SM Energy Company

Good morning. Welcome to the SM Energy's 2026 first quarter operating results live session. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. Please note today's event is being recorded. And now let's turn the call over to Megan Hayes, SM Energy's Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Megan.

Thank you, Rob. Good morning and welcome to SM Energy's first quarter 2026 earnings call. It's a busy morning for everyone, so we'll jump right in. Joining me are Beth McDonald, our President and CEO, Wade Purcell, our Executive Vice President and CFO, and Blake McKenna, COO. Today's discussion will reference forward-looking statements. Please see slide two of our earnings presentation, as well as the risk factors in our most recent Form 10-K for risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. We will also reference non-GAAP financial measures throughout the call. You can find the definitions and reconciliations to the closest comparable GAAP measures in yesterday's earnings release and in the slide deck available on our website. Please limit your questions to one question and one follow-up, as this simply allows us to get more of your questions in today. With that, I'll turn it over to Beth.

Thanks, Megan. Good morning, everyone. The first quarter validates what we've set out to build with the new SM. We closed the Civitas merger on January 30th, and in just two months of operating as a combined company, we delivered production over the top end of guidance, capital below guidance, and synergy capture that is tracking nearly two times our original target. That doesn't happen without an exceptional team. So let me tell you what we built SM to do. We have been deliberate and disciplined in assembling this platform, and today SM is better positioned than at any point in our history. We have scale across four premier basins, a high quality inventory that spans multiple years of high return development, and a team that has proven it can execute. That platform exists for one purpose, to put capital to work in the highest returning opportunities available and with the technical and operational excellence SM is known for. Execution compounds value for stockholders over time. This is our North Star and it drives and guides every decision we make. Our 2026 plan is clear. Integrate, execute, bolster. Integrate relates to the synergies that make us more efficient. Execute means operational excellence across every basin. And bolster means strengthening our financial position and leaning into the evolution of our stockholder return framework. After 100 days into the Civitas integration, I can tell you we are executing ahead of plan on all three fronts. Our first quarter results are proof positive and allow us to strengthen our full year outlook. On Integrate, we've actioned approximately $300 million in merger synergies, and we have raised our target to $375 million by year end 2026. That is nearly two times our original target. with a present value of approximately $1.8 billion, up from our prior estimate of $1 to $1.5 billion. Further evidence that the organizational capability we brought to this merger is real. On execute, we delivered higher production for less capital. Production was above expectation at 371,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, with oil at 190,000 barrels per day. Capital was below guidance at $672 million. With this strong start, we are raising our full year production and maintaining our capital guidance, delivering more volume with the same investment and building a strong and sustainable free cash flow growth trajectory. On Bolster, the South Texas divestiture closed April 30th with approximately $900 million in net proceeds directed entirely to debt reduction. We have a clear path to operating at low one times leverage, and the trajectory from here is toward further improvement. As leverage declines, we expect to increase our share buybacks, and we expect to commence buybacks in the second quarter. We see tremendous value in our equity, and we know that the best investment we can make today is in ourselves. I'll hand it over to Wade to cover our recent financial performance and provide more detail on our balance sheet progress. Wade.