8/7/2026

speaker
Darrell
Director of Investor Relations

Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us and welcome to Mock Natural Resources second quarter 2026 earnings call. During this morning's call the speakers will be making forward-looking statements that cannot be confirmed by reference to existing information including statements regarding expectations, projections, future performance, and the assumptions underlying such statements. Please note a number of factors may cause actual results to differ materially from their forward-looking statement including the factors identified and discussed in their press release and in other SEC filings. For further discussion of risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ from those in such forward-looking statements, please read the company's filings with the SEC. Please recognize that except as required by law, they undertake no duty to update any forward-looking statements and you should not place under reliance on such statements. They may refer to some non-GAAP financial measures in today's discussion. For reconciliation from non-GAAP financial measures and the most directly comparable GAAP measures, please reference their press release and supplemental tables, which are available on Mock's website, and their 10-Q, which will be also available on their website when filed. Today's speakers are Tom Ward, CEO, and Kevin White, CFO. Tom will give an introduction and overview, Kevin will discuss Mock's financial results, and then the call will be open for questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mr. Tom Ward. Tom?

speaker
Tom Ward
CEO

Thank you, Darrell. Welcome to Mock Natural Resources' second quarter earnings update. We reiterate the company's four strategic pillars that have guided us since our founding in 2017. These pillars are disciplined execution. We only purchase cash-flowing assets at a value of PDP, PB10 or less and do not pay for any leasehold, PUDs, midstream, or infrastructure. The second pillar is disciplined reinvestment rate. We maintain a reinvestment rate of less than 50% of our operating cash flow. The third pillar is maintain financial strength. We're cognizant of the peril of too much debt. In order to capture the opportunity of acquiring assets in the San Juan and Central Basin platform, we strategically moved leverage above our goal of one times debt EBITDA. This pillar is still standing. Therefore, it is important to move leverage back to our stated goal versus the 1.4 times we're projected to be at the end of the year. Outside of waiting to solve through increased pricing, we continue to look for assets at discounted prices to use our equity to purchase. These purchases need to be accretive to our cash available for distribution. We also have an at-the-market equity program to place $100 million of equity at prices that do not disturb trading. And lastly, we can take a portion of our distribution and pay down debt. Our team is dedicated to meet our goal before the end of 2027. Once we achieve our goal, we'll be in a position to take advantage of any downward movement in the market to make additional bargain purchases. The very reason to bring down debt during a period of exuberance is to be prepared to purchase in a time of want. This is the very essence of our company. The fourth pillar is to maximize distributions to unit holders. This pillar drives all of our decisions. We've distributed back $6.67 to our unit holders since 2024. Very few public companies in this country have yields at Mock's level, and none of them are oil and gas producers. Yields like ours are usually only found at businesses carrying a lot of leverage that often can't sustain once credit tightens or rates move against them. Mock was built entirely different. Our distributions and the cash returns we deliver are second to none, and they're the result of the discipline behind our other three pillars. Mock was established around a cash return model. We've said many times that we had a belief for several years before forming the company that there would be a time when we could buy cash flowing assets at seldom heard of prices by avoiding the tendency of the industry to look for growth through the drill bit. Our goal is to buy distressed assets at discounted prices that throw off cash. We were fortunate to pick the timing correctly and build a large producing base at bargain prices. We continue to look for those types of assets, but it's become harder as more capital is now chasing the same type of cash flowing assets that we propose to buy and are willing to pay premiums to our model. However, Our steadfast approach to value has paid off by giving us a 50-year cash flow stream plus nearly 3 million acres of land that is held by production. And that holds our production flat by spending less than 50% of our operating cash flow. Therefore, in times of excess capital provided by private equity and ABS companies, we can pivot to rely on drilling to sustain our model. All of our acquisitions have been made at a discount to the Strip at the time of purchase. The timing of some of our acquisitions was quite spectacular, such as buying Alta Mesa through the 363 bankruptcy process in April of 2020. That purchase was made against a $20 Wall Strip and paid the first lien RBL lenders back less than 10 cents on the dollar. that then made the lending institutions leery of investing in the MidCon and gave us additional running room to acquire other assets at rock bottom prices. The tide did not turn on the MidCon for lenders until 2024. There is now a wave of lending and equity providers chasing MidCon assets. As capital started to move back into the MidCon, we've expanded to the San Juan and Central Basin platform of the Permian. We were able to purchase the oil assets of Sabinol in the low 60s per barrel range and also were able to purchase the natural gas assets of ICAV in the San Juan at less than PDP, PV10. Not only did we purchase the assets at discount prices, we also bought a stream of production in both cases that have less