon. Mr. Bayon, you may now proceed.

Speaker 1

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us at our second quarter 2025 conference call. This is my first during calls as GeoPark's CEO, and I want to start by acknowledging the strong platform I've encountered here. Over the last couple of months, I've focused on taking a thorough, comprehensive view of every aspect of our business at the project level, asset by asset. The work is ongoing, and it's grounded on a simple objective: ensuring GeoPark is positioned to thrive in the current environment and build durable, long-term value for our shareholders. This review is part of a broader strategic research to challenge legacy assumptions and strengthen the way we prioritize capital and performance. From day one, we've been working to identify opportunities to accelerate the development of our portfolio, increase our ability to adapt, and grow smartly.

We're also continuing a rigorous portfolio reassessment where teams are actively working to enhance field productivity, stabilize production, and improve returns over time. This is not about changing guidance today, but about building the technical and operational foundation for better outcomes in the future. Finally, we're working closely and constructively with authorities and partners to unlock additional activity across our core assets in Colombia. These discussions are active and ongoing, and they reflect our shared commitment to responsibly increase investment, accelerate development, and support the long-term competitiveness of Colombia's oil and gas sector. Let me now walk you through the quarter's performance. In the second quarter, GeoPark delivered solid operational and financial results despite having market volatility, a lower Brent price environment, divestment of some of our non-core assets, and some temporary blockades that impacted operations.

Consolidated average production for the quarter reached 27,380 barrels of oil equivalent per day, contributing to year-to-date average production of 28,223 barrels of oil equivalent per day in line with our guidance. The 6% decline when compared to last quarter reflects the divestment of the non-operated Llanos 123 block and 16 days of shutting production in CPO 5 block due to local blockades. The strong operational delivery reflects stable performance across core assets. For example, Llanos 34 delivered 70,605 barrels of oil equivalent per day net with base management, water flooding, and work orders exceeding our expectations. Our drilling team also delivered step changes in efficiency. For example, average well costs were reduced by more than 30%, and patch-to-patch mobilization time dropped from seven days to just 18 hours.

In CPO 5, although some production was impacted by higher than anticipated downtime in relation to Q2 2025, performance remains stable and the field is currently operating normally. In Llanos 123, two exploration wells, Corucutu 1 and Torito Sur 3, were drilled and completed, contributing new production and demonstrating additional upside. In particular, at Torito Sur 3, the strategic decision to reposition the well to intercept the Mirador formation as a secondary target proved successful and revealed a new productive horizon for the block. In late 2025, we plan to drill a second well to further explore and appraise the potential of this discovery. On the financial side, results reflect proactive cost management, disciplined capital allocation, and financial flexibility to pursue long-term growth. Adjusted EBITDA was $71.5 million with a 60% margin driven by cost discipline and a $4.9 million gain from our commodity hedging program.

Operating costs remain within 2025 guidance at $12.3 per barrel. We invested approximately $24 million during the quarter and ended up with $266 million in cash and a net leverage ratio of 1.1 times. We also completed an open market repurchase of $54.5 million of our 2030 notes below par, thus enhancing long-term financial flexibility and reducing future interest payments, underscoring our disciplined approach to balance sheet optimization. Finally, as of today, our hedging program has advanced to project oil price volatility over approximately 9,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day for the first half of 2026 and 8,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day for the second half of 2026. Let me now turn briefly on how we see the second half of 2025 shaping up.

We see a full-year organic production range of 26,000 to 28,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, which incorporates the strength of our core assets and the adjusted impact of Llanos 123, Manati, and Ecuador divestments. Importantly, this production range excludes volumes from inorganic acquisitions. We expect adjusted EBITDA of $260 to $290 million at $65 to $70 per barrel Brent, supported by the quality and resilience of our base business and the price support provided by our existing hedging program. We're executing this plan with a lean, focused capital program of $90 to $120 million, directed primarily to short-cycle, high-return development and appraisal drilling. At the same time, we've captured $12.5 million in structural efficiencies to date, which equates roughly to $17.5 million annually. As part of our anticipated portfolio optimization, we agreed to divest our interest in the Perico and Espejo blocks in Ecuador.

This transaction reflects our ongoing focus on prioritizing material, high-return assets and streamlining the portfolio for maximum impact. The divestments brought a non-recurring impairment charge and, as a result, a net loss for the quarter of $10.3 million. If we exclude this charge, net profit for the quarter amounted to $20.7 million, significantly higher than its previous quarters. Finally, the Board has approved the payment of a $7.5 million dividend for the second quarter of 2025, reflecting the company's performance during the period. In parallel, the Board is actively reviewing the company's capital allocation priorities, including dividend distribution going forward in the context of evolving strategic priorities and the need to preserve flexibility to pursue value-accretive growth opportunities. This review will continue over the coming months as part of our ongoing overall financial and strategic positioning. In summary, this was a resilient quarter for GeoPark Limited.

