PDC Energy, Inc.

Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the PDC Energy Second Quarter 2022 conference 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 the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to the speaker today, Aaron Vandefoort. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. On today's call, we'll have President and CEO Bart Brookman, Executive Vice President Lance Luck, Chief Financial Officer Scott Myers, and Senior Vice President of Operations Dave Lillo. Yesterday afternoon, we issued our press release and posted a presentation that accompanies our remarks today, as we filed our Form 10-Q also last night. The press release and presentation are available on the Investor Relations page of the website at www.pdce.com. On today's call, we will reference both forward-looking statements and non-US GAAP financial measures. Actual results may differ materially than those projected in the forward-looking statements. The appropriate disclosures and reconciliations may be found on slide two and the appendix of that presentation. With that, I'll turn the call over now to our CEO, Bart Brookman.

Thank you, Aaron, and good morning, everyone. Let me start with some second quarter highlights. closing the Great Western transaction in early May. Let me extend a sincere thank you to all the PDC and Great Western employees who helped successfully complete and integrate this scale-building, highly accretive transaction. For the quarter, PDC generated $405 million of free cash flow, or a 26% annualized free cash flow yield. Shareholder returns for the quarter were $250 million, $215 million in share buybacks, or 3 million shares, and $35 million in fixed dividends. Second quarter shareholder returns calculate to a 16% annualized return. The company has made tremendous progress obtaining permits in Colorado. I believe our regulatory team has actually cracked the code as 99 new permits were approved in June alone. And I am happy to announce just two days ago, PDC received completeness determination from the COGCC on the Gwinella cap. Today, with approximately 650 ducts and permits in hand, the Wattenberg team now has a turn in line schedule mapped for the next four years. And with our Gwinella cap, Another 450 wells are on target for approval later this year. Once the cap is approved, our turn in line schedule will be mapped into 2028. I want to thank the land and regulatory teams for the tremendous momentum we have gained in the permit process. A quick update on ESG for the company. Admission reduction projects are on track to support our year over year goal to reduce methane emissions by 30% and greenhouse gas emissions by 15%. We also have direct line of sight towards achieving our 2025 emission reduction goals. From a safety standpoint, I'm very proud of both districts. Four years with no lost time injuries in Texas and Colorado, an exceptional record. I want to thank the operating team for continued focus on safety. And on the community side, PDC has already contributed contributed nearly $2 million to charities across Texas and Colorado, with plans to give another $1.5 million by year end. And it doesn't stop at the wallet. Employee volunteer time at over 100 organizations should total over 4,000 hours for 2022. As I close out my comments today, let me address the second quarter production shortfall. As we navigated the second quarter, a few unanticipated challenges emerged. These are impacting both second and third quarter production, and I'll let Dave give a lot more detail on this in a moment. But let me assure you, these are short-term, correctable, and they are getting the full attention of our engineering and production teams. The outlook for PDC remains incredibly strong. Our capital programs are on track. Our drilling projects are well mapped for the next several years, delivering substantial returns for our investors. Great Western should be fully integrated by mid third quarter, and we anticipate operating costs for the company will begin to fully reflect the strong benefits of the scale building transaction by year end. As we wrap up 2022, we anticipate having repurchased approximately 10% of our outstanding shares. delivering mid-teens total shareholder return yield, paid a substantial special dividend near year-end, fulfilling our commitment to return 60% plus annual post-dividend free cash flow to our shareholders, achieved our ESG and emission reduction goals, and mapped our turn-in-line schedule with permits in hand through 2028. What I consider an incredibly strong story. So with that, I'm going to turn the call over to Dave Lillo for more operational comments.