Berry Corporation (bry)

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Berry Corporation Q1 2024 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during this session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Todd Crabtree, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Gerald, and welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining us for Barry's first quarter 2024 earnings teleconference. Earlier today, Barry issued an earnings release highlighting 2024 first quarter results. Speaking this morning will be Fernando Araujo, our Chief Executive Officer, Danielle Hunter, our President, and Mike Helm, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I would like to call your attention to the Safe Harbor language found in our earnings release that was issued this morning. The release and today's discussion contain certain projections and other forward-looking statements within the meaning of 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. These include risks and other factors outlined in our filings with the SEC, including R10Q, which will be filed later today. Our website, bry.com, has a link to the earnings release and our most recent investor presentation. Any information, including forward-looking statements, made on this call or contained in the earnings release and that presentation reflects our analysis as of the date made. We have no plans or duty to update them except as required by law. Please refer to the tables in our earnings release and on our website for reconciliation between all adjusted measures mentioned in today's call and the related gap measures. We will also post the replay link of this call and the transcript on our website. I will now turn the call over to Fernando.

Thanks, Todd. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us. In the first quarter, we delivered solid financial and operational results generating adjusted EBITDA of $69 million and producing 25,400 barrels a day. These results are in line with projections and we expect to deliver full year results consistent with the guidance provided in March. We are focused on maximizing enterprise value by generating sustainable free cash flow through operational excellence. Operational excellence includes keeping production essentially flat, acquiring accretive producing bolt-ons, efficiently allocating capital, managing our cost structure, and prioritizing safety and compliance. Let's review our first quarter results through that lens. Production for the quarter was flat to our 2023 full-year average. Base production remained strong, especially from our thermal dynamite reservoirs. We drilled and completed nine sidetracks as planned, and we are in the process of drilling a 20-well sidetrack campaign in our Midway Sunset field. We also made progress reducing cost highlighted by a 10% reduction in lease operating expenses compared to last quarter. Moreover, we are currently in the process of acquiring additional working interest in our Round Mountain field by reallocating capital from our development plan. This acquisition represents approximately 100 barrels of oil per day annualized. Underpinning these accomplishments is our commitment to superior HS&E performance and regulatory compliance. Our safety performance remains strong, and for the second quarter in a row, we have zero recordable incidents, zero lost time incidents, and no reportable spills. Since our last earnings call, there has been a development in the ongoing Kern County EIR litigation, which our president, Danielle Hunter, will address in her remarks. However, I want to emphasize that our 2024 development activity and production plan do not depend on the reinstatement of the Kern County EIR. In fact, successful execution of our 2024 plan does not require the issuance of permits to drill new wells. Until the Kern County EIR is reinstated, we will continue to execute on a proven strategy to maintain production through workovers and sidetracks, as well as potentially reallocating capital to accretive bolt-on acquisitions. Additionally, the Uinta basin is an important part of our portfolio, and we are making progress on the horizontal play we previewed last quarter. In April, we farmed into a 21% working interest in four horizontal wells that are expected to be put on production in the second quarter of 2024. These are adjacent to our existing operations in Utah, and the results from these wells will be used to evaluate future development opportunities in our acreage. We believe we have the potential to develop approximately 22,000 net acres with horizontal wells. We'll have more to share as results become available. I will now turn the call over to Mike.