Crescent Energy Company

Ladies and gentlemen, greetings and welcome to the Crescent Energy Q4 Fiscal Year 2024 results. At this time, all participants are going to listen on emote. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star and zero on the telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Reid Gallagher, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining Crescent's fourth quarter and full year 2024 conference call. Today's prepared remarks will come from our CEO, David Rockacharly, and our CFO, Brandy Kendall. Our Executive Vice President of Investments, Clay Rend, will also be available during Q&A. Today's call may contain projections and other forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including commodity price volatility, global geopolitical conflict, our business strategies, and other factors that may cause actual results to differ from those expressed or implied in these statements and our other disclosures. We have no obligation to update any forward-looking statements after today's call. In addition, today's discussion may include disclosure regarding non-GAAP financial measures. For reconciliation of historical non-GAAP financial measures to most directly comparable GAAP measure, please reference our 10-K and earnings press release, available under the Investor section on our website. With that, I will turn it over to David.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. Yesterday, Crescent posted financial and operating results. In summary, it was a great quarter and a great year for our business. Before we get into the details, I want to begin with a few key points that I hope you take away from this call. First, 2024 was a transformational year for our business. Highlighted by impressive financial and operational execution, alongside significant and profitable growth from a creative acquisitions that more than doubled our core Eagleford position, cementing Crescent as a top three producer in a premier basin. Our talented team continues to deliver, creating value in numerous ways with increased well productivity, improved capital costs, and accelerated outsized synergy capture. Second, we expect continued outperformance in 2025. Our advantage to asset base provides the unique flexibility to invest in both oil and gas weighted development, and our operational plan is designed to maximize free cash flow generation and returns for our investors through commodity price cycles. Finally, Crescent has never been better positioned to capitalize on the opportunity ahead of us. With consistent execution of our strategy, we have become a bigger and better business, and I am confident that through disciplined investing and safe and efficient operations, we can continue to deliver value for our shareholders and achieve our goal of becoming an investment great company. Following those quick highlights, I will now discuss our results in a bit more detail. We reported impressive financial results for the fourth quarter, with our advantage low decline production base generating significant free cash flow and continued improvements in capital efficiency. With strong execution from our team, we exceeded expectations across both production and capital. With this outperformance, alongside accelerated synergy capture, we generated approximately $260 million of free cash flow for the quarter, well above Wall Street expectations. In the Eagle Fruit, we continue to build momentum and enhance returns with increased well productivity alongside even stronger capital execution, demonstrating the depth of our inventory and the dedication of our operating team. Our team has consistently exceeded expectations and made our business better at every turn, finding gold buried in both our base business and acquired assets. For example, we recently completed the first U-turn wells on our legacy acreage in the fourth quarter of this year. These advanced wells generate significant cost savings relative to standard shorter laterals, and our recent optimization efforts have generated production in line with traditional development. We expect U-turn wells to be only a small part of our overall development strategy in 2025 and beyond, but they are a valuable tool as we optimize our acreage position and the long-term development plan of our assets. As we acquire assets, a key part of our strategy is to improve operations through our ownership. Our significant depth of experience operating in the Eagle Fruit has enabled us to identify and capture synergies as we've grown. Our largest acquisition of 2024, Silverbow, continues to outperform our expectations with realized annual synergies in excess of $100 million at the top end of our recently increased target range. While we are extremely pleased with the value created to date, there is still opportunity for more, and we are increasing our target synergy range by approximately 15% on top of the increase announced on our third quarter call. Our more recent acquisition of Ridgemire Energy, which closed in January, represents another opportunity for incremental value creation. The integration is still early days, but