Renergen is pioneering the future of energy today. With a focus on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Liquefied Helium (LHe), it is at the forefront of driving positive change in the energy sector.
Their mission extends beyond conventional sources as they strive to shape a cleaner, more sustainable energy future by harnessing the power of renewable gas resources to meet the world’s growing energy demands responsibly.
Their mission extends beyond conventional sources as they strive to shape a cleaner, more sustainable energy future by harnessing the power of renewable gas resources to meet the world’s growing energy demands responsibly.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Stef, welcome back to the show, it's the third time we're talking.
00:07Zonade, always a pleasure, thank you very much.
00:10Well, I'm looking forward to getting updates on things that we've talked about, but for
00:14the folks that might just be hearing from you for the first time, give us a quick brief
00:18overview, what is it that your company does?
00:21So to put into context, we are the first and only onshore petroleum production right holder
00:27in South Africa.
00:28So that would be the same as saying in the United States that you're the first one that
00:33has a license to drill for natural gas and extract it, which puts us in a very favorable
00:37position.
00:38But what we produce, we produce two primary products.
00:42The first is LNG, and then the second is liquid helium.
00:46Now liquid helium is quite an in short supply commodity, fetching an incredibly high price
00:54relative to LNG.
00:56And so overall, we find ourselves in a very favorable space with some significant tailwinds
01:02behind us, both from the South African energy crisis perspective, meaning that we can sell
01:06the LNG at a much better price, but as well as being the newest producer of liquid helium.
01:13So that's in a nutshell, what we do.
01:15You know, they say that being first to market gives people a big advantage, but not only
01:19are you first to market, you're the only one in the market.
01:22And I'll talk about the advantages that gives you here momentarily, but let's talk about
01:27helium, because the only way that I know that it's used is on a hot air balloon if I want
01:30to go on date night.
01:31But outside of that, what is the big deal when it comes to helium and how critical it
01:35is in the modern world that we currently live in?
01:38Listen, aside from also making your voice squeaky, it's a pretty critical element that
01:44doesn't really get the attention that it deserves.
01:47So to begin with, this call wouldn't be taking place without helium.
01:51And the reason for that is semiconductors.
01:54You cannot manufacture a modern semiconductor without helium.
01:57A point in case shortly after COVID, there was the second hand car market debacle where
02:04second hand car prices went up because new cars just didn't have the functionality.
02:09That was because of the semiconductors, blah, blah, blah.
02:11Long story short, it was a helium supply chain issue.
02:14And the world has now been through four major helium crises in terms of supply.
02:20There's also the CHIPS Act, which has become quite a favorable tailwind for us, as well
02:26as the fact that the AI revolution is heavily dependent on helium for its existence.
02:32Moving away from tech, rocket launches can't take place without helium.
02:36So no satellites, no rocket launches, absolutely nothing goes into space without helium.
02:41It is critical.
02:44Specialist welding, MRIs, you can't make an MRI machine and you can't run an MRI machine
02:49without helium.
02:50Particle accelerators.
02:52So discovering the Higgs boson, that didn't get done without helium.
02:56And there's all of these other little things like underwater breathing, blah, blah, blah.
03:00The list is endless and they're constantly finding new uses for helium.
03:05But increasingly, you're going to start to see it being used a lot more for cooling because
03:12we've all seen and we've heard now firsthand that the new chips for AI, you produce an
03:17inordinately large amount of heat, significantly more than normal chips.
03:22And helium dissipates heat 20 times faster than air does.
03:26So there's significant energy efficiencies to be gained by using helium as the medium
03:31for cooling as opposed to normal air.
03:33So there's quite a bit that this little gas does.
03:37I now have about 15 fun facts to talk about on my hot air balloon helium date about helium
03:43while we're up there.
03:44So I thank you for that.
03:46We mentioned about how you're not just the first with the only onshore petroleum production.
03:50You've got the license from the South African government.
03:53What kind of advantage does that give you?