than a 10% decline. Sabinol in particular gave us immediate cash flow benefits due to the rise in crude prices since the purchases. Lastly, both have substantial drilling room left on the assets. Mock has a history of strong cash returns on capital invested and cash distributions. Over the past five years, we have delivered an industry-leading croquis averaging 35%. Not only industry-leading, but also in the top 1% of all public companies in the U.S. We also have distributed an industry-leading distribution yield of 15% since 2024 through the first quarter of 2026. This performance was achieved through different pricing cycles ranging from $94.23 per barrel in 2022 when we achieved a 53% croquis to $64.81 per barrel in 2025 when our croquis was 23%. Since our inception, we've never had a croquis of less than 20%. We cannot find another public company with such a strong record of cash returns. Our cash distribution policy has led to a yield of four times the peer average since 2024. As I mentioned, these returns were accomplished through disciplined acquisitions on top of the best-in-class break-evens in both natural gas drilling and liquids-weighted peers. Post the start of the conflict in Iran, we moved from drilling 100% natural gas wells to crude heavy drilling. This is the same type of pivot that we made in April 2025 when post-tariff day we changed our drilling plans from all-weighted drilling, oil-weighted drilling to natural gas. This is the luxury of having nearly 3 million acres of land that's held by production. Currently, We're drilling our last two wells in the Mancos Shale. The completion phase of this year's drilling has been delayed until next year in order to stay within our internally mandated annual capex of 50% of operating cash flow. Given that restraint, it's more valuable for us to drill for oil rates return versus natural gas in the last half of this year. We currently have three additional rigs running in Oklahoma. These are located in the Oswego, the Red Fork, and Ardmore Basin Sycamore. The Ardmore Basin locations will be completed by the end of Q3. We will defer drilling more Red Fork locations until the Q1 of 27 and keep one rig in the Oswego during Q4 of 26. Our drilling schedule is very fluid. One of our hallmarks is the ability to change the product we drill for and the amount we spend very quickly. MOC has a variable distribution to capture the changes in capex associated with different drilling patterns. The pattern in 2026 has been to spend more capex in Q2 and Q3 while drilling in the San Juan. The variable nature of our capex reveals itself in our distribution. This quarter, we will distribute 36 cents per unit. Since we do not have fixed distributions, there's not any pressure to spend more than 50% of our operating cash flow on capex. In other words, the cash flow dictates our pace of capex, not the lust for growth at any cost. The clear workhorse as far as CapEx in our portfolio has been the Oswego Limestone Formation in Kingfisher County, Oklahoma. We have drilled more than 250 wells on this asset since 2021 and recently moved a rig back in the area to continue drilling once oil prices improved. And we show in our presentation the Oswego carries a rate of return of 87% at a $75 oil strip. The key to the formation is not how much we find, but in how much we spend. We're only looking for approximately 160,000 barrels of oil, but we'll spend only $3.3 million to drill and complete. Cutting costs is the key to our business model. The newest field we have acquired that will also become a drilling workhorse is the Mancos shell of the San Juan Basin. Within the San Juan, we now hold 575,000 acres of land that only expires when production ceases. The key zone to elaborate on is the Mancos Shale. This zone is just now being expanded. Our Mancos Shale position represents one of the most compelling emerging natural gas opportunities in North America. The well performance rivals that of the better known Hainesville and Marcellus shale plays, with operators recently reporting Mancos initial production rates exceeding 25 million cubic feet of gas per day. The Mancos footprint is approximately one-third the size of the Marcellus and one-tenth the size of the Hainesville. However, Mott controls the play with only three other sizable owners. We are the second largest producer of natural gas behind Hillcorp and also the second largest owner of Acreage. The play has increased more than 20-fold in the last five years and now exceeds 500 million cubic feet of gas a day. The San Juan also benefits from a mature natural gas transportation network developed over decades of conventional gas production. We expect over the next five years that additional takeaway capacity will be installed to get to premium gas markets of Arizona and the Pacific Coast LNG markets. This is much different than when the Marcellus and Haynesville were first being explored and there was no takeaway available, which required operators to take on large firm commitments with pipeline companies. We currently have a gas marketing agreement placed through 2030. Therefore, by the time the contract amortizes in 2030, we'll have strategic optionality for our 350 million cubic feet of natural gas that can be held flat by drilling only five net wells per year. If we choose to increase activity to 10 net wells per year, we could grow mocks from that production to more than 500 million cubic feet of gas per day. This is the benefit of buying low decline cash flowing assets that also have fantastic upside potential. The Mancos show us has potential to dominate the mock story in the years to come. As in the Oswego, the key to increasing rates of return in the Mancos is to lower costs. We believe that we could lower capex of a three-mile lateral from nearly $20 million to less than $15 million per well. Now that our drilling season is underway and we have four locations drilled, we expect the ongoing program to be in the $13 million range for a completed well. I'll now turn over the call to Kevin to discuss financial results.

