Southwestern Energy Company

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Southwest Energy's second quarter 2021 earnings call. Management will open up the call for questions with a question and answer session following the prepared remarks. In the interest of time, please admit yourself to two questions and re-queue for additional questions. This call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Brittany Rayford, Southwest Energy's Director of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Thank you, Keith. Good morning, and welcome to Southwestern Energy's second quarter 2021 earnings call. Joining me today are Bill Way, President and Chief Executive Officer, Clay Carroll, Chief Operating Officer, Carl Giesler, Chief Financial Officer, Michael Hancock, Vice President, Finance and Treasurer, and Jason Kurtz, Head of Marketing and Transportation. Before we get started, I'd like to point out that many of the comments we make during this call are forward-looking statements. that involve risk and uncertainties affecting outcomes. Many of these are beyond our control and are discussed in more detail in the risk factors and the forward-looking statement sections of our annual report, our quarterly reports, and our definitive proxy statements for the special meeting regarding the Indigo transaction, all as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although we believe the expectations expressed are based on reasonable assumptions, they are not guarantees of future performance and actual results on development may differ materially, and we are under no obligation to update them. We may also refer to some non-GAAP financial measures, which help facilitate comparisons across periods and with peers. For any non-GAAP measures we use, a reconciliation to the nearest corresponding GAAP measure can be found in our earnings release available on our website. I will now turn the call over to Bill Way.

Thank you, Brittany. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today, and I hope that you're all safe and well. I'm delighted that so many of our employees have been able to join the call this morning as well. My thanks go out to each of you for all that you do for the company each and every day. Before we get started, I'd like to welcome Carl Giesler to Southwestern Energy as our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. His strategic perspective and disciplined approach really complement our existing strategy and our management team. I would also like to thank Michael Hancock and the entire finance and accounting organization for your exceptional work, especially over the last six months, as we worked to fill the CFO role left behind by the loss of Julian Bott. I look forward to working with both of these talented leaders as we continue to execute our strategy to enhance sustainable value for our shareholders. Southwestern Energy's returns-driven strategy focuses on creating sustainable value, protecting financial strength, consistently delivering leading operational and financial results, and pursuing opportunities to capture the benefits of increasing scale. At the core of our strategy and value proposition is a commitment to the right people doing the right things. Our success depends on the alignment and commitment of a fully engaged, diverse, and inclusive workforce nurtured by our high-performing, innovative, and value-driven culture. In the second quarter, we took additional steps to deliver further value enhancements from our strategy and action. The highlight of the quarter was the announced acquisition of Indigo Natural Resources. The integration planning process is going well and ahead of schedule. The shareholder vote is set for August the 27th and we expect to close shortly thereafter. This transaction expands the scope and scale of our company by combining core positions across the country's two premier natural gas basins and accelerates the delivery of key financial and strategic objectives. Because of Indigo's low-cost structure and strong balance sheet, we expect to see immediate accretion to key financial metrics, including improvement in corporate returns, an increase in free cash flow, and the accelerated delivery of our deleveraging goal later this year. Indigo furthers our sustainable value creation strategy by expanding our overall opportunity set and moderating risks to our business. The expansion into Haynesville adds Tier 1 dry gas inventory locations, that complement our existing Appalachia inventory. These locations are adjacent to premium gas markets, including LNG and other growing demand centers. Notably, the firm sales agreements and fixed basis differentials will expand the company's margins and dampen its overall basis volatility. Twin is well positioned to capture the many tangible benefits of scale that this transaction brings, including cost economies, expanded inventory, and further capital allocation optionality. The benefits improve the sustainability of our free cash flow generation, particularly as commodity prices continue to improve. We are on track to deliver the promised synergies at closing, and furthermore, we see the potential for additional value enhancements once the transaction closes from operational and commercial improvements, a strengthened credit profile, and a lower cost of capital. We are proven integrators, and I'm confident that our new combined Hainesville team will We'll find ways to deliver additional value from our newly integrated business. TWIN's commitment to sustainability goes beyond the economics of a scale-enhancing transaction like Indigo. It is the ultimate objective of our ESG strategy as well. Responsibly sourced gas is one of our key initiatives. This quarter, we implemented a basin-wide program to certify and continuously monitor all of our Appalachia Basin unconventional wells through an agreement with Project Canary. We have a long history with the firm, as we've been marketing responsibly sourced gas for several years to end users in the eastern United States. We specifically selected a certification provider that utilizes a rigorous and comprehensive process. The basin-wide well certification process and site monitoring has begun, and we have already installed continuous monitors at several operating sites across our Pennsylvania acreage, enabling our operating teams to immediately address potential emissions should they occur. Southwestern is a leading natural gas producer that is well positioned for a low carbon future. We have a unique combination of a strong balance sheet, large scale tier one operated assets, proven execution and ESG performance providing the means to deliver sustainable value creation. We continue to believe disciplined consolidation and the benefits of scale are core to our strategy for driving shareholder value. We remain committed to holding capital investment at maintenance capital levels and discipline in our risk management strategy, including hedging. Over the next few quarters, we will further refine our capital allocation strategy, including additional debt reduction and the potential return of capital to shareholders. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Clay to discuss the quarter's operational results.