Other Features

Promoter has the following additional features:

- is simple to use with a menu driven system with all inputs made through tabbed dialog boxes. It accepts input and displays results in a variety of different weight, volumetric and other units  e.g. oil prices in US Dollars per tonne or per Barrel; natural gas prices in US Dollars per MM Btu or per scf.  Promoter takes care of the conversion factors.  Change the units form the drop down menu and Promoter will recalculate the input figure.  It won't affect the cash flows.  And you don't have to worry about the difference between LHVs and HHVs!  Promoter calculates them for you.  And, of course, all inputs are checked against predefined limits. 

- can be used through the planning, feasibility, negotiating, development and operating phases.   In the feasibility phase when you may want to vary the size of the project or in subsequent phases when the size is set and you may want to use absolute figures for capital costs and funding

- for many inputs such as the capital cost and the initial debt to equity, the input is interactive and the user can set either ratios or absolute numbers

- incorporates a parametric capital cost estimate. This is particularly useful in the early phases of a project when it can be used to help optimize the plant capacity.  It has often been used in this way

- accepts inputs and displays the financial results in different currencies.  Simply choose the display currency from a drop down box. Calculation takes just an instant. Display the results in Thousands, Millions or Billions of the chosen currency. This feature is useful for calculations in currencies where the current or projected exchange rate to the US Dollar is high, for example over 1000 to the US Dollar

- can be used as a deterministic (one set of inputs) or a stochastic model (input variables inserted with a random function) 

- keeps an eye on the model and advises you of any assumptions it is making, any unusual results which you should be aware of (eg change of sign in the IRR calculation) and advises you of these in the control panel where you can readily view them

 - calculates the capital cost estimate, the project cash flows and the financial projections either for the complete project or for that share owned by one of the partners only, or in any combination of the above (useful for oil and gas projects where several companies may have a share in the field. 

- accepts any day of the year for the start date and any construction period (up to a maximum of about 6 years)

- displays results in different languages

- produces commonly used key criteria for evaluating the viability of the project such as the net present value, internal rate of return, payback period and loan cover ratios. Where appropriate results are calculated for the project cash flows and for the equity cash flows; and in nominal and real terms

- incorporates a goal seeking facility where a variety of different variables can be altered to achieve a required result

- uses international accounting conventions and allows you to display the financial statements in various formats compliant with IFRS standards

- can be configured with different construction and operating phase loans.  Construction phase loans include export credits, commercial loans and bonds.  Operating phase loans include standby facilities, feed supplier credits and working capital loans.  The project can also be refinanced

- specify up to ten different types of tax: Bonus, Royalty, Petroleum Income taxes (all upstream projects only), Import Duties, Local tax, Interest Withholding tax, Corporate Income tax, Dividend Withholding tax and Grants. Also account for Production Sharing Contracts

- contains a wire diagram to illustrate the key players, the main contracts and cash flows through the construction and operating phases

- displays much of the information in the form of charts and diagrams. Pictorial representations help you to understand the key elements of the project, identify areas of risk and rapidly identify any input information which is out of the ordinary

- displays a base case and up to ten alternative cases / scenarios.  The Promoter file holds all cases in a single file - allows the user to adjust the basis for calculating the annual and life cover ratios

 - is not a spreadsheet add in.  it does not therefore suffer from problems of testing, documentation, audit trails, circular references and so on.  But it is not a black box either.  It allows you to see the underlying formaulae and in some cases to change them in a structured manner (eg annual and life cover ratios)

- calculates all projections on a daily basis.  It displays the results on a yearly or half yearly basis

- contains a context sensitive help file and an onscreen tutorial

- is flexible enough to adapt to new projects. Whilst it can be used on a large variety of different projects, there are inevitably new circumstances where it is necessary to incorporate additional features. The model is designed with an open architecture allowing us to upgrade it readily

The Reader version only has a limited set of the above features