We delivered solid results, protected our financial strength, and are actively reshaping the business to be more focused, more agile, and better positioned for long-term value growth. We're just getting started, and we're committed to building a more competitive, resilient, and value-driven GeoPark. With that, let me now open the floor for your questions.

Speaker 6

Thank you so much. We'll now begin our Q&A session. If you'd like to ask a question, you can do so by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. To remove your question for any reason, please press the pound key. Once again, to ask a question, press star one. As a reminder, if you're using a speakerphone, please remember to pick up your handset before asking your question. We'll briefly pause here as questions are registered. Our first question comes from Alejandro Anibal Demichelis of Jefferies LLC. Their line is now open.

Yes. Good morning. Thank you very much for taking my questions. Felipe, congratulations on the first few months here and welcome. A couple of questions, if I may. Maybe you talk about the review that you're kind of taking over on the company. Maybe you can give us some kind of examples of where you think that things can be improved, where you think that things can kind of move to as per the first part of the question. The second one is you mentioned some of the organic moves that you have been kind of working on. Maybe you can kind of give us some update on how you see things, particularly in Argentina. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Alejandro, hi, and thanks for being here today, you know, and thanks for the interest in GeoPark. A couple of things, and I'll share some personal reflections on this first couple of months. The first thing I'd say is that since my arrival, and just for context, I've known GeoPark for probably the last eight or nine years. I've had a lot of reference, and it's always been a company that I've respected. When I joined the company, I found a company that does things very well, operates in a way that's safe, efficient. It operates ethically and with very, very good relationships with communities and stakeholders. I just wanted to start there. One of the things we've done with respect to our existing assets in the following context, I think there's directionally two things we need to do, and I think you addressed both of them in your questions.

The first one is how do we protect our existing business, ongoing business, and how do we create additional value. That's point number one. Point number two is how do we return to a pathway of growth. I'll talk about the first one, which is your first question. Without going in all the detail because that will come in due time, the teams have been working for some months now, three months or so. Over the last couple of months that I've been here, I've had the opportunity to look at every asset at the project level in detail, look at not only current performance operationally. I think the results show that we've been able to deliver good results, resilient results, despite the drop in Brent and some of the drops in production that's related to some blockage that we have in some of the non-operated areas.

That review, I think, has led to a place where I personally feel we can extract a lot of value from the existing assets. That's point number one. There's a lot of things that the guys are doing in terms of the operations, from our efficiencies around how we drill the wells, how do we complete the wells, how do we do things like water shutoffs and well interventions, how do we do the mop, de-mop of the different drilling rigs, how do we actually deal with water volumes. A lot of detailed and specifics on the operations that are looking good. I think that gives me the confidence, Alejandro, that back to the core business, we can continue to arrest decline, natural decline, which is priority. It's a fundamental priority.

Two, we can continue to look for other areas that can provide some additional legs, if you will, in the mid to long term. I'll talk specifically about Torito Sur 3 that's in the release. It's a well where we, on purpose, changed the direction of the well, if you will. We went through Mirador, and we have some very good results. That may open some additional areas. Very pleased with the ongoing business. Again, we need to ensure that we have a solid, robust business that creates the platform for us to grow. Back to your first question. In terms of the inorganics and especially Argentina, I'll give you a bit of context. The first thing is that we continue to look at the region as a whole, but we want to create a lot of focus. Clearly, Colombia is our focus for ongoing operations.

I think Vaca Muerta provides, in terms of unconventionals, a world-class opportunity. I'll share with you that I came to this job on June 1. By June 6, I was already in Neuquén. I had a very good conversation with the governor of Neuquén, expressing that GeoPark Limited wants to be part of the development of unconventionals in Argentina, particularly in the province of Neuquén. We want to invest. We want to operate. There's a clear intent of us to go into the inorganic opportunities in Vaca Muerta. The other thing that I'll mention, Alejandro, is that we have, I think, a very fluid and solid pipeline of opportunities for unconventionals in Vaca Muerta.

It's a combination of things that we have been looking at and also things that a lot of potential partners have brought to the table in this conversation, which is great, you know, that people are saying we want to team up with GeoPark Limited. We see them as a good partner that brings a lot into the conversation. That's also happening. Obviously, Alejandro will update you on both things: how do we progress on this reassessment of our current portfolio, and how do we progress on M&A. Thanks, Alejandro.

