Evolution Petroleum Corporation, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Evolution Petroleum First Quarter and Fiscal Year 2026 Earnings Release Conference Call. All participants are in listen-only mode. Please also note that today's event is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Brandi Hudson, Investor Relations Manager. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Welcome to Evolution Petroleum's fiscal Q1 2026 earnings call. I'm joined by Kelly Lloyd, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mark Bunch, Chief Operating Officer, and Ryan Stash, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer. We released our fiscal first quarter 2026 financial results after the market closed yesterday. Please refer to our earnings press release for additional information containing these results. You can access our earnings release in the investor section of our website. Please note that any statements and information provided in today's call speak only as of today's date, November 12, 2025, and any time-sensitive information may not be accurate at a later date. Our discussion today will contain forward-looking statements of management's beliefs and assumptions based on currently available information. These forward-looking statements are subject to the risks, assumptions, and uncertainties as described in our SEC filings. Actual results may differ materially from those expected. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. During today's call, we may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income. Reconciliations of these measures to the closest comparable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release. Kelly will begin today's call with opening comments. Mark will provide an update on our properties and plans as they relate to our ongoing strategy of maximizing shareholder returns. Ryan will then provide a brief overview of our fiscal quarter highlights. After our prepared remarks, the management team will be available to answer any questions. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. If you wish to listen to a webcast replay of today's call, it will be available on the investor section of our website. With that, I will turn the call over to Kelly.

Thank you, Brandi, and good morning, everybody. We entered fiscal 2026 in a solid position, building on the momentum we carried through last year. Our first quarter reflected continued execution across a broad and diversified portfolio, underscoring the resiliency of our business model through commodity price cycles. Total revenue was $21.3 million, a modest decline from the prior year period, driven primarily by lower realized oil and NGL prices, partially offset by a 43% increase in natural gas pricing. Even in a softer pricing environment, our assets performed in line with expectations, generating positive earnings and meaningful cash flow. From a strategic standpoint, this was an important quarter for Evolution. We closed our first acquisition consisting only of minerals and royalties in the scoop stack, expanding our exposure to high-quality, long-lived reserves while maintaining the capital-like profile that defines our portfolio. The structure of this transaction allows us to participate in future development in over 650 gross locations across a highly active basin that we're very familiar with, given our other assets in the region. With minimal operating expenses and no future capital commitments presents us with meaningful upside. We are maintaining a strong financial foundation with ample liquidity and low leverage supported by the credit facility expansion completed at the end of fiscal 25. That flexibility continues to position us well to pursue accretive opportunities while maintaining a consistent return of capital to shareholders through our regular dividend. To that end, yesterday we declared our 49th consecutive quarterly cash dividend and our 14th consecutive cash dividend of $0.12 per share for the fiscal second quarter. As for the macro outlook and how it will affect evolution, we'll start with crude oil. It's in the middle of a tug-of-war between OPEC Plus trying to appease the U.S. by keeping prices lower and depleting sovereign wealth funds. When will we begin filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve? Will the ceasefires hold? With global supply and demand so close to being in balance, there are a lot of questions as to when and where the next marginal barrel will be needed. With the futures market at or near all-time net short levels at present, the herd has spoken and pushed crude to around $60 per barrel. A couple of points here. First, I don't think anybody would argue with this, but at $60 a barrel, CapEx budgets are beginning to be reduced. which will lead to, at some point, prices needing to move higher to spur enough drilling to meet demand. Second, with the speculative net short position, any geopolitical catalyst can quickly trigger a short covering rally. With our resilient portfolio, whether the upswing in the cycle occurs in the next few quarters or next few years, Evolution and its shareholders will be there to reap the rewards. As for natural gas, The electrification of everything everywhere and ongoing carbon intensity reduction efforts along with growing exports create a rapidly growing demand environment set to persist for at least the next decade. Weather remains all important. However, with an estimated 20 to 30 BCF per day of coming demand over the next decade or so off of a current 105-ish BCF per day supply base, There is a reason the futures curves for natural gas currently range from the high threes to the high fours for as far out as they trade. Of note, our natural gas revenues were up 38% over the year-ago quarter, and Henry Hub only averaged 303 for the quarter, whereas the calendar 2026 strip is currently over $4. Turning back to our assets, We were encouraged this quarter by the continued operational consistency across our portfolio. Each of our assets delivered steady results during the quarter, reflecting the quality of our fields and the strong relationships we maintain with our operating partners. Importantly, we have flexibility across our asset base to adjust development activity based on market conditions, which allows us to balance near-term returns with long-term value creation. We expand drilling when prices are high and acquire assets when prices are low, all while benefiting from our low decline producing reserves to maintain strong cash flows throughout the cycle. Our strategy remains consistent. Operate efficiently, allocate capital prudently, and return capital to shareholders while maintaining financial strength. We remain focused on generating sustainable free cash flow that supports our regular dividend and positions us to take advantage of attractive acquisition opportunities as they arise. That discipline has been a cornerstone of Evolution's success for more than a decade, and it will continue to guide our decisions in fiscal 2026 and beyond. With that, I'll hand it over to Mark for more details on the assets.