we are excited about the potential optimization across our pro-forma footprint. In the Uinta, we continue to see solid results from our development program, which is largely focused on the proven Ute-Limbute formation since we acquired the asset in 2022. The Uinta is unique relative to other premier basins in the U.S., in that its true resource potential is only beginning to be understood by the broader industry. We entered the basin through a transaction at a discount to production value, as horizontal development was just beginning in the area. Because of our advantaged entry point, we have been patient in our development of the asset as other operators have spent meaningful risk capital to delineate the substantial resource opportunity in the basin. In 2024, with meaningful performance data from offset we allocated prudent capital to incremental formations beyond our core Ute-Limbute development and are seeing some exciting early time results. Of particular note is the early performance of our Eastern Joint Venture, designed to delineate the Eastern extent of our acreage, a previously untapped resource, requiring no initial capital risk for our investors. While very early time, this three-well pad targeting the upper cube with wells in the Castle Peak, Black Shale, and Douglas Creek formations has averaged approximately 1,500 barrels of oil per day, per well, over the first 30 days of production, exceeding our previous core Ute-Limbute development. While initial data from our resource delineation is still limited, it has been encouraging. We will be patient as we monitor the results and take a methodical approach to capture the substantial long-term resource upside across our assets. Our team's consistent operational execution and the impressive performance of our existing assets have fueled our differentiated growth through acquisition strategy to date, and 2024 was a transformational year for our business. Through five separate transactions, totaling more than $3 billion invested since year-end 2023, we have cemented Crescent as a top operator in the Eagleford, significantly scaled our business, and meaningfully enhanced our asset portfolio. Our 2024 performance and acquisitions have positioned us well for continued success in 2025. Our operating plan for the coming year is focused on flexibility and free cash flow, maximizing returns on our capital, and reflecting the advantaged commodity diversification across our inventory. Following the successful integration of our acquisitions, we are now able to apply our operating approach and business plan to the acquired assets as part of our overall portfolio. We plan to run four to five rigs over the course of the year, largely focused in the Eagleford across all phase windows, including our dry gas assets in Webb County to capitalize on recent natural gas pricing tailwinds. This plan translates into production of 254 to 264,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and $925 million to $1.025 billion of capital, or $975 million at the midpoint. Overall, we expect to deliver strong performance across the business from our 2025 operating plan. And as always, in 2025, we are focused on investment returns and free cash flow, which looks to surpass current Wall Street estimates at -for-like commodity prices. Supporting our return of capital, further strengthening our balance sheet, and maintaining Crescent's strong positioning for continued growth through opportunistic and accretive M&A. Crescent has never been better positioned to capitalize on what is in front of us. We are coming into this year of better business with increased scale, an enhanced asset portfolio, and a solid balance sheet. The M&A and A&D markets remain active, and we are busier than ever. We look at more than 100 potential transactions a year and have demonstrated both our patience and care in this, executing zero to three each year consistently. We are focused on compounding significant capital over time at attractive rates of return, and we quickly pass on opportunities that don't meet our underwriting criteria. Growth for growth's sake has no place in our business, and every acquisition we complete has cleared a rigorous and consistent screening and evaluation process. While it is our business to remain disciplined and focused on finding the next attractive acquisition opportunity, as investors and operators, we manage our asset portfolio through opportunistic divestitures of non-core assets as well. We seek to maximize value by identifying assets in our portfolio that may be more attractive in another's hands and contribute to the streamlining of our operational footprint and allocation of resources. To that end, we divested roughly $50 million of non-core assets in 2024, and we have a meaningful pipeline of non-core assets under evaluation for opportunistic divestiture as we look forward. I am confident that we have the team, the assets, the balance sheet, and the strategy to generate profitable growth and value creation for our shareholders over the long term. With that, I'll turn the call to Brandy to provide more detail on the quarter.