Thank you very much. Very clear.

Speaker 6

Thank you. Our next question comes from Joaquin Robet of Balance Capital. Your line is now open.

Hello. Welcome Felipe. I have two questions. First, could you provide more color on your plans to enhance, to the B1 reserves slides? How are you approaching reserves replacement and what portion of the strategy is expected to come from organic versus inorganic efforts? That's the first question.

Speaker 1

Okay, Joaquin. I was waiting for you to put on the second question, but I'll go at the first one then. The first thing I'll mention, and this is linking it back to some of the things that Alejandro was asking us about and some of the response that I gave. The first thing is that in terms of context and order of magnitude, and this is as of end of 2024, 2P reserves for the company in Colombia at around 84 million barrels. This is broader than P1.

If you look at that number and then you link it to the exercise that I was referring to, where we have in detail looked at all the assets, looked at our execution plans, looked at our understanding of the subsurface, looked at everything in terms of how we can develop those areas, I'd say that both actually are linked together very well in terms of this reserve slide. I'm talking about 2P that could take us through the end of the decade and beyond, you know, 5, 10 years, actually, in terms of how we see that projection going forward, is very, very well aligned with the internal review we're doing. In that sense, a lot of focus in actually bringing some more reserves and actually accelerating some of those reserves as well.

I'll take the opportunity to put something out there that was in the release, but I just want to highlight it. Prior guidance on CapEx was around $80 million to $100 million for this year. In this release that you guys have seen, we've increased that to $90 million to $120 million. That's basically, I think, a reflection of how efficiently we can operate, how we can deploy the capital, and also that we see good opportunities going forward that we can actually assess now. I think that message in terms of us increasing our capital expenditure guidance is also relevant in that sense. The other thing, and obviously, the inorganic efforts will come when they come, right? They will be communicated at the right time. Yeah. Can you hear me well?

Yeah, I can hear you now.

Okay. Yeah, I don't know where I was cut off. I was saying that additional sort of guidance or increased guidance in terms of capital expenditure so we can have some additional opportunities this year. In terms of the inorganic, which was the second part of your first question, we're very thoughtful. We're looking at a good pipeline of opportunities. Obviously, when they come, we will be talking about them in detail. As I said in my initial response, there are quite a few potential partners that have reached out to us and we're assessing opportunities. That will come when they come, you know, and hopefully, they'll provide additional upsides and potential on reserves. You want to go with your second question, Joaquin?

Yeah, sure. Okay. In line with your answer, my second question is, following recent divestments from non-core areas, are you planning to accelerate CapEx in core assets to offset decline more aggressively, or is the focus shifting towards inorganic growth opportunities to sustain?

Sure. I'd say, yeah, we've done some divestments. We announced yesterday, on the release, Ecuador, and closing on that will take some months. Yeah, absolutely. I think we're deploying some more CapEx, which is great news. We finalized these divestments. We continue to look at our portfolio constantly. We're reassessing the portfolio, and we'll let you guys know when we have something around new opportunities that actually come into the fold. We actually have agreed on some inorganic opportunities. Thanks for that, Joaquin.

Thank you, Felipe.

Speaker 6

Thank you. Our next question comes from Anne Jean Milne of BofA Securities. Your line is now open.

Speaker 5

Good morning. Good morning. Thank you very much for the call. It's nice to hear you on the call, Felipe. And hello to Jaime Caballero and the rest of the team. Good to hear from you. My questions are following up on some of the strategic comments you've made already. It sounds like your focus on your strategic side is Colombia for current production and Argentina for non-conventional going forward. You've divested Ecuador. I guess one question would be Brazil, how that fits into the strategic plan. On the Argentina element, maybe just out of curiosity, with the lower Brent prices this year, have you seen changes in the valuations of the types of transactions you're seeing?

If you were to go forward, I guess the question would be, since your experience of GeoPark is primarily on conventional, do you have the staffing or would there be partners that have staffing? Would you want to be the operator on a transaction or would you prefer to be a partner there? That would be my first sort of big strategic question. The second is more financial, related to the bond buyback that you did. I guess the question is, would you consider doing more if the prices stay at the low levels? One thing investors are very happy about is the large cash balances GeoPark has currently had recently, especially with some of the volatility in the market. What would be the minimum cash that you would want to have since you have increased your CapEx program and you do pay dividends and you did buy back bonds?

Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Anne. It's great to hear you. Thanks for being here today. In terms of, I think you're right, in terms of what are we focusing on in terms of Colombia and then Argentina. Colombia, we have a very, I think, solid business that's operated very well. We continue to find legs in that business. That's the way I would think about it. There's some, and I refer to particular, Llanos 123, you know, Torito Sur 3. Those opportunities or those wells actually continue to open up some areas where we can go and do some more stuff, which is great. The existing licenses, and please bear in mind, there's licenses that have production right now, but there's licenses that have a lot of exploration opportunities. We will continue to look at those.

As I said, we need to ensure that we strengthen the base so we can grow on top of that. In terms of Argentina, you're right, inorganic. I'll probably just give you a bit more color. We are focused on Vaca Muerta. We like the unconventionals. I'm a big believer in unconventionals, from past experiences. We have both lenses. We can be an operator. We can be a non-operating partner. We're comfortable with both. We have the capability and the know-how in-house. I think that's very important. Remember that when GeoPark did a prior deal in Argentina, we had a team that actually was embedded in the operator. They were seconded into the operations. We've kept that team, and they're very, very extremely knowledgeable. They have a lot of experience, not only from GeoPark times, but from prior experiences.

A lot of them have worked in Neuquén for most of their careers. We do have a capability. Something you didn't ask, but I'll put out there, Anne, we're looking at the 30 to 50 million barrel opportunity kind of size, just so you guys can have some reference. This could be in the order of $300 to $500 million, a combination of ticket plus initial commitments and stuff. I'm just giving you ballpark numbers, but that's how we're looking at Argentina right now. In terms of valuation, a lot of people want to go into Argentina, and there's also a lot of people that are refocusing or exiting Argentina. There's always opportunity. There's always opportunities. Remember that GeoPark made this deal last year.

There is a lot of knowledge inside the organization in terms of valuation, in terms of potentials, in terms of the rocks, in terms of how we actually can develop these opportunities in a way that makes sense. You know, how can we go into factory mode and develop the unconventionals? Personally, very enthused with the opportunities. We'll let you know when we have something penciled down and signed off. In terms of Brazil, the Manati divestment is going to take some time for it to close. I will say that we continue to permanently assess and filter opportunities in the region, and I'm talking about the broader region, with the focus, as you were putting it, in Colombia and Argentina. I think that's where I would leave it. In terms of your additional question, which is more a financial one, yeah, very happy with how that repurchase actually went.

It created value for us. I think it reflects a good use of our ability to deploy capital. I would just say, Anne, and I'll hand over to Jaime so he can give us more color. There are things that we're doing around cost efficiencies as well. You see that we're doing some redeployment of capital. You see that we repurchased some bonds. Everything, I think, needs to be looked at holistically in terms of how we manage capital. Jaime.

Speaker 7

Thanks, Felipe. Hi, Anne. You know, I'll go through how we are thinking about liquidity. If you look at the first half of the year, we're ending with a cash balance of around $270 million. When you look at the breakdown of what's behind it, you actually see an EBITDA of about $160 million. Then you actually see these outflows. I'm going to go into a little bit of detail because they're actually quite meaningful. Taxes were $87 million, just the tax component. CapEx was $47 million. Debt service was $16 million. Where I'm trying to go here is that our current cash position is very strong despite these significant outflows, particularly those related to tax, which are seasonal and were actually quite extraordinary given the strong year that we had last year.

Where I'm going with this is that when you look at the second half of the year, that second half is actually going to benefit from three big changes. First, materially lower tax outflow because the tax season is effectively over. What we're going to see is some minor outflows associated to withholding tax, but income tax, which is the big component of our tax burden, is in the past now. You're actually going to see lower debt service as well, associated to the debt repurchases that we did. We're actually going to see also in EBITDA the benefit of the lower cost structure interventions that have been made.

Going forward, when you see all things equal, if we normalize for price, and we can, given that we are significantly hedged, the outlook of cash generation for the second half of the year should amply support the CapEx for the organic business that we are anticipating. I'm tactical here, but it's important to see that those components of seasonality support a good cash position going forward. When you take that to the strategic level of capital allocation, what we're seeing there is that the $270 million that we have provides ample room for the organic CapEx requirements that we might see, which may go up to $120 million this year because there's good projects coming in from our team. That's the first priority. The second priority is M&A deployment.

When we look at how those transactions could occur, and when you look at the, you know, when can they close and what kind of down payments would they require, we see that our position supports that very well. Then we look at the minimum liquidity necessary for our organic business, which is probably $30 or $40 million or so. It's no more than that. In that context, with all of that considered, there could be some headroom for further potential for debt repurchases. It's going to be opportunistic. It's going to depend on how we see things evolving over the next few months, and we're going to act on the basis of that, right? There could be some potential for that. Thanks.