03:58So first and foremost, having a first mover advantage means that we've, you know, we've
04:03done the hard yards.
04:04We've proven the reserve.
04:05We have the licenses.
04:06We've built the first plot.
04:09We're starting to sell and we're deriving revenue from the LNG.
04:12And now I'm really proud to say we're deriving revenue from the helium as well.
04:16And it's several years before any of the other fields in South Africa come online.
04:21But South Africa right now is in the midst of a massive energy crisis.
04:26And point in case when the government comes to its regional planning with regards to how
04:30it's going to address the energy crisis, we form part of those discussions and that planning.
04:36And that is an immensely powerful situation to be in.
04:39Yeah, that makes sense in terms of the advantage and especially having the backing of the government.
04:45We've seen companies that excel here in the U.S. that have done well because they've been
04:49having policies and some, you know, permissions from the government here in the U.S.
04:53So I can understand that aspect of it.
04:55Let's talk about the Virginia Gas Project, because you announced that your phase one
04:58facility at the Virginia Gas Project has just come online after a successful testing.
05:04What is such a significant about this milestone that you've achieved?
05:09So the the first phase, just to put in context, was a proof of concept.
05:12It was a pilot plant that was that was funded by the United States government on the basis
05:17that helium is a critical element.
05:19So we we built the first plant and and we were delayed.
05:23You know, there's this.
05:25We have to acknowledge that we were about a year behind schedule on turning on the helium.
05:29But where we've gotten to now is that we've now finally managed to get the helium module on.
05:33We're producing liquid helium.
05:35We're putting it in our customers tanks.
05:37And that is the proof of concept.
05:39Now, if essentially closed and that brings us in as the catalyst into the second phase,
05:45the second phase, we've already got all of the debt funding locked up again from the U.S.
05:49government through the DFC, a 500 million dollar loan has been approved.
05:53In addition, there's another 250 million dollars coming from a local bank in South Africa
05:58called Standard Bank, who have also approved funding.
06:01So we've got three quarters of a billion dollars ready and waiting.
06:04And this is the catalyst that now sees us moving on to preparing for the capital
06:09rates for phase two, which which may which we're planning on an IPO later this year
06:15on the Nasdaq in order to raise the necessary funds as the equity contribution for phase two.
06:19So this is a this is a very special milestone.
06:22It's also a milestone which technologically makes us one of only a handful of liquid
06:27helium plants in the world.
06:30And now South Africa is one of only eight countries on the planet that can produce liquid
06:34helium, which is which is pretty incredible.
06:37Yeah, that is again, goes back to the advantage that you have being just one of eight to be
06:41able to do that in the world.
06:43So phase one facility, proof of concept proven.
06:47You've got the funding, you know, starting the money coming in as well.
06:50Any more insights on terms of what's next for the project phase two entails?
06:54You kind of mentioned how the funding and everything else comes in.
06:56But is there anything else that the viewers need to know about in terms of phase two?
07:01Listen, phase two is a remarkably different plant phase one.
07:04As I said, I keep reiterating it's a proof of concept that it's a pilot plant.
07:09Phase two is where the real game is.
07:12So phase two is a 30 is a call of the 700 metric ton LNG plant per day, which by LNG
07:19standards is tiny. That's really, really small.
07:22But when you're selling the LNG at the kind of levels that we achieve in South Africa
07:28by virtue of South Africa's energy scarcity, even 700 tons becomes a very meaningful amount
07:34of LNG domestically.
07:36The second thing that's important to consider is that our phase two project from a helium
07:41perspective is around 4.2 tons or about 900,000 standard cubic feet of helium per day.
07:47That is somewhere between 6 and 8 percent of the entire planet's helium supply, which
07:52means that it is a very meaningful helium project.
07:55We've already put out guidance notes in terms of what phase two looks like.
07:59So when phase two is fully ramped up around 2027, we're talking about it generating an
08:05EBITDA of somewhere in the reach of about 340 million US dollars of EBITDA against a
08:10project builder between 1.1 and 1.2 billion dollars.