Thanks, David. Crescent's impressive results for the quarter close out a tremendous year for the business, with approximately $535 million of adjusted EBITDA and $259 million in levered free cash flow across the three months. We had $221 million of capital expenditures during the quarter, better than forecast, as the team continues to drive improvements in DNC costs. We brought online 15 growth-operated wells in the Eagleford and five growth-operated wells in the Uinta, all of which are generating strong initial results. We exited the year with net leverage of 1.4 times, within our publicly stated range of 1 to 1.5 times. With approximately $1.4 billion of liquidity pro forma for the closing of the Ridgemire acquisition and no near-term maturity, we are well positioned for the future. We also announced another dividend of $0.12 per share. Together, our dividend and repurchases over the course of 2024 equated to an attractive 4% annualized yield. On top of our return of capital framework, we also made substantial progress in the equity markets this year, with significantly increased flow and trading liquidity, highlighted by our recent addition to the S&P 600 index. With that, I'll turn the call back over to David for closing remarks.

Thanks, Brandy. Before we wrap up, I want to reiterate our key messages coming out of the year. First, 2024 was a transformational year for our business. We saw significant growth and generated substantial free cash flow. We met or exceeded our latest guidance across all key metrics and had a meaningful beat on free cash flow generation relative to Wall Street estimates. We executed on multiple accretive acquisitions, creating a premier Evelford footprint and enhancing the broader value proposition of our business. Second, we expect continued outperformance in 2025. With flexible capital allocation to maximize free cash flow generation and returns across our high quality asset base. And finally, Crescent has never been better positioned to capitalize on the opportunity ahead of us. We are a bigger and better business. We have ambitious goals and we are only getting started. I am confident that we have the unique combination of investing and operational expertise required to continue our profitable growth trajectory and deliver sustainable long-term value for our investors. With that, I'll open it up for Q&A. Operator.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on the telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star and two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while we poll for questions. Our first question comes from Oliver Huang with TPH.

Please go ahead. Good morning, David, Brandy and team. And thanks for taking the questions. Maybe just wanted to start out on 2025. I mean, it feels like it's simply economics being better in the current commodity backdrop on gas, driving greater free cash flow, but just wanted to get a deeper walkthrough into the decision-making process that kind of came about for capital allocation for the 2025 program.

Hey, great. Thanks for the question. And the best way I can describe it is that we today have a portfolio like we've never had before. Our Eagleford position is caught up across oil and what we call a mixed area and into dry gas. So I think all you're seeing is what I'll call very operationally efficient ability to allocate capital dynamically across that position. So there is a little bit more gas drilling in the portfolio this year off stronger gas prices, but at the end of the day, it's just us maximizing returns around our operational capability and our asset base. So pretty straightforward.

Okay, that makes sense. And maybe just for a follow-up on OBEX and oil realizations, just kind of looking at Q4, it certainly looks like certain line items like GP&T, LOE, they seem to have come in meaningfully better for Q4 and looks to kind of have carried through to some extent looking to the 2025 guideposts, just trying to better understand the primary drivers, how much of it is the moving parts of Silver Bow, Ridgemar, maybe some lower cost dry gas volumes being in the mix versus future synergy capture. And just on the oil realizations, I know in the past you all had kind of talked about potential marketing benefits from scale out Eagleford. So maybe any color in terms of how much of a factor that played into it all would be great.

Hey, Oliver, it's Brandy. I'll take those questions. So from an oil realization standpoint, you're right, that's something that we've talked about last quarter or two of just some of the progress that we've made in the Eagleford specifically around oil marketing, right? The portfolio of assets just gives us more flexibility ultimately from a counterparty perspective, but also how we sell the various types of crude. So we've definitely made some continued good progress there from a synergy capture standpoint. And I would say that's really driving the increase in oil realizations from kind of the low 90s to the mid 90s. That's something that we think we've captured on a go-forward basis that's reflected in our 25 guidance. From an OPEX standpoint, you're right, Q4 we reported close to 1150 per BOE. I would say that's a couple things driving the outperformance there. One, we've just continued to make really good improvements from an operating cost standpoint. Last quarter, we talked about some of the synergy capture with respect to chemicals and field, et cetera. So that's flowing through into our Q4 print. But we also had some kind of one-off items hit in the fourth quarter. So for example, we inject CO2 into some of our Rockies assets. The plant where we get that CO2 was down in the quarter. So that's actually resulting in lower LOE in the fourth quarter. Obviously didn't impact our operations there are really production from a top line standpoint. But I think go forward, the right way to think about OPEX is the 1225 to 1325 that we guided to.

Perfect. Thanks for the time.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Neil Digman with Tourist Securities. Please go ahead.

Morning, all. Dave, my first question just, you know, I'd like your comment about not growing for sort of growth sake. I'm just wondering, when you look at the scale now, are you sort of satisfied and sort of second part of that? Is there still, when you look at your footprint, a lot of white space where not necessarily just big deals, but there's a lot of potential fillings to do?

Yeah, Neil, thanks. Great question. Maybe I'll give you a couple different ways to think about first of all, yes, we're definitely satisfied with the prior acquisitions we've made, how the integrations have gone and how things, you know, look going forward. Hopefully what you're getting from us is a really strong outlook on the business going forward as well based on everything we got accomplished last year. But what I would say is that we learn something every time. And I think you're also seeing us talk about a lot of the benefits we've gotten as we've grown the business over the last few years. So two things, we are not going to grow the business with really high growth through the drill bit, just not our strategy. Typically we acquire assets from others who have a more operationally intensive strategy than we do. And we get the benefit of bringing, I'll call it more discipline and method as things come into our portfolio. But we do see significant opportunities still in the sector and in particular in the Eagleford to add on, bolt on, and continue to increase our position when we find it and when it's attractive. So long story short, I see tremendous opportunity ahead, but we're going to be really disciplined about it. It's got to reach a very high hurdle.

