Gulfport Energy Corporation

Greetings and welcome to the Gulfport Energy Corporation first quarter 2026 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Jessica Antle. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Carrie, and good morning. Welcome to Gulfport Energy Corporation's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. I am Jessica Antle, Vice President of Investor Relations. Speakers on today's call include Michael Hodges, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Matthew Rucker, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. I would like to remind everybody that during this conference call, the participants may make certain forward-looking statements. Actual results in future events could differ materially from those that are indicated in these forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors. Information concerning these factors can be found in the company's filings with the SEC. In addition, we may reference non-GAAP measures. Please refer to our most recent earnings release and investor presentation for important disclosures regarding such measures, including reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP financial measures. An updated Gulfport presentation was posted yesterday evening to our website in conjunction with the earnings announcement. Please review at your leisure. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Michael Hodges.

Thank you, Jessica, and thank you for joining our call today. Before we begin, I would like to take a moment to welcome a new leader to Gulfport that I know many of you are already familiar with. Last evening, we announced that Nick DeLosso will be joining Gulfport as our President and Chief Executive Officer beginning May the 28th. Following a thorough search process, the board unanimously agreed that Nick is the right leader at the right time to propel Gulfport into its next chapter. He brings more than two decades of energy industry experience, a sharp focus on operational and financial discipline, and a proven track record of delivering value to shareholders. Nick is joining Gulfport at a time when the company has never been stronger, and we're excited to work with him to create long-term value for all stakeholders. Nick looks forward to engaging with our employees and shareholders in the coming months and joining us to take your questions on our next quarterly call in August. With that said, we're off to a great start to 2026 at Gulfport, highlighted by the successful completion of our previously announced Discretionary Acreage Acquisition Program and a record quarter of share repurchase activity. I will share additional details on our land acquisition accomplishments a bit later, But we believe the swift and decisive actions we've taken over the past three years in the Ohio Utica have delivered significant value to the company as the demand for high quality, low break-even inventory across the industry continues to increase. When combining these initiatives to grow net asset value with our ability to repurchase nearly 10% of our market cap over the past two quarters at prices well below the underlying value of our business, it has been a very successful close to 2025 and start to 2026. Turning to our first quarter results, it was an especially strong kickoff to the year financially, as the company generated $264 million of adjusted EBITDA and $119 million of adjusted free cash flow, driven by strong commodity pricing and the continued development of our high quality asset base. Average production totaled 997 million cubic feet equivalent per day, which was consistent with the expectations we provided in February and keeps us on track to deliver on our previously stated full year production guidance of 1.03 to 1.055 billion cubic feet equivalent per day. Cash operating costs for the first quarter total $1.38 per million cubic feet equivalent, also in line with our expectations and Similar to last year, what we expect to be a quarterly high point for Gulfport as we anticipate declining per unit costs as we move through the year. With our production cadence expected to accelerate later in 2026, the fixed charges embedded in our operating costs are expected to decline on a per unit basis over the course of the year and land within the range of our full year guidance. For full year 2026, we are reaffirming our per unit operating cost guidance, which includes LOE, midstream and taxes other than income of $1.23 to $1.34 per MCFE. On the capital front, we incurred a total of $118 million related to drilling and completion activity and $4 million related to maintenance land and seismic investment while achieving the significant operational success that Matt will address in his comments. Most importantly, and as I mentioned earlier in the call, we wrapped up our previously announced discretionary acreage program. investing approximately $102 million over the past four quarters to add more than two years of high-quality inventory adjacent to our core positions in Belmont and Monroe counties. These acquisitions were made at an average cost of just over $2 million per net locations. Significantly below implied recent valuation metrics from larger inorganic transactions in the immediate area. We have focused our efforts over the past few years in the wet gas and dry gas windows of the Ohio Utica, areas that generate some of the strongest returns in our portfolio and where we can convert these locations into producing assets in short order. As a reminder, since 2022, our targeted discretionary acreage acquisitions have added over four and a half years of high-quality net locations, enhancing the durability of our asset base and reinforcing the significant value uplift we are achieving through the execution of our ground game leasing program. We continue to monitor opportunities to further strengthen our leasehold footprint and increase our resource debt. And we believe these opportunities continue to rank extremely high as we evaluate the uses of free cash flow in 2026 and beyond. Turning to the balance sheet, our financial position remains strong, and we recently completed our spring borrowing base redetermination. adding 10% to elected bank commitments and reaffirming the borrowing base at $1.1 billion. Our trailing 12-month net leverage exiting the quarter was approximately 0.9 times, and pro forma for the increase in elected commitments, at the end of the first quarter, GoPort's liquidity increased by $100 million and totaled $872 million, comprised of $2.9 million of cash plus $869.3 million of borrowing capacity under our revolver. We greatly appreciate the support of our bank group as we position the company to opportunistically deliver value to our shareholders, and our liquidity position is more than sufficient to fund our development needs for the foreseeable future, providing significant financial flexibility as we continue executing on our capital allocation strategy. As I mentioned earlier, with this balance sheet strength and liquidity in place, we continue to deploy capital towards shareholder returns through our share repurchase program. During the first quarter, we repurchased 866,000 shares of common stock for approximately $172.8 million, representing the highest quarterly investment in company history and well ahead of our previously announced plans in February. As of March 31st and since the inception of the program, we have repurchased approximately 8.2 million shares of common stock, including the preferred redemption in 2025, at an average price of just over $133 per share, more than 30% below our current share price, and totaling nearly $1.1 billion of capital returned to shareholders over the past four years. Over just the last two quarters alone, we have allocated over $300 million towards repurchasing what we believe to be our undervalued common stock, resulting in the retirement of nearly 10% of our shares outstanding. Given our current valuation and the strength of our underlying fundamentals, We expect share repurchases to remain an attractive capital allocation priority and plan to maintain an active repurchase program through 2026, supported by adjusted free cash flow and available revolver capacity, all while maintaining leverage at or below one times. In closing, Gulfport is delivering consistent financial results, maintaining disciplined capital allocation across asset bases, and returning significant capital to our shareholders, all while preserving flexibility to navigate market conditions and pursue value-enhancing opportunities. With a strong foundation in place and a proven leader joining our company, we are confident in our ability to continue executing our strategy and creating durable long-term value for our shareholders. Now I will turn the call over to Matt to discuss our operational highlights for the quarter.