This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.
spk03: Press 4 to rewind for 30 seconds. Press 5 to pause or resume.
spk00: Hello. Thank you for standing by. My name is Jeremy, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Riley Exploration Permian Incorporated's Q1 2023 Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, again, press star and the number one. I would now like to turn the call over to the CFO, Philip Riley.
spk01: Philip Riley Thank you, and good morning to everyone. Welcome to our conference call covering the first quarter 2023 results. Yesterday, the company published a number of items which can be found on our website under the Investors section, an earnings release, supplemental info on non-GAAP measures, and two presentations, one of which provides an update for first quarter results, with the second providing a company overview. We plan to file our 10-Q on Wednesday. Participating on the call today are Bobby Riley, Chairman and CEO, Kevin Riley, President, and me, Philip Riley, CFO and EVP of Strategy. Today's conference call contains certain projections and other forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. We'll also reference certain non-GAAP measures. The reconciliations to the appropriate GAAP measures can be found in our supplemental disclosure on our website. I'll now turn the call over to Bobby.
spk04: Thank you, Philip. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today on our Q1 2023 earnings calls. I'm pleased to report that the company remains focused on optimizing our core business, and I believe we are off to a great start in 2023. Although we gave a lot of attention during Q1 to the New Mexico acquisition, we were still able to meet or even surpass the targets we had previously announced for the quarter. In addition to our ongoing development of our core assets, subsequent to closing the acquisition on April the 3rd, We have commenced development activities in New Mexico with plans to bring on additional wells early in the third quarter. The New Mexico acquisition marks a major milestone for the company, and we are excited about the opportunities it brings for long-term growth and value creation for our shareholders. We also announced a joint venture to construct new power infrastructure for onsite generation using produced gas. This strategic initiative aligns with our commitment to sustainable practices and cost-efficient operations. I will now turn the call over to Kevin to discuss the operational results for the quarter.
spk05: Thank you, Bobby, and good morning. Riley Permian continued to execute in the first quarter with production coming in within the guidance range, but on the low end at 9.9 thousand barrels of oil per day and 13.2 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day. The company turned to sales seven gross 5.3 net wells, which is well above the one gross, one net well we had turned to sales during Q4 of 2022. Production already has and is expected to continue to increase in Q2 relative to both Q4 of 22 and Q1 of 23, not only from having a full quarter of contribution from the wells put online in Q1, but also with the addition of of the New Mexico acquisition and the continued development of our core assets. As a reminder, the production from new wells oftentimes has a lag effect with a large portion of the associated capex being realized in the prior period, as these wells take anywhere from one to three months on average to reach peak production. So, that said, April is the first month that fully benefits from development activity of the previous quarter. Q1 remained relatively flat quarter over quarter, with only one new well from Q4-22 reaching its peak production during the period. Lease operating expenses were lower than guidance expectations, primarily due to optimizations and some delayed workovers due to seasonal West Texas winds. As Bobby had previously mentioned, subsequent to closing on April 3rd, we have commenced development in New Mexico, and we are currently finishing up drilling activity on the second of our first four wells. On our Champion's Asset in Yoakum County, we just finished the drilling campaign for the first half of 2023, and the remainder of these wells will be turned to sales over the next couple of months. The campaign was very successful, and the team was able to deliver a significant improvement in days spent on each well, on average reducing spud to TD by 25% on a one and a half mile lateral, with the last three of the campaign being the best, coming in right at six days from SPUD to TDE. These improvements have resulted in well-cost reductions, currently estimated at 4% to 5% of an AFE, as compared to the previous drilling campaign in 2022. Lastly, regarding service costs, we remain cautiously optimistic. We have seen a slight decrease in service costs as compared to 2022, and we hope to see more benefits from that in the second half of the year as we work through our previous commitments and pre-orders from 2022 for our 2023 development activity. With that, I will turn the call over to Philip to discuss the financial results. Thank you.
spk01: Thank you, Kevin. For the first quarter of 2023, we're reporting net income of $32 million, or $1.60 per diluted share, and adjusted net income of $25 million, or $1.26 per diluted share. Adjusted EBITDAX of $44 million for the quarter was up by $9 million or 26% year-over-year, and modestly lower quarter-over-quarter by approximately $2 million or 5%. Operating cash flow was $33 million or $37 million before working capital changes, which is up by $7 million or 23% year-over-year. This is driven by higher production volumes despite lower prices. LOE on a unit of production basis was actually slightly lower year-over-year, and as compared to full year 2022, which is encouraging and a reflection of our cost control efforts. Quarter over quarter, operating cash flow before working capital was lowered by $7 million, or 16%. We had very modestly lower volumes and slightly higher LOE and GNA on a unit basis. Some of the added GNA from March reflected additions made to the New Mexico acquisition for prior to having the production volume to offset the unit cost metric. Interest expense was higher, primarily due to not having the benefit, like we did in the fourth quarter, of the one-time interest swap settlement. And then final point on operating cash flow is that we accrued $2 million in transaction expenses in the first quarter related to the acquisition. For the quarter, accrual-based CapEx was $42 million and cash CapEx was $35 million. As a result of the spend, free cash flow was modest during the first quarter at just over $2 million, as anticipated. due to the concentration of development activity and corresponding capital spending consistent with our 2023 full-year plan. As discussed on past calls, we encourage investors to focus less on a single quarter free cash flow, give an uneven activity, and instead focus on the full-year metric as well as the overall growth of operating cash flow. I'll offer some commentary on capital allocation. Clearly, the biggest allocation this year was toward the New Mexico acquisitions. We're very excited about the deal and assets, and we appreciate investors' reaction and support for the deal thus far. We also want to thank our financing parties and the sellers for a smooth transition. For the remainder of the year, the bulk of discretionary cash flow based on current conditions and prices will likely go toward reinvestment for volume growth with the balance available for debt pay down, new ventures, and our dividend. On upstream reinvestment, the spending the year to date, as well as the anticipated spend going forward this year, should result in what we forecast as meaningful growth above and beyond solely the pickup from the acquisition volumes. The spend currently appears front-half weighted with about 60% in the first half of the year based on midpoint guidance. Our reinvestment rate will be influenced by the macro environment. The macro backdrop has certainly been volatile this year with Fed-induced monetary tightening, debates on oil demand, as well as very weak gas and NGL pricings. So we do remain flexible to slow down spending, and we'll continue to evaluate options there with our management team and the board to find the right balance. We also hope to delever this year, both through scheduled amortization on the notes of $5 million per quarter, as well as through voluntary paydowns on the credit facility. The amount of delevering will largely be a function of commodity pricing and our reinvestment rate. On new ventures, we have $10 to $15 million forecasted for 2023 investment and our power joint ventures. This project is off to a great start, and we frankly see opportunity to expand already. We're still focused on EOR and CCUS and continue to evaluate opportunities with counterparties. We do not have a material amount of investment earmarked at the moment, which could change in any quarter as situations develop, as regulations become clearer, and if deals compete for capital with our upstream and power businesses. Finally, we plan to continue to play our quarterly dividends, which represents a material amount of excess free cash flow by our estimates. I'll pass it back to Kevin for a discussion of guidance. Thank you.