That's great to hear. I figured that would mean as much. And then secondly, just wondering, now that you have the size and scale, rather than just normal, what service costs doing, are you seeing where you're getting maybe better prices and such now that you have bigger scale? And part of that maybe just talk about what you are seeing around for service costs these days.

I would say that we'll continue to get efficiency around service cost pricing. A lot of it I would say, which is just kind of doing your job at bigger scale. And you'll recall this as well, that some of the acquisitions we've made from others were themselves a collection of acquisitions. And so when you see one-off service decisions or even just one-off operational decisions, there is inefficiency there that may not be as inefficient when you're in a small confined area. But as you drop things into our larger portfolio, we're absolutely seeing ways to be more efficient as we operate assets as part of a single portfolio. And to your point, it's everything from just optimization of the existing resources we have available in the company to being more efficient and frankly clear with what we need from service providers as we buy more services.

Perfect. Thanks, David. Thank you. The next question comes from Tim Resvan with KeyBank Capital Marketing. Please go ahead.

Good morning, folks. Thank you for taking my questions. I want to start David, in your prepared comments, you gave a little more color on the non-core asset sale opportunities, 50 million in 2024. And I think you said like a meaningful list for divestitures. I know you all are open to kind of transacted at fair prices, but can you talk about what that opportunity set is? Is that a 50 million again, or could you go like multiples bigger for the right price? And are you being, your tone seems to be changing a bit on this. So just kind of curious any comments or color you can provide.

Hey, Tim, it's Clay. Yeah, certainly, I think we've continued to iterate that we see opportunity and we were able to grow the business and excited about the growth of the business creatively last year, but see opportunity on both the acquisition and divestiture side to create value for the business. We put out there publicly the $250 million pipeline for divestitures. So I think certainly relative to the 50, there is bigger opportunity in our business for divestiture. And I think to your point, the focus there for us is finding the right value in particular assets where we see others valuing them more than we would value them in our own portfolio and think we can create value by selling those assets. So we certainly think that that opportunity exists, we'll be prudent and thoughtful as we approach it, but we are excited about the ability to kind of create value on the divestiture side as well.

Okay, thanks. And is that a 2025 timeline we should think about?

Yeah, we haven't put a set date on it, right? Everything for us is opportunistic and focused on value, but certainly think that that size and scale of opportunity exists for us in 2025.

Okay, okay, that's fair. As my follow-up, I want to pivot to Utah. I know when the asset sort of fell in your lap, you didn't really pay up for inventory. If you got some promising results out there, you know, one rig is only going to do so much on the delineation and development side. So it's interesting you got some third-party capital to come in there. Can you talk about your willingness to sort of pursue more unorthodox kind of opportunities like this to maybe pull value forward or pull learnings forward on delineation? Thank you.

Yeah, Tim, thanks for the question. David, I'll give you just a high-level answer and then I'll let Clay give a little more context around the approach we took there. But there's two things. One, I think you're seeing just the size and scale of the Eagleford position relative to the you went to today. So we basically have one rig running on that asset. Our expectations are still to have, you know, in the zip code of one rig on that asset. Just the position has huge resource potential, but we look at it as a long-term play. And so I think most important thing was, you know, last year and what we talked about in some of our disclosures is that we have started to allocate some more capital to what I'll call expanding the resource potential there. And so you're just seeing early days for us. So I don't think you'll see a fundamental change in how we approach our business overall, but we are starting to take more steps. And I'll cover a little bit of the thinking there.

Yeah. And I just say, you know, I think that the specific JV that you brought up, Tim, is a good example of us for me that the opportunity of the resource base and the you went to it and then just how we think about allocating capital and using and managing risk. And so there, you know, we had a JV partner who took the risk on capital spend. We focused it in an area where we thought we could delineate the position in an area of the basin that we had less delineation, but we also focused the footprint, right? So it's really a single DSU. We haven't done anything broadly that takes away flexibility and optionality for us go forward. So certainly think there's more opportunity for us to be thoughtful about, resource delineation and capital risk and allocation. But I think it's a good example of just the ability to do that. I appreciate

the comments. Thanks. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Michael Siala, which Stevens, please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, everybody. Just start off and stay on the same topic that Tim brought up with Utah, looking at your location count of 650. Obviously got some pretty exciting results, albeit early days with the delineation work you're doing on the eastern side. Any potential or any commentary you could provide on how that location count may change if some of these areas like our zones, I should say, like the Black Shale pan out? What's the potential upside here? Do those zones carry across on your western acreage? Just looking for some more commentary on what the resource potential could be here.