speaker
Kevin White
CFO

Thanks, Tom. For the quarter, our production of 149,000 BOE per day was 15% oil, 69% natural gas, and 16% NGLs. Our average realized prices were $95.40 per barrel of oil, $1.93 per mcf of gas, and 2899 per barrel of NGLs. Of the $360 million total oil and gas revenues, the relative contribution for oil was 54%, 30% for gas and 16% for NGLs. On the expense side, our lease operating expense was $98 million or $7.21 per BOE. Gas G&A was approximately $7 million. or 54 cents per BOE. We ended the quarter with 41 million in cash and 270 million of availability under the credit facility. Total revenues including our hedges and midstream activities totaled $406 million, adjusted EBITDA of $182 million and $154 million of operating cash flow. and our development capex for the quarter was $97 million for 63% of operating cash flow. Year-to-date, our development capex is right on top of 50% of our year-to-date operating cash flow. In the quarter, we generated $60 million of cash available for distribution, resulting in a distribution of 36 cents per unit, which will be paid on August 31st to holders of record on August 17th. Daryl, I'll now turn the call back to you to open the line for questions.

speaker
Darrell
Director of Investor Relations

Thank you. We'll now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 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. One moment, please, while we poll for your questions. Our first questions come from the line of Neil Dingman with William Blair. Please proceed with your questions.

speaker
Neil Dingman
Analyst, William Blair

Morning, Tom and team. Thanks for the details. Tom, my first question is just on your upcoming, as you've kind of been moving the upcoming overall drilling program. If you remind me, I think is just double checking most of your near-term BNC focus will be on the Oswego. And if so, could you just remind us, you know, how much activity that will consist of and How are you thinking about the economics behind this play in this environment?

speaker
Tom Ward
CEO

Yeah, Neil, you're correct. The ongoing drilling program that we have through Q4 of this year is to keep an Oswego rig running. We have a lot of locations. The Sycamore locations in southern Oklahoma are the highest rates of return we have. but there's really only three of those left that we picked up through a couple of acquisitions in 2024. So the Oswego continues to be, as I mentioned, the workhorse of our program and we'll keep a rig, depending on pricing, but keep a rig there through 2027 also. So kind of a consistent rig running in the Oswego. If prices stay as they are, we'll move a rig back into the Red Fork next year. And that play has a little bit more running room with this also. Those are kind of the two oil plays. We're yet to know where gas prices will be next year, but we do plan to have a program in the Mancos shell to drill and then complete the wells this year, assuming that gas prices are rebounding by next summer.

