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Just be aware that the post is from over 3 months ago when Jason attended the conference in Geneva with Prabhat Jha. I don't think the mentioned timings are likely to be valid any more, as Leandra is currently near South Africa and steaming towards Mundra, India.

I truly hope that she'll call into dry dock this quarter.

No, no, it's the triple quadrangle inversion that they missed.

Parts availability was the original reason for delay on the additional Aquafuel optimisation and testing, if I recall correctly.

I don't see why that should be further delayed/blocked, but they've managed to surprise us repeatedly on that front!

His main compensation is a royalty on sales of MSAR. The warrants are a bonus. That said, I'm sure if they will figure out something on the warrants front if/when they get back on track.

I think there's sometimes a bit of confusion about whether a particular situation is caused by NDAs or not.

NDAs are not allowed to override the company's legal requirement to publicly disclose material events to the market. It's a matter of (1) what the company decides is material and needs disclosing; and (2) whether it fits with their communications and business strategy during sensitive times. For example, if they are in the middle of negotiations, QFI tend to keep quiet (and that's permissible, there's plenty of flexibility in the market disclosure rules).

Personally, I doubt anything regarding the current situation is NDA-related, but likely due to their either being nothing to say, or that they are still trying to resolve the situation(s) before making an announcement.

Usually, NDA-related barriers can be worked around with use of descriptors, "Moroccan Client", "European Refiner", etc, etc. As we've seen in the past. Certain details people might want to know would certainly be unavailable.

Bear in mind that the counterparties QFI are negotiating with will also see these RNSes and know it's talking about them, so QFI obviously need to be careful not to give too much away and compromise their position.

That said, I personally think QFI under-communicate, especially when they overrun guidance, and providing an update in those circumstances is not a 'running commentary'.

In my experience in business, most companies will not engage with you unless you sign an NDA to protect their reputation, business secrecy, pricing information, and intellectual property (etcetera).

Just my 2c

She will likely be pulled off her scheduled route when the necessary dry dock capacity and supply agreements are finally signed by QFI. I did put significant caveats when I posted that data on the forums in November that is being referred to.

It's normal for a vessel/asset to be used for normal service until needed for another task to maximise its value. MSC aren't going to leave a valuable depreciating asset idling, they will want to sweat all possible value.

QFI's inability to close out supply agreements with counterparties plus the global crunch on drydock capacity would seem to be the limiting factor(s) at present.

Interesting comment from Panos D Kouris (co-founder Vertoro).

Original post:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/panoskouris_glucose-photosynthesis-dac-activity-7009478497807007744-jOx4/

"""
Vertoro is positioning itself as a cost-effective advanced biocrude producer from sustainably-sourced ligno-cellulosic feedstocks; and by that we enable biogenic carbon which is trapped in biomass to enter various value chains. Accordingly, we developed our Crude Sugar Oil (CSO); a glucose-rich platform intermediate product for biofuels and chemicals. Through our recently granted by European Commission #innovationfund project we will scale-up our CSO process in the Port of Rotterdam but also work together with our partner Quadrise Fuels International plc to commercialise it and bring in the marine fuel market via the #biomsar technology. Excited about these developments.
"""

Dry docking is a pretty major procedure, but they are incredibly fast at it.

From looking at Leandra videos from a few months ago, she looks pretty rough, so I'm guessing she'll need a more intensive dry docking of 2-3 weeks. SOLAS regulations define how often dry docking is needed (AIUI, it's twice in 5 years, with a maximum gap of 3 years, and min gap of 2 years; extensions can be granted under ).

They will completely strip the paint, apply various treatments and layers of paint to the hull, a wide variety of equipment in the vessel will have a deep inspection and overhaul/replacement where necessary. Basically anything they couldn't do as a running replacement while the vessel was in operation.

Quite common also to do retrofits at the same time, such as adding BWTS, changing bulbous bow, upgrading equipment, adding scrubbers, etc. Seems likely she'll have scrubbers fitted from JM's comments.

Various inspections are also undertaken and quite often classification society representative needs to give her the all clear.

So it's routine, but definitely way more complicated than an MOT due to the extremely harsh marine environment — but conceptually not a million miles away.

I know there are some marine engineers and captains who are QFI holders, so perhaps they can weigh in with a bit of their expertise...

A few pieces we need to fall together before things proceed.