Yeah. Hey, Michael. It's Clay. We haven't planned to put it out pure quantification of that, but I would just say the delineation here is pure upside from a location count perspective. So certainly excited about the resource. As you heard from us early days, we plan to be fast followers here and focused on data aggregation and prudent capital allocation, but see upside to the location count at this point.

Okay. I wanted to see, I know you pointed out in one of your slides of the goal of getting to investment grade. I just wanted to see the path you think you'd need to take to get to that point.

Yeah, it's pretty simple. Two things. We believe to meet an investment grade criteria today. It is about scale from their perspective. So think about doubling the business. All that being said, our strong indication to investors is that when we achieve scale, we're going to achieve scale with a great financial position. So I think just really maintaining our investment grade metrics around the balance sheet and the way we manage the business so that opportunistically, if we get the chance to grow, we're going to grow the right way. So again, if you just wanted to put a number to it, we probably got to double the production base of the business, but we're going to maintain investment grade credit metrics along the way.

Sounds good. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from John Abbott with Wolf Research. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning and thank you for taking our questions. Staying with the Uinta and the new zones, not ready to give a resource estimate yet, understand, but can you just sort of talk about how many wells you need to drill and the process of delineating these other zones and what do you think the time frame could possibly be in terms of understanding the potential there?

Hey, John, it's Clay. You know, I think for us, not to beat a drum here, but for us, everything comes down to returns on capital and the ability to kind of generate value for the business. So I think as we approach the Uinta, that still leads. So I think, you know, to your point, right, there is a real delineation opportunity and there's a real kind of resource expansion opportunity in the basin, but what you've seen from us is allocating capital away that still focuses on our ability to generate free cash flow and generate returns on that capital. And so I don't think we're coming at it with, hey, in the next couple of years, we're going to try to create a full kind of delineation of the resource. We're just trying to gather data, not get ahead of ourselves and be able to kind of generate returns on capital, but certainly a ton of excitement about the resource, but we're also going to allow others to be ahead of us as they have been and delineate alongside us.

And John, I was just going to add one more thing for you, which is the basin itself is fairly well set. You know, the acreage has been leased and the operators, you know, are sort of pursuing their own business plan. So I think we've gotten the benefit of a couple of strong operators who were delineating over the last few years that have now positions to operators who are going to continue to do that, that we, you know, all hope to learn together. So I think it's not just about what we do, is really the punchline.

Appreciate it. And then I want to go back to the topic. Appreciate it. And then I want to go back to the topic of the vestiges. So, I mean, there's a pipeline. There's no set timeline here. I understand that. I mean, I sort of look at your portfolio, maybe there's some assets in Oklahoma. Maybe you got a Barnett position. Maybe there's other assets that I'm kind of missing. But when I sort of think about, when you sort of think about commodity prices, I mean, how do you think about selling oil versus gas assets in the current environment? I mean, you seem to be more constructive on gas given the pivot here. Do you wait and sell? Like if you were to sell the Barnett, do you just sort of wait? And oil, you know, if we sort of look at the year performance of names today, oil stocks have not necessarily always done as well. So is this the right time to sell assets? So is it, so how do you look at the commodities and the timing of the vestiges?

Yeah, hey, John, it's David. Great, great question. I think you framed it, you know, the way, you know, a lot of good questions that, around that framing that we would think through. I think the punchline, as we said earlier, is that we are committed to becoming a bigger company opportunistically, a more efficient company opportunistically, and that means we're going to be buyers and sellers of assets. So the timing of that, yes, is important. We're focused on creating great value as we buy and sell. But long through short is we are signaling that we've sold approximately 50 to 100 million of assets a year for the last few years, and that, you know, we've got at this scale a bigger pipeline of that going forward. So I would think about your question, we're going to evaluate all those comments that you made them, oil, gas, do they make our position in the portfolio better, more streamlined, but fundamentally, we have some assets that we think will be better in other people's hands, and we think now is a reasonable time to be thinking about that in greater scale than we have in the past.

