Crescent Energy Company

Ladies and gentlemen, greetings and welcome to the Crescent Energy first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone requires operator assistance during the conference call, please signal the operator by pressing star and zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Reid Gallagher, from Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining Crescent's first quarter 2026 conference call. Today's prepared remarks will come from our CEO, David Rocacharli, and our CFO, Brandi Kendall. Our Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Investments will also be available during Q&A. Today's call may contain projections and other forward-looking statements within the meaning of 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 the most directly comparable GAAP measures, please reference our 10Q and earnings press release available under the investor section on our website. With that, I'll hand it over to David.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. First, I'd like to say thank you to all of our investors, our talented colleagues, and everyone who has been part of our journey as the Crescent Energy team. Together, we have executed a consistent strategy. uniquely combining investing and operating expertise to deliver better returns, more free cash flow, and profitable growth. Today, Crescent Energy is a top 10 U.S. independent oil and gas producer with more scale, more focus, and more opportunity than ever before. On this solid foundation, we will continue to build tremendous value in the months and years ahead, and our update today gives us great confidence in Crescent's future. Crescent delivered another strong quarter. We outperformed on production, generated meaningful free cash flow, and made significant progress integrating our Permian assets. As always, I want to begin with three key takeaways. First, strong execution drove outperformance. We exceeded production expectations driven by faster cycle times and some key steps in optimization of our producing base. We further increased free cash flow through an opportunistic refinancing, lowering our cost of capital. Second, we are thrilled with our Permian acquisition, where our integration is ahead of plan, and we see meaningfully more upside every day. We've already exceeded our initial synergy target, capturing $120 million to date, and we are seeing early improvements in both well costs and production. And third, Our differentiated combination of investing and operating expertise continues to deliver significant free cash flow, both in the quarter and in our future outlook. Let me now discuss the quarter in more detail. We produced a record 341,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day for the quarter, including 140,000 barrels of oil per day. and generated $192 million of levered free cash flow. Importantly, first quarter production was above expectations on both total equivalent volumes and oil volumes, driven largely by base production outperformance and acceleration in the Permian from improved cycle times. While our development plan remains fundamentally unchanged, we are selectively accelerating volumes to capture higher near-term returns. while continuing to drive operational efficiencies and lower well costs across our asset base. In the Eagleford, we continue to see steady efficiency gains. We continue to increase our use of simulfrac completions across our development, which is reducing costs and accelerating volumes. At the same time, we've strengthened our 2026 development program through an active ground game, increasing lateral links and working interest. In the Permian, we're off to a strong start in capturing early wins. The initial phase of our integration focused on stabilizing the assets. We have right-sized capital intensity and implemented our returns-driven operating approach. We are now focused on optimization and have seen impressive early results, with $120 million in synergies captured to date, already exceeding our original target. To provide a few examples, We've improved the operational planning around our development program, efficiently increasing wells per pad and adding roughly 100,000 incremental lateral feet to our 2026 plan through offset acreage trades and land optimization. We've accelerated cycle times and are currently 100 producing days ahead on our 2026 development plan. And we're already having success reducing well costs. From rebidding service contracts to changing fuel usage and facility design, we've achieved over $500,000 of savings per well versus the prior operator. These are not one-off wins. They reflect Crescent's operating model and our track record of buying assets and making them better. And importantly, we still see meaningful upside from here. In the Uinta, we've had strong executions. with well costs down roughly 20% year on year as we implement the same proven approach you've seen from us in the Eagle Fruit. Implementing simulfrac, increasing efficiency, and extending laterals are just a few of the tools we've brought to the basin to optimize the capital program and increase well returns. Activity this year remains focused on our core Ute-Land Butte development. Additionally, after strong results In additional formations across the basin and on our acreage, we are investing more capital towards the prudent delineation of our broader resource opportunity. With our meaningful cost improvements and the tremendous stacked resource potential across our position, we see significant opportunity for value creation ahead of us in the Uinta. Our minerals and royalties business has shown similar strong performance. Our portfolio of world-class resource and high margin cash flow provides valuable exposure to cost-free organic growth. And at current prices, we expect the portfolio to generate approximately $200 million of EBITDA this year, representing a meaningful increase versus our original guidance. Across the portfolio, the results are clear. We are executing well, improving our assets, and generating strong returns and significant cash flow. Our unique combination of investing and operating skills delivered this quarter, and Crescent is better positioned than ever before to continue delivering in present results and long-term value for investors. With that, I'll turn the call over to Brandi.