- Fuel supply (conventional and glycerine)
- Terminal and bunkering
- Dry docking

First couple of points we chatted about quite a bit at the AGM during Q&A and afterwards during various group discussions. There are multi-party talks going on to sync up all of these counterparties, trying to get them all to agree to a plan and sign up. MSC strongly prefers to use suppliers and service providers they are familiar with, as I understood it.

The third point is slightly complicated to predict in terms of timing. There's a huge crunch in availability of large dry docking resources at the moment due to China's "Zero Covid" policy causing shipyards to repeatedly close down for extended periods. This has effectively reduced capacity at a time when there was already a backlog — other places do dry docking such as India and Turkey, but the knock-on effect in terms of capacity shortfall is a global issue.

Drilling is lower-hanging fruit re: immediate capex requirements. They heat up the reservoir underground using a simple steam generation method; the heat is trapped into the layer holding the tar sands and insulted by the earth, so it builds up a very significant temperature after a couple of weeks. This melts the bitumen until it starts flowing, and then they pump it out until it cools down; rinse and repeat.

The reason they need so many wells if they stick with huff 'n puff, as ianb has illustrated, is that the heat doesn't travel very far, so your 'range' is rather limited from any given well.

A few shallow wells, gas to generate the steam/heat, various injection and extraction gear, etc, isn't going to cost 180m upfront.

As blackwash says, this is meant to be a 'bootstrapping' technique.

IIRC, the original Maersk LONO began in 2016 — fast forward to 2023 and we'll be on literally the same vessel again.

She's a distinctly middle-aged vessel now!

It's a strange world, isn't it.

IIRC, there was the Maersk Bogor (MAN B&W) POC — and as you all know — Seago Istanbul/MSC Leandra (Wartsila) POC and then Interim LONO.

Supposedly we could get some revenue from Valkor in 1H2023 by selling them an MMU and small-scale production from some existing assets they are operating. I suspect it won't blow our minds!

Nothing you lot don't already know, I suspect

https://www.edisongroup.com/publication/key-role-in-transitioning-to-net-zero/31706/

You'll (possibly) be relieved to learn she's visiting Iraq not Iran.

Some who weren't in attendance seem to have gotten the impression that the atmosphere and questions were hostile or badly received.

I'd say the vibe in the room was actually quite good.

Questions were tough, direct, and realistic; holders wanted to convey to the company their concerns about communication, timelines slippages, and lack of delivery. We also understand the limitations and difficulties of smallco vs bigco — but ultimately the funding runway only has a tiny bit of wiggle room left, so QFI need to find a way to get it done (without enumerating all of the suggestions that were made, many of which were reasonable and taken positively).

Several also wanted to reinforce that we (shareholders) all understand how critical the situation is, how much we want QFI to succeed, and that progressing Morocco and other smaller projects 'within the envelope' is key to ensuring any fundraising is done on terms that are beneficial to existing shareholders, rather than imposing punitive dilution.

On communications, a lot of it was just to ensure clarity, less ambiguity, and informing us promptly when guidance significantly shifts for whatever reason, rather than silent treatment. There's obviously a balance to walk between "running commentary" and "you'll find out N months later".

So, overall, I'd say the mood was 'positive very cognisant of risks, and we need to see execution promptly'.

Thanks to everyone who come along, the questions were really good and the group chats/Q&A afterwards with the team were very informative. As always, just colour, but it seems we're within spitting distance on Morocco.

Sorry, I must have been confused by someone called Hotfinance14 who made clear their contempt for the AGM and implied they were not attending:

"""
Heads up for those thinking of going to the AGM. Qatar play Senegal in the world cup at at the same time of the AGM.You may find the game a lot more entertaining.
"""

Not quite clear, are you attending to ask those questions, or saying you want someone to ask something on your behalf, or are you just attending virtually.

Hi 46G, thanks for sharing. A small tip: if you want to link to a specific post rather than just QFI's LinkedIn front page you need to click the three dots in the top right of the post you're interested in, and then select 'copy link to post'.

V72 - one important note omitted from that article is that Maersk's upcoming methanol boxships are all dual fuel [1] - so they are definitely hedging their bets.

[1] Second fuel likely being standard HFO/MGO/etc given the OEMs involved, but they omit an explicit answer from most of their publicity materials.