Chariot, the Africa focused transitional energy company, has announced its unaudited interim results for the six-month period ended 30 June 2023.

Adonis Pouroulis, CEO of Chariot commented: 
“We continued to progress all workstreams across the business throughout the period and further enhanced our portfolio with the award of the Loukos licence onshore Morocco and the acquisition of our water desalination business. In each pillar of transitional gas, renewable power and green hydrogen, we have the opportunity to deliver a range of tangible benefits and drive real value. Long term scalability is a shared theme across all of our projects, but we are fully focused on executing our core objectives to de-risk the business, enable further growth and deliver near term production.” 

Highlights during and post period

Transitional Gas: Developing a New Gas Province in Morocco

• Front End Engineering and Design (“FEED”) phase completed for the Anchois gas development project (“Anchois”)
• Progress made across all Anchois development workstreams, including the project Environmental Social Impact Assessment (“ESIA”) and submission of the necessary documentation into the approval process in Morocco
• Negotiations on partnering for Anchois and the wider Lixus and Rissana Offshore licences in final stages
• Partnership agreed with Vivo Energy to develop the Moroccan domestic gas-to-industry market
• Award of the Loukos Onshore licence (“Loukos”) in Morocco – fast-track drilling project initiated with opportunity for near-term production

Transitional Power: Building a Substantial Renewable Energy pipeline across Africa

• In partnership with TotalEnergies progressing developments at three key projects in Africa:
  • Tharisa – 40MW solar project in South Africa
  • Karo – 30MW solar project in Zimbabwe
  • First Quantum Minerals – 430MW solar and wind projects in Zambia
• Operational Essakane 15MW solar project at IAMGOLD’s gold mine in Burkina Faso continues to perform well
• Acquisition of water desalination business a strategic fit for both the power and hydrogen pillars – first project in Djibouti commissioned
• Shareholding in Etana Energy opening up route to develop further large-scale renewable energy projects and trading through South Africa’s national grid

Green Hydrogen – Focused on early stage production and future scale up

• Feasibility studies in Mauritania progressing well with partner TEH2 (80% owned by TotalEnergies and 20% owned by the EREN Group) and their in-house ‘OneTech’ engineering unit
• Extended collaboration with Oort Energy and University Mohammed VI Polytechnic (“UM6P”) on green hydrogen proof of concept projects in Morocco
• Ongoing evaluation of further opportunities

Corporate and Financial

• Well capitalized business, with cash position as at 30 June 2023 – $2.7million, supplemented by a successful and oversubscribed fundraise completed in July 2023 raising circa US$19 million
• No debt with minimal licence commitments

Financial Review

The Group remains debt free and had a cash balance of US$2.7 million at 30 June 2023 (US$12.1 million at 31 December 2022) which was further increased in the post-period following the equity fundraising completed in August 2023 which raised gross proceeds of US$19.1 million.

Hydrogen and other business development costs of $0.9 million (30 June 2022: $1.5 million) comprise non-administrative expenses incurred in the Group’s business development activities within the Green Hydrogen pillar.

Other administrative expenses of US$3.5 million (30 June 2022: US$5.0 million) are lower than the prior period reflecting the Group’s focus on maintaining a lean cost foundation, without impacting operational capability.

Finance income of US$0.2 million (30 June 2022: US$ nil) is higher than the prior period due to bank interest received on cash balances, as well as foreign exchange gains on non-US$ cash.

Finance expenses of US$0.02 million (30 June 2022: US$0.4 million) are lower than the prior period reflecting the stabilising of foreign exchange rates on the holding of cash balances in Sterling as well as the reduced unwinding of the discount on the lease liability under IFRS 16.

Share-based payments charges of US$3.4 million (30 June 2022: US$0.9 million) are higher than the prior period due to the granting of share awards to employees across the group over the past 12 months.