speaker
Neil Dingman
Analyst, William Blair

Tom, does that Oswego compete with other more well-known oily plays in this kind of environment?

speaker
Tom Ward
CEO

Oh, you'd have to tell me. We have basically an 85% rate of return at $75 oil, so I think so.

speaker
Neil Dingman
Analyst, William Blair

Got it. And if I could, just on capital allocation, could you remind me, you or Kevin, just on broad terms around your reinvestment rate, and then how you intend to deploy the remainder of the cash flow. I think it's pretty straightforward what you all are doing.

speaker
Kevin White
CFO

Yeah, Neil, we, as said in those prepared remarks, we were right on top of 50% year to date. And, you know, that's one of our pillars to have that reinvestment rate of 50%. So we would expect to end the year at a similar number. I mean, it may have a little lumpiness quarter to quarter, but not much.

speaker
Tom Ward
CEO

Very good. Thank you all. The operating cash flow drives what our cash capex is. So we're going to stay under 50% of operating cash flow. So as you can see, quarter to quarter, we'll either increase capex or decrease capex, depending on what operating cash flow is or prices. Thank you all. Thanks.

speaker
Darrell
Director of Investor Relations

Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Charles Mead with Johnson Rice. Please proceed with your questions.

speaker
Charles Mead
Analyst, Johnson Rice

Good morning, Tom and Kevin, and to the rest of the mock team there. Tom, I'd like to pick up on that last point. Assuming you had the operating cash flow to do the MACOS completions whenever you wanted, what is the price that you need to see in the San Juan Basin market for you to pull the trigger and do those completions?

speaker
Tom Ward
CEO

Tom Ward, Kevin White, Michael Reel Tom Ward, Kevin White, Michael Reel The same types of production. San Juan has its difficulties of basis at times, but then other times it has very good basis, like today it sits on top of the MidCon. So I think that to have an ongoing drilling program for natural gas that competes with oil, so our problem is that we only have Tom Ward, Michael Reel I'm hesitant right now to be bullish natural gas, but as we come into full storage in the fall and are looking straight in the face of a strong El Nino winter, it's difficult to be real bullish about it. So we'll just evaluate as the year goes into next year. I'm still very, I think most people are very bullish long-term natural gas. It's just how to get from here to there. And that's basically, it might be a next summer event before we really do much spending on natural gas capex. As I look out over the longer-term period, of five years. And you take that looking at our gas contract that we bought, amortizing that hedge out through 2030, we should be in perfect position to capture the demand that everyone sees coming. And I don't think Western Supply is going to keep up with that. And so that ultimately, I feel very good about our natural gas positions. It's just how much we spend and 27, my fluctuate.

speaker
Charles Mead
Analyst, Johnson Rice

Right, Tom. I appreciate your comments. You can be a natural gas bull, but at the same time be honest about what the next few months look like. Second question. I wanted to ask about the Central Basin Platform. I actually heard from another company recently about a so-called BMW play, Barnett, Mississippi, and Woodford in the Central Basin Platform. And I don't think it's your style to go be a pioneer on a play like that, but I'm curious if you're aware of it, if it's happening near some of your acreage perhaps in Gaines and Andrews.

speaker
Tom Ward
CEO

You know, I'm not aware of it, and I don't believe it's near any of our properties, and we're having any trouble even getting a Clear Fork location cleared, so I don't think we'll be doing the BMI. All right. Thank you, Tom. Thank you.

speaker
Darrell
Director of Investor Relations

Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of Michael Ciala with Stevens. Please proceed with your questions.

speaker
Michael Ciala
Analyst, Stevens

Good morning, guys. I want to start with your last comment there, Tom, on the Clear Fork. What are the plans there now?