All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thanks for taking our questions.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Michael Farrow with Pickering Energy. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I'd just like to ask a question about capital flexibility. The decision to reallocate some capital to dry gas seems like it could be a good long-term strategy given the macro environment. It highlights your ability to mobilize and respond to different commodity pricing fairly quickly. But in the slide deck, you know, your 25 guidance is for $70 a barrel and $33 Henry Hub. So I was wondering, does that mean that the company plans to move forward with dry gas drilling at prices that are $3 or higher? And does that mean that you would transition back to liquids and be flexible with your spending program if gas prices dip below $3, at least for 2025?

Hey, Mike. It's Brandy. As David mentioned in the prepared remarks, we're all about drilling and allocating capital to the highest returning opportunities in our portfolio and maximizing free cash flow. I think you're seeing in our 25 plan the flexibility that we have across the various phase windows in the Eagleford. Look at how we allocated capital last year. It was heavily across our liquids and oil-weighted inventory. And that was in a 75 and kind of 250 world, given gas prices are north of four. There's a lot of really attractive inventory that we're bringing forward into 2025. So again, I think you're going to continue to see us maintain capital allocation flexibility, but always towards an eye of allocating capital to really high returning opportunities in our portfolio.

That makes sense. Gas prices are surely higher than $3 right now. I appreciate the disclosure about the 24 program in the UNF with 25% of the allocation to the non-Utland Butte. Do you think you could provide any color about what the expectation is for non-Utland Butte intervals in 2025? And then additionally, you've already hit on the productivity today. I was wondering if you could provide some details about the comparable economics between the different zones and if they're coming in a little better or worse, depending on maybe drilling or completions.

Hey, it's Clay. I think you can assume a similar kind of program makeup as we look at 2025. And certainly from a resource perspective, it's early, but we're seeing similar results across the intervals. It's just what's got us excited about the prospectivity for the total resource base.

Yeah, and it's David. Just to add one thing, though, when you start alienating new formations, the range of outcomes is going to be wider. So you're hearing really, I'll call it optimistic expectations from us because we've seen great resource, we've had great results. But I think part of the expectation in this phase is we're going to learn a lot and just have a wider range of outcomes, but still around the good, I'll call it good overall program.

All right. Thank you. I appreciate the call.

Thank you. Our next question comes from John Freeman with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks. First question, this plan for 2025 just generates a massive amount of free cash flow. When I sort of look at last year, you utilized 20% of the buyback program leverages around 1.4 times, target of one times. It looks like you could accomplish both the rest of the buyback and that leverage target this year. And then some just maybe help me think about the priority and kind of ranking of that free cash flow that you're generating above and beyond that base dividend.

Hey, John, it's Brandy. So I would say fundamentally no change as to how we think about capital allocation, top priorities remain, the base dividend is you flag, but also the balance sheet. After that, it's all about, right, how do we drive or earn the best risk just to return on the capital that we invest with us? We're buying back our stock because it's discounted to intrinsic value or we're investing our business or buying assets secretively. So again, I think we view the buyback as an opportunistic tool. If you flag, we use 20% of it in 24 bought back stock at an average price of $10 per share. So we view it as in 25, they continue to be an opportunistic tool that we have and that we would expect that the base dividend to stay in the 12 cents per share per quarter range with incremental return of capital likely coming from the buyback.

Got it. And then in the presentation, you all highlighted these U-turn or kind of advanced trajectory wells that you did the first of those. It looks like you've identified about 12 of these locations in the Western Eagleford. Are there additional ones in this current 25 plan that you all have slated?

Hey, John, it's Brandy again. So I would say nothing really in the 2025 plan specifically with respect to U-turns, but I would say at a high level, right, as we're looking to develop a particular asset, we're going to do so in the most optimized way. So that may be, right, just straight laterals. It may be some straight laterals plus a U-turn well. So again, it's a nice tool, right, to have in our DNC toolkit that we'll look to use opportunistically in the future.

Got it. Thanks, Brandy.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the contents over to David Rocker-Charlie, CEO for closing comments.

Great. Thank you all again for joining us, for supporting the company and for the questions today. We again are really just proud of the company and the team that comes to work here every day for outstanding performance in 2024. And again, we have really high expectations and a great outlook for 2025 again. So look forward to catching up with you all soon. Thank you.

Thank you. This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.