SM Energy Company

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the SM Energy First Quarter Results Q&A discussion. Today's call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jennifer Samuels, VP of IR and ESG Stewardship. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our Q&A session. To answer your questions today, we have our President and CEO, Kurt Bogle, and CFO, Wade Purcell. Before we get started, as usual, our discussion today may include forward-looking statements and discussion of non-GAAP measures. I direct you to slide two of the accompanying slide deck and page five of the accompanying earnings release and the risk factors section of our most recently filed 10-K, which describe risks associated with forward-looking statements that could cause actual results to differ. We may also refer to non-GAAP measures. Please see the slide deck appendix and the earnings released for definitions and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. and a session of forward-looking non-GAAP measures. As a reminder, we have posted an investor presentation and the transcript to our pre-recorded call from yesterday that we may reference in the call today, and look for the first quarter 10Q filed this morning. With that, I will turn it over to Herb for brief opening commentary. Herb?

Thanks, Jennifer. Good morning, and thank you for joining our Q&A call this morning. Before we get started, I will reiterate a few key messages this quarter. We're pleased to report that we have repurchased 2.8 million shares since inception of our return of capital program in September and, including our increased fixed dividend, we have returned a total of $134 million. We are well positioned to provide a solid return to our shareholders in 2023 through the combination of our fixed dividend and upside through share repurchases. Execution was solid in the first quarter, not only exceeding guidance for oil and total production volumes, but recognizing notable operational achievements, such as drilling 75,000 feet of lateral 20 days faster than planned, or successfully drilling five 18,000 foot laterals, which are now among the longest laterals in the Midland Basin. It is a key objective to maintain and build our inventory, and during the first quarter, we made progress on this front with organic growth through the purchase of 6,300 net acres in the Midland Basin. This first quarter is a solid start to what we believe will be a great year. With that, I will turn it back to Lisa to start taking your questions.