speaker
Tom Ward
CEO

Well, we don't have it in our drilling schedule yet. So right now, the Clear Forks, again, we were planning on it earlier in the year when we thought we'd add another rig. but as prices moved away from where they were, the Clear Fork was the first to be exited. So as of right now, you know, we might get the locations in in 2027. It's just really more price dependent, again, where our operating cash flow is. I mean, the luxury we have is we sit around on 3 million acres of land that's HVP, and we can pick and choose where we want to drill, where we want to drill at the highest rates of return. And so it's just, I realize from being an analyst, it's hard to keep track of what we're trying to do, but it really can change month to month. Ask Kent. He has to model it every month.

speaker
Michael Ciala
Analyst, Stevens

I feel his pain. I guess to get a little bit more color on the clear fork, it sounds like it doesn't compete today with the Oswego. Can you just describe what the opportunity set is there? What's the inventory like? Would they be vertical wells? Is it under a water flood? Can you just give us a little bit more color on it?

speaker
Tom Ward
CEO

It is under a water flood, but we drill horizontal wells within a water flood. I can kind of tell you. And then there's only like eight locations. So it's not hundreds of locations. So we pick and choose around what we have. And when we buy additional land that comes up, it just happens to have some locations that can be drilled on it. I guess if it all worked well, do you know how many, Rick, that we've got? Seven wells. Seven wells. for next year if it comes into the program. So like at the end of July, that's going to have a 53% rate of return compared to, you know, the Oswego in the 80s. So just if I had more operating cash flow, we'd drill it. That's kind of where the point is, I guess. It is a target worthy of drilling. It's just that we're going to stay below 50% of operating cash flow.

speaker
Michael Ciala
Analyst, Stevens

Understood. I wanted to ask on the balance sheet, you know, I think last quarter you said you kind of anticipate, you know, as you move forward, leverage will move down naturally just given where, especially where oil prices are. But still feeling that way or do you feel compelled to pull back at all on the distribution or to do anything differently than what you're planning or have been planning historically?

speaker
Tom Ward
CEO

Yeah, I mean, I think 2027 is a year that we need to get our leverage down. And I think our board is on board with that. So it's just basically, we recognize that we are running a company today that at today's prices, looking at the end of the year, is 1.4 times levered. And we want to be at one times leverage. And if you think about that, the reason that we want to be at or below a turn of leverage is because we never know when something's going to happen like in the next few months, it might be a really good time to be buying a natural gas asset. Well, I'd like to have our leverage back down to a point that we can use some debt to make a purchase before bringing that leverage back down through the equity market. So, yeah, we want to be at a point that we're less leveraged. So, as I mentioned, there's We have an ATM program that doesn't really affect our trading that will lower our leverage. We can always cut our distribution some. We did that in 2024, I believe, or 2025, 2024, where we amortized some of our distribution to pay down debt. Let's just say it's a focal point that I've talked about it now for decades. nearly a year, I guess three quarters, and our leverage hasn't moved down yet. And so it's just time for us to get started here soon if we don't. What I'd love to do is find an acquisition that we could buy using equity, but there's just a lot of capital chasing a few deals right now.

speaker
Michael Ciala
Analyst, Stevens

We'll stay tuned on that. Thanks, Tom.

speaker
Darrell
Director of Investor Relations

Thank you. Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Derek Whitfield with Texas Capital. Please proceed with your questions.

speaker
Derek Whitfield
Analyst, Texas Capital

Good morning, Tom and team, and thanks for your time. You bet. Wanted to circle back on your earlier comments on natural gas as you see it today. While I realize you can't provide 2027 guidance, we in most of the street likely have elevated gas weighted capex for 2027, which inherently that presses your CAD at current strip. And I think what we're all grappling with is how to manage activity as the current pivot favors oil-weighted activity and production into 2027. As we sit here today, should we think about higher activity in oil through the first half and some degree of shift to gas in the second half as a starting point? I mean, you clearly have the flexibility as you did it today to lean into oil or gas, but just that's kind of what we're grappling with.