Speaker 6

Excellent. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next question comes from Cristian Mario Fera of KNG Securities LLP. Your line is now open.

Hey, Felipe. Welcome, and thanks for the call. I have three questions. I'll go one by one. First question is, if you could comment on whether there are any additional asset divestment planned in the near term. Thanks.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Cristian, and thanks for joining the call. As I referred to in one of the prior responses, I'd say that we've done the divestments, finishing with Ecuador that we announced yesterday. We will constantly continue to look at our portfolio. We want to ensure that we're optimizing value and, in that sense, creating value for shareholders. I won't talk about any specifics or if there's anything else planned, but we will continue to look at our assets. Remember, I was saying earlier that we've had an in-depth, very detailed review of all of our assets at the project level. We will continue to do that. Next question, Cristian.

All right. Perfect. Could you remind us of the updated guidance for the year?

Sure, Cristian. I'll give you some headlines. We talk about a production that is between 26,000 and 28,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. I think that's the first thing. You saw where we ended up not only in the average for the first half of the year, but in 2Q. Adjusted EBITDA, you know, $260 to $290 million. That would be in the $65 to $70 per barrel range for Brent. I'll repeat the CapEx number. Remember, we had guidance that was $80 to $100 million that we're reviewing to $90 to $120 million. It does show that we've come up with a lot more opportunities. The other thing that we haven't talked too much, I briefly mentioned it, but we've captured already $12.5 million in structural efficiencies. This is over the last couple of months, that we've gone out, we've looked for them.

The teams are working very hard on that. If you look at what that would mean on an annual basis, it's equivalent to $17.5 million. That's sort of the framework, Cristian, that I would use to describe what's coming in terms of our next few months to close the year.

Just a quick follow-up on that. Are those efficiencies reflected in the operating costs that we see, that they're continuing, they continue to decline?

Some of them are. Some of them have been implemented, you know, and I'll ask Martín to expand on that a bit to give us more color and detail. Remember that we've given guidance on the $12 to $14 per barrel range. We ended up at roughly $12.5. We're in a good place, and efficiencies in terms of operating is always part of the focus that we have. Martín, do you want to expand on that, please?

Speaker 4

Yeah. Good morning, everybody, and thanks, Felipe. Cristian, thanks for your interest in GeoPark. Like Felipe was saying, our guidance on operating expenses is $12 to $14. We took the challenge of keeping that guidance even though Vaca Muerta was gone. That guidance was the guidance that we had with Vaca Muerta production, but also, Vaca Muerta had around $6.6 to $7 per barrel. The teams, not only from operations, but back here in Bogotá supporting the field, have been working on several initiatives that are already implemented. I'll give you a little bit of a flavor of what are the things that we've done. First one, we can talk about energy efficiency. On energy efficiency, it's critical for these assets since most of the OpEx is around energy. Not only are we looking at the price of the energy that we pay, but also trying to use less energy.

We've been communicating to you guys the success of our covers. It's a success not only getting additional production, but also we're shutting off water. Year to date, we have shut off 5% of the water that we were producing. That's around 24,000 barrels of water per day. That's energy that we use to produce it and then inject it back in the ground. That's one example. Another example is, we have been working very thoroughly to use all of the associated gas that comes with the production. We've been working together to reduce our emissions. The last thing that we did, and it's already implemented, is that gas is not only captured, but it's generating energy. That's around 2% of the total consumption. We're basically saving of going out and purchasing that energy. Second big one is around innovation.

In innovation, the example we want to share in Llanos 123, we just put on stream about a month ago a water treatment plant. That water treatment plant is basically helping us save around $2 per barrel versus what we were doing before, which was trucking the water. When we look ahead, what's coming is that module of facilities that were designed in-house, we're going to start applying in other blocks that we operate. We're also sharing that with those blocks where we're non-operators. These are examples of how we're pushing for reducing the OpEx. Other things that we're working on right now are around maintenance and putting efficiencies. One of the things that we will continue doing is trying to use the workover rig the least amount of time as possible and do rigless interventions.

By doing that, we're saving around 25% of the cost since the rigless is much cheaper. Those are the things that we've been doing. There are some risks. The main risks looking ahead, first one is around, like I said, increased total fluid production and cost of the energy. That's one. The second one is community claims. As you know, there are blockages, and some of those blockages, many times, result in some increased cost. Finally, it's not going to hit us this year, but it's something that we're monitoring very closely. Close is on in Colombia, any labor cost regulations. With that, those are what are the things that we're doing, what are the risks, and finally, to close, our guidance states that we're going to be between $12 to $14 per barrel before the end of the year, an average for the year. Thanks, Martín.

