SANTA YNEZ UNIT (SYU)
NOTES TO THE COMBINED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
NOTE 1. ORGANIZATION AND GOING CONCERN
Organization
and General
On November 1, 2022 Exxon Mobil Corporation (EM or Seller), a New Jersey Corporation, entered
into a purchase and sale agreement (the Sable-EM Purchase Agreement) with Sable Offshore Corp. (Sable), a Texas limited liability company, to sell all of its interests in certain oil
and gas properties located offshore in the Santa Ynez Unit and the Las Flores Canyon processing facilities (Las Flores Canyon Facilities) located in the state of California for consideration consisting of a Seller financed note payable
and related purchase price adjustments, collectively SYU. These financial statements do not include the effects of the agreement.
EM completed its initial discovery of certain oil and gas properties that comprise SYU in 1968. EM engineered three separate platforms to
develop three fields. The Hondo platform was placed in service in 1981 and Harmony platform in 1994, both serving the Hondo Field. The Heritage platform was later built in 1994 to support the Pescado and Secate Fields. The offshore assets are
located in water depths of 900-1,200 feet and the Seller working interest is 100% with net revenue interest of 83.6%. The onshore Las Flores Canyon Facilities are comprised of a gas plant, an oil and water
treatment plant, and a COGEN power plant that provides electricity to the onshore facilities. SYU has been shut in since 2015 due to a pipeline incident but has been maintained by EM in an operation-ready state.
On December 5, 2023, the California State Lands Commission voted unanimously to approve amendments to right-of-way leases held directly or indirectly by EM, for existing infrastructure serving offshore platforms Hondo, Harmony and Heritage in SYU. The amendments, among other things, extend the holdover
periods for each of the leases by five years to December 31, 2028 and January 31, 2029, increase the bonding requirements from $1,000,000 to $15,000,000 and from $1,000,000 to $5,000,000, and provide for increased inspection and monitoring
requirements.
On December 15, 2023, EM, MPPC and Sable entered into an amendment to the
Sable-EM Purchase Agreement. Pursuant to the amendment, Sable and EM agreed to amend the Sable-EM Purchase Agreement to, among other things, provide that the Scheduled
Closing Date was February 1, 2024 (the Scheduled Closing Date was previously amended from June 30, 2022 to December 31, 2022), unless one or more of the conditions to closing described in the
Sable-EM Purchase Agreement was not satisfied as of the Scheduled Closing Date, in which case the closing would be held three business days after all such conditions have been satisfied or waived, or such
other date as the parties mutually agreed in writing, but in no event later than February 29, 2024.
Pursuant to the terms and
subject to the conditions set forth in the Sable-EM Purchase Agreement, the transactions contemplated by the Sable-EM Purchase Agreement were consummated on February 14, 2024 (the Sable-EM Closing Date) immediately after the
Closing, as a result of which Sable purchased SYU, effective as of January 1, 2022 (the Effective Date).
On
February 14, 2024, immediately following the Closing, Sable issued 44,024,910 shares of Common Stock of the Company, at a price of $10.00 per share for an aggregate Private Investment in a Public Entity (PIPE Investments)
of $440,249,100 in accordance with the terms of the PIPE Subscription Agreements. The shares of Common Stock issued in the PIPE Investments were offered in a private placement under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities
Act), pursuant to the PIPE Subscription Agreements.
On the Sable-EM Closing Date, in connection with the consummation of the
transactions contemplated by the Sable-EM Purchase Agreement, the Company entered into a five-year secured term loan with Exxon (the Term Loan Agreement), pursuant to which Sable agreed to pay to Exxon, on or before the payment due date,
a principal amount of $622.9 million in addition to accrued interest thereon, commencing on the Effective Date. Such accrued interest is payable in arrears on each anniversary of the Effective Date unless Management elects in writing prior to
an interest payment date for such accrued interest to be added to the outstanding principal on the Term Loan Agreement (any such interest, PIK Interest). PIK Interest shall be deemed outstanding principal under the Term Loan Agreement
and accrue additional interest. Prior to the Sable-EM Closing Date, Management elected for all accrued interest under the Term Loan Agreement to be deemed PIK Interest.
Pursuant to the Agreement and Plan of Merger (the Merger Agreement) between Sable, Flame Acquisition Corp. (Flame),
and Sable Offshore Holdings LLC (Holdco), on February 14, 2024, (i) Holdco merged with and into Flame, with Flame surviving such merger (the Holdco Merger) and (ii) Sable merged with and into Flame, with Flame
surviving such merger (the SOC Merger and, together with the Holdco Merger, the Mergers and, along with the other transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement, the Business Combination). In connection with
the Business Combination, Flame changed its name to Sable Offshore Corp. (SOC or the Company).
Going Concern
As
discussed above in Organization and General, SYU was acquired by SOC, whose management has addressed near-term capital funding needs with the PIPE Investments and the consummation of the Business Combination. SOC believes it has sufficient
capital to maintain operations and complete the repairs necessary to restart production at SYU. However, the Companys plans for production restart are contingent upon approvals from federal, state and local regulators. Additionally, if the
Companys estimates of the costs of restarting production are less than the actual amounts necessary to do so, the Company may have insufficient funds available to operate its business prior to first production and will need to raise additional
capital. If the Company is unable to raise additional capital, it may be required to take additional measures to conserve liquidity, which could include, among other things, suspending repair efforts and reducing overhead expenses. The Company
cannot provide any assurance that new financing will be available to it on commercially acceptable terms, if at all.
Due to the remaining
regulatory approvals necessary to restart production, along with the timing of ongoing construction repair efforts, substantial doubt exists about the Companys ability to continue as a going concern. The financial statements included in this
annual report do not include any adjustments relating to the recovery of the recorded assets or the classification of the liabilities that could be necessary if the Company is unable to continue as a going concern.
NOTE 2. BASIS OF PRESENTATION
The accompanying carve-out combined financial statements reflect the assets, liabilities, revenues,
expenses, and cash flows of SYU as of and for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022. SYU has not previously been separately accounted for as a stand-alone legal entity. The accounts are presented on a combined basis because SYU was under
common control of EM.
The carve-out combined financial statements have been prepared in
accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (U.S. GAAP). The accompanying carve-out combined financial statements also include a portion of indirect
costs for general and administrative expenses. In addition to the allocation of indirect costs, the carve-out combined financial statements reflect certain agreements executed by EM for the benefit of SYU. The
allocations methodologies for significant allocated items include:
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General and administrative expenses that were not specifically identifiable to SYU were allocated to SYU as a
portion of certain other operating costs based on aggregated historical benchmarking data for the period from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2023. The total amounts allocated to SYU for each of the years ended December 31, 2023 and
2022, which are recorded in general and administrative expenses, are $12.8 million. |
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Long-term debt was not allocated to SYU as it is a legal obligation of EM, which is not directly impacted by
the sale of SYU to Sable. |
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Income taxes were not allocated to SYU as the Seller does not file a consolidated tax return and SYU is not a
taxable legal entity. Direct costs attributable to SYU were included at the historical amounts for each reported period. |
Management believes the allocation methodologies used are reasonable and result in an allocation of the Sellers indirect costs of
operating SYU as a stand-alone entity. These carve-out financial statements may not be indicative of the future performance of SYU and do not necessarily reflect what the results of operations, financial
position and cash flows would have been had SYU been operated as an independent company during the periods presented.
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