Pioneer Natural Resources Company

Welcome to Pioneer Natural Resources First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Joining us today will be Scott Sheffield, Chief Executive Officer, Rich Daly, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Neil Shaw, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Pioneer has prepared presentation slides to supplement comments made today. These slides are available on the internet at www.pxd.com. Again, the internet website to access slides presented in today's call is www.pxd.com. Navigate to the Investors tab found at the top of the webpage and then select Quarterly Results. Today's call is being recorded. A replay of the call will be archived on www.pxd.com through May 27, 2023. The company's comments today will include forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements and the business prospects of Pioneer are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results in future periods to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are described in Pioneer's news release. on page two of the slide presentation and in Pioneer's public filings made with Securities and Exchange Commission. At this time, for opening remarks, I would like to turn the call over to Pioneer's Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Neil Shaw. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Joelle. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Pioneer's first quarter earnings call. Today, we will be discussing our excellent first quarter results driven by our strong oil production and fortified capital return strategy. In addition, we will discuss the resilience of our free cash flow generation at various oil prices, which is underpinned by our best-in-class margins and unmatched high return assets in the Midland Basin. We will then open up the call for your questions. With that, I will turn it over to Scott.

Thank you, Neil. Good morning. As you all saw in the news, I announced yesterday that I would retire as CEO of Pioneer beginning January 2024. Our president and chief operating officer, Rich Daley, will assume the role of CEO at that time. Rich has been with Pioneer and our predecessor company for over 30 years, from a $500 million company to over a $50 billion company, and has served in various executive leadership roles and is uniquely positioned to lead Pioneer forward. I'm proud of the success that Pioneer has achieved in its 26-year history, as well as key accomplishments over the previous several years. With consistent focus on the Permian Basin, we have formed the largest continuous acreage position in the Midland Basin, supported by a successful integration of two acquisitions during 2021, and have full confidence in our modifications we made last year as we were seeing early indication of great results with our first quarter results. Our methodical approach and highly efficient development program has positioned Pioneer as the most active driller and largest oil producer in the state of Texas. I'm especially proud to have led the independent transition to a free cash flow model that focuses on return of capital to shareholders and further strengthens our balance sheet. I've taken great pride in leading the efforts to reduce flaring intensities in methane and CO2 emissions in the Permian Basin and its contribution to more sustainable practices throughout our industry. Building on this foundation, we were one of the first U.S. operators to join OGMP, the only gas methane partnership, 2.0, demonstrating our ongoing commitment to sustainable operations. I'm excited for Rich's continued leadership of Pioneer as CEO in 2024. I will now discuss our first quarter results going to slide number four. During the first quarter, Pioneer generated approximately $950 million in free cash flow, contributing to a base plus variable dividend $3.34 per share and $500 million in share repurchases completed during the quarter. This strong return to capital was supported by efficient operations and all production near the top end of our first quarter guidance range. Fortifying our return to capital, we increased our quarterly base dividend by 14% and refreshed our repurchase program with a new $4 billion authorization. Going to slide number five. First quarter results, as we discussed on the previous slide, Pioneer delivered strong first quarter production with both oil and total production near the top end of first quarter guidance at 361,000 barrels of oil per day and 680 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. We continue to focus on efficient operations, maintain low horizontal lifting costs that support our top tier margins and significant free cash flow generation. Now over to Rich.