spk05: Thank you, Philip. I will now give guidance for the company's activity for the second quarter on a combined basis, as this quarter will be the first quarter to include the results of the New Mexico acquisition. Please note that the guidance provided is subject to change as we are monitoring the fluctuating nature of commodity prices. We forecast oil production to average 14 to 15,000 barrels per day and total equivalent production to average 20 to 21,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day based on estimates of available gas processing capacity. We anticipate LOE of approximately $8 to $9 per BOE and cash G&A expenses of approximately $3 to $3.50 per BOE. The company also anticipates cash income taxes of approximately $3 to $4 million to be paid during the quarter. Lastly, we forecast accrual basis capital expenditures of $50 to $60 million, excluded amounts for corporate or land acquisitions. I will now turn the call over to Bobby for closing remarks.
spk04: Thank you, Kevin. And again, we appreciate your time and interest in our company. As always, we are focused on creating value for our shareholders and look forward to updating on our progress in the next quarter and beyond. Operator, you may now open the call for discussion.
spk00: Awesome. Thank you. And at this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. I'll pause for a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Okay. Your first question comes from the line of Neil Bingman. Your line is open.
spk02: Morning, guys. Thanks for the time. By the way, for you, Kevin, my first question is just, Really looking at the new assets, I think there's really interesting perspective. I'm just wondering, when you look at the plan, I know it's still super early. How much will you integrate, and, you know, is that something that will be a big part of your plan already this year? And maybe talk about, number one, if that's going to be fully incorporated, how quickly it will be incorporated. And then just number two, as I've asked my question now, is more just on the EOR side, how the project is going, and is there any plans for a second?
spk05: Yes, Neil. Good morning. Regarding the New Mexico assets, integration with ARCH began. Though we're working through a transition period with the previous operator, our group is heavily involved in the activities out there and slowly transitioning, which we intend to have done during this quarter completely. That asset will encompass about 40% of our development capital this year, most of which has started mid-April and will go through, I would say, October, November as it sits, barring any changes due to commodity prices like we mentioned. Regarding the EOR, we are continuing to inject, as we have said on the previous projects. We are repressurizing the reservoir, which does take some time. We've produced a lot of water and oil out of that in that area. We are also working to finish our facilities and infrastructure with compressors, hopefully coming online in the next couple weeks, so we can start to do some reinjection.
spk00: All right, perfect. And just as a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, press star and the number one. Our next question comes from Noel Parks. Noel, please go ahead.
spk03: Hi, good morning.
spk00: Good morning.
spk03: So just a couple of things. You were just talking about you were expecting compressors to come online the next couple of weeks, and I'm just trying to get a feel for the CapEx behind those. Is that previously incurred in either first quarter or earlier, or is that something that's going to be hitting in second quarter?
spk05: A large portion of the CapEx for that has already been incurred as those compressors are coming on location have been for a little while, but it's been the plumbing in and waiting on the electronic components to be able to operate for re-injection. So we are currently injecting CO2, but what I say we're using the compressors is for re-injection. So taking the gas that comes out through production and re-injecting that, giving up the pressure to re-inject into the reservoir.
spk00: All right, I'll give it one more minute to see if any new questions come in. All right, we do have another question from Noel. Noel, please go ahead.
spk03: Hi. I was wondering about the new properties and the integration that you're in the midst of. At this stage, any new awarenesses or insights you have? Now that you actually have your hands on the properties, I guess I'm wondering about – your thoughts on horizontal development out there and, you know, what your own experience might bring to the properties, things you might approach differently. Yes, I appreciate that, Bill.
spk05: We have, as mentioned, we have commenced development on our first two horizontal wells out there. We're drilling four in the next, I guess, this first campaign out there underneath Riley, two of which have been done. We see opportunities to utilize some of what we've learned in Champion to reduce days drilling to hopefully complete the wells more efficiently and drive costs down. We see the opportunity in the second half of the year to share a rig between the two locations, which we plan to do, and also some additional services. We've also, you know, This larger economy of scale allows us for more negotiating power with buying inventory to develop these wells in the future.
spk00: All right. Are there any final questions? All right. If there are no further questions, that will conclude today's conference call. You may now disconnect.
spk02: You have reached the end of the recording. Goodbye.
Disclaimer