speaker
Tom Ward
CEO

Yeah, I think that's fair. I think that basically we don't have the activity and our gas asset next year will be the main coast. So the activity would be that if we choose to spend money in 27 on natural gas, which right now we would plan on it, just assuming that prices pick up into the summertime, that we'd start our completion program sometime in late spring and or the springtime and then have a drilling program through the summer and then complete all those wells come in line with each other.

speaker
Derek Whitfield
Analyst, Texas Capital

Yeah, that makes sense.

speaker
Tom Ward
CEO

So we haven't really worked on a 27 program yet. It's something that we're starting to work on now. so I think by the you know obviously by our next quarter call we'll have a better understanding of where we at least we plan to have our capex and it is it's we aren't as easy to follow just because we change we can change both the amount we spend and on what asset we spend it on and it can happen very quickly and so I do understand but in every time that we make a change it's for a higher rate of return.

speaker
Derek Whitfield
Analyst, Texas Capital

Understood completely and we also appreciate that we can make changes in five minutes where it's going to take you guys quite a bit longer with the actual plans themselves. So we appreciate it again just trying to kind of work through that because at the end of the day we should be solving for higher CAD it just means it might counter depending on where we are with oil and gas at any point in time but maybe staying on gas but going down a different path. With the addition of several large pipelines in the Permian, including the Hugh Brinson and Blackcomb this year, how are you guys thinking about the outlook for San Juan Basis going into next year?

speaker
Tom Ward
CEO

Yeah, I'm scared of San Juan Basis right now. Luckily, we're fairly well hedged with our San Juan gas, but it's... as we go into right now we're sitting what San Juan and MidCon are sitting 20 cents under the hub it just seems pretty tight so I just I don't know where San Juan basis goes in the near term I do believe that over a longer period of time that everything opens up there's the Greenview pipeline that's being brought on by Tallgrass that's going to give us a 2.5 BCF a day. I think that's what they're projecting to the Arizona Pacific Coast LNG markets coming in. They project 29 or 30. I think that might be fast-tracked as demand is picking up. So I think over time, the San Juan is going to be the key place for us. It's just We have to watch carefully what pricing is in order for our capex in the meantime. But as we just mentioned, in order to keep our production flat there, we only need five wells. So it is a tremendous amount of capital to keep our production flat. Or it isn't the end of the world if we let it decline if we're increasing our oil production at a higher price in other places. So We're going to be very flexible depending on what price gives us.

speaker
Derek Whitfield
Analyst, Texas Capital

Great. Thanks, Drew.

speaker
Tom Ward
CEO

Thanks, Derek.

speaker
Darrell
Director of Investor Relations

Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Jeff Gramp with Northland Capital Markets. Please proceed with your questions. Hey, Jeff.

speaker
Jeff Gramp
Analyst, Northland Capital Markets

Thanks for the time. Tom, your comments on the Mancos Well Costs I thought were really interesting. I think you mentioned, you know, 20 million historically. You guys think you can get down to 13 on this recent batch. And I know in the past you talked about, like, adjusting the completion design was a key lever there. But it seems like there's a lot going on to get that kind of reduction. So I was just hoping to better understand what you guys are seeing there to drive that kind of cost improvement.

speaker
Tom Ward
CEO

Yeah, it's really more just getting services, having a – Different types, like using wet sand versus dry sand, being comfortable with a couple thousand pounds per foot of frac, which we used last year, and it works perfectly fine. Learning a few drilling techniques, I mean, Rick could do a lot better job than me explaining it. All I can do is look at the results and see that we're going to be closer to 13 million than the 15 we projected and the 20 million historically. So to me, the main coast is much like the Haynesville, is that the Haynesville started out. with very high well costs. And over time, in their core area, they were able to bring those down and ultimately make the field have a rate of return. And that's basically the story of the Maine Coast. We started out with incredibly high well costs in the field that are now being brought down. Rick, do you want to mention anything about how costs are coming?