Got it. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Christian.

Thank you very much.

Anything else?

Yeah. My final question is, regarding your cash usage for 2025 and 2026, do you anticipate further bond buybacks and/or dividend distributions? Thank you.

Thanks, Cristian. I think Jaime alluded to that earlier. As we were saying, there's obviously the minimum requirements in terms of cash for the operations. There is an increase in the guidance on CapEx. There are some efficiencies that we continue to pursue in terms of cost efficiencies. Again, I would say that we do have the right amount in terms of balancing sources and uses to pursue, should the space be there, additional repurchases of bonds. We just announced a dividend distribution yesterday and be able to do M&A. I think in that sense, we're in good shape. Thanks, Cristian.

Thank you, Felipe.

Speaker 6

Thank you. Our next question comes from Juan Jose Muñoz of Banco BTG Pactual S.A. Your line is open.

Speaker 4

Hi. Thank you, Felipe and Jaime, for the presentation. Just a last question here regarding Colombia. Looking ahead to 2026 with an election year in Colombia, what new opportunities could open up for GeoPark if a market-friendly government comes to power? What new opportunities do you see if a change of regime happens here in Colombia? Thank you. Thank you again for the presentation.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Juan José, and thanks again for your interest in GeoPark. I'd give you my views, but obviously, lots of uncertainty still, especially in this sector, you know, and the oil and gas industry in particular. There's production, overall production in terms of oil that has not increased dramatically in the country. If you look at the industry as a whole, not just GeoPark, number of rigs has reduced, the investment amount has also gone down. I think industry is looking at what's going to come in 2026. There's one scenario where we continue with a government that has the same policies as the current one, which is no more exploration acreage being let to industry. I'm linking this back to how I started my response. A lot of the decline in activity, I think, has been led by that.

People seeing that there's no additional acreage and there's no more licensing going on. Having said that, on the flip side, it's still early days. Remember that elections, first round are in May, and second round, should there need to be one, it would be in June. There's a lot of pre-candidates right now that are talking about re-strengthening the sector, being able to let more licenses to the industry, which would be good. Something that we haven't discussed, but there's some candidates talking about unconventionals in Colombia. If you look at the long shot, we as GeoPark are very interested in Vaca Muerta and using some of the experience and expertise and capabilities we have, developing further abilities in that space in Neuquén.

Assuming the flip side scenario, which is unconventionals being back on the table in Colombia, you could bring that experience back home or back here where we currently are. I just wanted to put that on the table. We'll see. We'll see, Juan José, what happens. Still early days. Thanks for the question.

Thank you, Felipe.

Speaker 6

Thank you. Our next question comes from Stephane Guy Patrick Foucaud of Auctus Advisors LLP. Your line is now open.

Speaker 0

Morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. I've got three. For the first one, the context of those blockades and so forth. What's the current projection explaining it well? Hello, Esteban. This is Martín. I'll go from the high to the low view. The highest view is our guidance 26 to 28. And our first half, like Felipe was mentioning, we were at 28.2 thousand barrels of oil per day. In July, we are in similar values to that average for the first half of the year on the high range. When you look at the different fronts, in Llanos 34, we had a very successful infield drilling campaign. Felipe already mentioned our efficiencies on the execution. Now we're testing the wells, and the wells are delivering around 6% of the total production and within the expected production.

Workovers and upsize, it's again another very good story in Llanos 34 that is providing fresh production, but also, as I mentioned before, reducing our operating costs by shutting down water. That's contributing around 11%. The water flooding keeps providing good results at around 14% of the production. In Llanos 34, we're delivering according to our plan. When we look at Llanos 123, we have increased by 16% the production quarter on quarter. Torito Sur 3, like Felipe mentioned, is a very good result. We're having discussions with our partner. We're actually right now drilling, about to start drilling, the next well. On that asset, we continue drilling appraisals and some exploration wells. Finally, when we go to CPO 5, CPO 5 had a really good success story on our workovers that basically were as the water encroaches, we had to put artificial lift from natural flow to artificial lift.

Those results have been above average, and they've been able to compensate for the blockages that we had. Overall, on blockages, we have been able to work really good with the communities on those where we operate, really low downtimes. CPO 5 has the disadvantage that it's not connected to the pipeline, an oil pipeline, and to electric lines. We've been working hand in hand with ONCC, the operator. Last blockage was a really positive result, and since that one, all of July, we had no blockages. I don't know if I answered exactly what you were looking for, but that's where we stand today. July and August, again, the first couple of days of August are strong days on production as well.