08:14It's a very meaningful return on a project of that size these days.
08:20Well, speaking of ROI, you kind of mentioned it, you teased it, but I want to reconfirm
08:25that you're still planning a United States IPO later this year by 2024.
08:31We are indeed.
08:33We're going through the motions now of finalizing all of the paperwork.
08:38We've got some interested investors lined up.
08:41Obviously, we've got the debt already wrapped up and now it's a case of going through the
08:46motions.
08:48As with any IPO, you need a couple of tailwinds.
08:51I think a drop in interest rates might be one of those favorable tailwinds that will
08:56definitely help the cause.
08:57But we've got some pretty good momentum behind us and we've got some really good bits of
09:05news coming out.
09:06We're cautiously optimistic that we'll be traded as a ticker on the Nasdaq a little
09:12later this year.
09:13Nothing can be easy.
09:14Nothing can be rainbows and butterflies.
09:16So let's talk about the power outages that we've seen, unfortunately, in South Africa,
09:20especially with the addition of helium that you have with the LNG that we've been talking
09:24about.
09:24What does the energy landscape look like in South Africa, given the past power outages
09:30we've dealt with as well?
09:33Zainab, that's a good point.
09:35South Africa has had its fair set of challenges from an energy perspective.
09:42As little as 15 years ago, the country was generating somewhere in the region of between
09:4640 to 45 gigawatts of installed capacity, and now that generation capacity is a little
09:52over 20 gigawatts, which means that there's been a significant curtailment.
09:57You've had very large industries having relocated their operations because the power
10:03simply wasn't available.
10:05Up until only a few months ago, in your own private house, you would be curtailed with
10:13electricity.
10:14We call that load shedding.
10:15You'd be curtailed anywhere from four up to 11 hours per day, depending on what the
10:20needs on the grid were.
10:21So there's this significant underproduction in terms of energy in the country at the
10:28moment.
10:29But then you exacerbate that with the fact that the country's only supplier of gas
10:33domestically, Sasol, who have an operation here in the U.S.
10:37at Lake Charles in Louisiana.
10:40Sasol is bringing in gas from Mozambique through a pipeline and delivering that gas to
10:45Johannesburg.
10:46Now, they've openly announced that by middle of 2026, they're going to be shutting off
10:52that supply of gas, and that supply of gas alone is more than five times our production
10:57capacity in phase two.
11:00So you've got an energy crisis with regards to power generation not being where it should,
11:05combined with the fact that you've got an inordinate amount of natural gas coming
11:10offline, and you really do have what's being hailed in South Africa as the gas cliff.
11:16So while it's never nice to profit from a negative situation in the country, we do find
11:22ourselves again in an ideal position.
11:25Hence, the South African government referring to us as what's called in South Africa a
11:30SIP, or a Strategic Integrated Project, which is the equivalent in the United States to
11:35being declared a project that's critical to U.S.
11:37national security.
11:39So when it comes to overall planning of the country's energy landscape, we form part of
11:43those plans.
11:45So it's – yeah, we're not the silver bullet.
11:47We're not going to solve the whole country's energy problems, but we're one of the pieces
11:52that the government is going to utilize towards solving the – or at least completing the
11:58larger puzzle.
11:59And that, again, it just speaks volumes to where our project fits into the grand scheme
12:06of things.
12:07Yeah, I think having the backing of a government and also CEO's in asset is definitely
12:11something that speaks volume as well.
12:13And with energy, not just what we've been used to in terms of our daily lives, but also
12:17with AI starting to take over the world, there is more energy consumption that's going to
12:21happen not just in the U.S., but all across the world.
12:24So, you know, definitely some great things that are happening.
12:27And always a pleasure, man.
12:28Thank you so much for taking the time.
12:29I appreciate it.
12:30You've got your ticker as REN on the GSE in the U.S.?
12:34We'll find out.
12:35Can't wait to see what that is, man.
12:38Thank you, Zenaid.
12:39Really appreciate it.