speaker
Michael Ciala
Analyst, Stevens

Yeah, as far as service costs, they're still in line, but we're

speaker
Tom Ward
CEO

Optimizing our drilling performance and being able to get reduced overall days drilling is the main thing we've been able to change. Bringing some new vendors in obviously has helped reduce costs as well. Our savings have basically been both on drilling and completion, but the completion costs have really come down.

speaker
Jeff Gramp
Analyst, Northland Capital Markets

got it. I appreciate those details. And my follow up, given kind of the pace of development that you're laying out, Tom, you know, obviously focused on the oil side. Assuming that kind of program remains static, would you guys anticipate oil production growth in twenty seven? Is this more kind of a maintenance level of capital that we're out there just trying to kind of triangulate where where oil might go over the next handful of quarters?

speaker
Tom Ward
CEO

Yeah. I think it's difficult for us to have too much growth in any of our products because basically we're only spending 50% of our cash flow to keep our production flattish. I think that overall it's easier to grow a natural gas stream, especially if you're drilling 25 or 30 million a day main coast wells. I'd say our projection is a 27 is basically keeping it flat.

speaker
Jeff Gramp
Analyst, Northland Capital Markets

Okay, great. I appreciate the details. Thanks, guys. Thank you.

speaker
Darrell
Director of Investor Relations

Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of Tim Resmond with KeyBank Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

speaker
Tim Resmond
Analyst, KeyBank Capital Markets

Good morning, everybody. Thank you for taking our questions. I just wanted to go back to the balance sheet. I just had one here. Tom, you know, we see the same thing in our model that you do in yours, that around 1.4 times a year end. We do see sort of it kind of grinding down, if you think about strip pricing into 2027, you know, kind of near spitting distance of one times at the end of the year. So my question is, if it's such a pressing concern, and I appreciate you being candid about that, are you looking at asset sales? You have a vast acreage footprint. are you looking at other things like, you know, getting someone to sort of farm into your acreage or some sort of carry? Just kind of curious kind of how broadly you're thinking about options to accelerate that deleveraging.

speaker
Tom Ward
CEO

Yeah, so, I mean, selling assets are difficult because you're losing cash flow and if you're, let's just say you're a little, you know, and Michael Reel. Michael Reel Let's see, the second part of your question was, what else were we thinking about? So that was the sell assets. What was your other question or point of it?

speaker
Tim Resmond
Analyst, KeyBank Capital Markets

I would just ask, you know, are you looking to kind of, you know, get someone to form into acreage, get some sort of carry, you know, just, yeah.

speaker
Tom Ward
CEO

Yeah, I'm with you now. So the problem with selling acreage is that You'd love to say it's non-core, but every acre we have today was non-core when we bought it. And yet if you look at our results, you see that we're in the top of the piers for gas and oil. And so if you look at any well that we've drilled since inception of the company, we didn't pay for it. So that was by definition a non-core acre. And so whenever we plan to go sell a bunch of non-core acreage, you might be selling the next best field. And as Charles mentioned, we're not going to be the guy who goes out and drills the wildcat, but we're going to have 3 million acres kind of hanging around to look at whenever somebody else does. and so today we have a lot of different companies. Mewburn especially is opening up areas that no one would have ever believed in the MidCon just a couple of years ago. You have Continental that stretches all the way from western Oklahoma to southern Oklahoma drilling very good wells and now Diversified has the Camino asset. It's just a lot of activity with Flywheel and others in the MidCon they're developing acreage that if you would have asked me last year, we'd say it was non-core. And if we were in that mode of selling it, we'd have given away the ability to have the high rates of return we do today. So that's a long-winded way to say, I don't really like to sell acreage either. And so that selling away your assets to me is not as efficient as if we were to cut a distribution a little

speaker
Tim Resmond
Analyst, KeyBank Capital Markets

Okay. Okay. I guess there's tradeoffs to everything, but okay. I appreciate that response. Thank you. That's all I had. Thank you.

speaker
Darrell
Director of Investor Relations

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We have reached the end of our question and answer session. And with that, I would like to bring the call to a close. We appreciate your participation today. May disconnect your lines at this time and have a great weekend.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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