Great, thank you. That's useful. Second, on exploration. You reported Torito Sur 3. First, I was wondering what sort of EUR potential, potential additional resources those two areas add? Maybe as a follow-up, I saw that there is a write-down associated with CPO 5 that came from another quarter. Did you have a decision point in drilling at CPO 5 in future? Thank you. I have another question at two.

Speaker 7

Stephan, hi. How are you? This is Jaime. I'm going to start with your second question about write-offs in CPO 5. We actually haven't had any write-offs in CPO 5 this year. Probably what you are referring to is some notes that we had comparing that year to year. On a year-to-year basis, last year, we did have an exploration write-off in CPO 5. It was associated to two wells. We had one in 2Q, one in 3Q. It was the Cisne and the Lark wells at the time, which, in total, the total amount of write-offs associated to those in both quarters was $7 million. That's a 2024 event. We haven't had any write-offs associated to CPO 5 in 2025. Over to Rodrigo on your first question.

Speaker 4

Hello, Esteban. Going back to your question about the recent discovery that we announced from Llanos 123, we can start with Torito Sur 1. We had a very good result in that well. We started with more than 1,000 barrels per day of oil. Today, we are producing about 400 barrels of oil per day. The preliminary result looks very promising. We are working with our partner, trying to incorporate one more well in the structure because we need to delimitate the area. It's too preliminary to talk about volume right now. We need to incorporate more activity to estimate the potential, but definitely, we see a good result there. Related with Torito Sur 3, the Mirador formation, at least it's very promising. We are seeing 900 barrels per day with no water. The next step is incorporating a new well.

Definitely, we want to do it as soon as possible. If we can do it before the end of this year, it's going to be good. In order with that result, we are going to be in position to say the size of the discovery that we have there. Both cases in the Llanos and the 123 look very promising. If they grow, at least it's where we want to grow in the next coming months and years. What we are doing in terms of exploration today, we are drilling Matraquero in the block Llanos 104. That is the first well in the block. We plan to do another one back to this well before the end of this year. The name is Vencejo. That's the current activity that we are doing. With more exploration during this year, we will see the results.

Looking forward, of course, we need to drill Prestinacion, the project that we have been talking about for long. That is in CPO 5. We are trying to agree with our partner, ONGC, to start with that well in the next drilling campaign. We see some prospects in Llanos 87 and continue deploying the Llanos 123 where we see a lot of near-field exploration opportunities.

Thanks, Rodrigo.

Speaker 0

Thank you. That's great. Thank you for pointing out the CPO 5 in the write-up. I'll look at it from here. Last question is around small-run strategy. I was wondering whether you talk about the focus on Argentina and generally, in the region. Now, in the context of that, it has proven to be quite difficult to execute in Argentina. While historically, it's quite high, Venezuela is probably a local area at the moment. Generally, how complicated do you see the landscape? How difficult is it to transact with regard to this M&A strategy that you've got? Where do you differentiate?

Speaker 1

Yeah, thanks, thanks, Stephane. I'd say that, obviously, in the region, in Argentina in particular, there's plenty of opportunities. There's a lot of activity. Let's bear in mind that this is an area where close to $10 billion are being invested on a yearly basis, and there's a line of sight of over $100 billion of commitments going forward. There's plenty of opportunities, there's plenty of assets, and I think that GeoPark brings to the table, and this is reinforced by the conversations we've had with the local province authorities and some of our potential partners in the future, where they want the expertise we bring in terms of operations, in terms of efficiencies, in terms of subsurface knowledge. There's a lot of alignment in that sense. I think there's always opportunity.

The other thing that I'd say, and I mentioned earlier that on the 6th of June, I was actually meeting with the governor of Neuquén, Dr. Figueroa. They've mentioned publicly that they want companies like us coming into the province. We'll see where that takes us, Stephane, but clearly, there always will be competition in terms of some of the opportunities. I think we're very well positioned to actually go and capture some of those. Thank you.

Thank you, Stephanie.

Speaker 6

Thank you. That will conclude the audio portion of today's call. We do have text questions that came in from the webcast. Our first question is from Eduardo Muniz of Santander. The question reads, "Hi, thanks for taking my questions. Congrats on the results and welcome, Felipe. Following the recent portfolio review, what should we expect in terms of capital allocation priorities? Whether that is M&A, reinvestment, buybacks, or dividends, how do those decisions align with your growth ambitions over the next couple of years?

Speaker 1

Thanks, Eduardo, and thanks for being part of the call today through the webcast. I think we've touched on some of these elements already in some of the responses we've given. In terms of capital allocation, the first thing I'd say, we want to be very disciplined. When we're reviewing the options, especially the uses of capital, we're very disciplined. I'll go back and make reference to some of the things that we've highlighted over the last couple of days. First one, an increased guidance on CapEx. That basically reflects that we have some good opportunities that we can go and pursue before year-end. Again, from $80 to $100 million to $90 to $120 million. I think that's one. We've talked about not only the cost efficiencies and all the efforts we're doing. We've talked about dividends that we declared yesterday that were approved by the board.

We've talked about the debt reduction and repurchase of the bonds. We've talked about M&A. In that sense, all of your elements in the question that you posed to us are included. We'll continue to, in a very disciplined way, review those and ensure that we can actually make the right allocation of CapEx. In terms of the longer-term view or vision, I'll go back to where I started this Q&A session. Two things we need to do: protect the ongoing business. I think the guys, Martín and Rodrigo, have talked in detail about some of those things, and we'll continue to do that. Case in point is the redeployment of some CapEx in that sense. Second, return to the pathway of growth. We've talked about M&A. I think in a nutshell, Eduardo, that's how I would reflect on your question. Thank you.

Speaker 6

Thank you. Our next question is from Vicente Falanga of Bradesco. The question reads, "Could you please provide an update on the result of the polymer injection in Llanos 34? When should we have final results?

Speaker 1

Thanks, Vicente. I'd say we're very enthused. We're very happy with the polymer injection project. All the approvals have been gained. We have all the approvals, and we should start in December of this year. It's going to take some months before we see results. Rodrigo, why don't you expand a bit on that?

Speaker 4

Yes, we are proactively moving forward with the project. The study that we have conducted, along with the background information shared by our partner, coming from the Cabristero Field that is next to our field, Llanos 34, are very encouraging. We are very excited to move forward with the project. We've also completed the bidding process. We have already selected both, not only the polymer, but the associated facilities as well. The result will show us how good it is, the technology for the field. We are ready to expand the technology as soon as we identify those results, and we are able to dimension how good it is in terms of economics. That's the status today of the project.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Rodrigo. Thanks, Vicente.

Speaker 6

Thank you. Our last question of today's call is from Joao Cabrina of Suno Research. The question reads, "How is your relationship with Pampa Energía going? Do you plan to partner in Vaca Muerta?

Speaker 1

Joao, thanks, and thanks for being here today with us. I was mentioning earlier that, on June 6, I had the opportunity to visit the governor of Neuquén in his office. I've since then had some discussions with them, with the provincial authorities and with the governor himself. The day before that, on the 5th, I had the opportunity to meet with Pampa in Buenos Aires. I'd say a very, very encouraging, very respectful conversation. We're always, I think, striving to identify opportunities where we can jointly partner. Those conversations continue, are ongoing. Those conversations have continued to actually happen. Obviously, won't go into more details, but I think we have a very respectful conversation with Pampa. The other thing I'd say, Pampa has been a very successful company over the last years, and they've very aggressively looked at the gas developments.

They're looking at, they're actually pursuing oil developments and stuff. A lot of respect for Pampa, and we're having some very good conversations with them. Thanks, Joao.

Speaker 6

Thank you. That will conclude the Q&A portion of today's call. I'll pass it back over to Felipe Bayon for any closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Thank you so much. Thanks, thanks for that. Again, thanks for your help with the call today, and especially thanks to all of you that participated in the call. Before we close, I'd like to share with you some results of our AGM. Our 2025 Annual General Meeting was held earlier today, this morning. A few things coming out of that. The first one is that all nominated candidates were duly selected.

Speaker 6

and confirmed as members of the boards of directors for GeoPark. The second one, E-N-Y, Ernst & Young Audit SAS, was appointed as external auditor to the company. The third one is that the audit committee, which is part of the board, was authorized to determine remuneration for the auditor. I just wanted to provide that update, which I think is very timely. I'll say that we will continue in GeoPark to be focused on capital discipline. I know there's a lot of interest that I mean, I don't know, probably 50% of the questions had some element of capital discipline, so thanks for that. We will protect our financial strengths. We will continue to invest to position the company for the next phase that will be profitable and sustainable in the long term, always with the vision of growth.

We remain very confident in our strategy and our ability to continue to create value, always safely, responsibly, and consistently. Again, thanks everybody for your interest and support in GeoPark. We're always here to answer any questions. If there's follow-up questions, please reach out to the guys in the team, and we'll be happy to address them. Regan, thanks for your help. Everybody else, thanks for being here today, and have a great day. Hasta luego. Thanks.

Speaker 1

Thank you. That will conclude today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your line.