Ultrapar Participacoes S.A. (New) American Depositary Shares (Each representing one Common Share)

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Saturn's first quarter 2026 results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in a listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After management's remarks, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star, then 0. I will now turn the call over to Ms. Cindy Gray, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Cindy.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us to hear management's remarks about Saturn's first quarter 2026 results. Please note that our financial statements, MD&A, and press release are all filed on CDR Plus and available on our website. Some of the statements on today's call may contain forward-looking information, references to non-IFRS and other financial measures, and as such, listeners are encouraged to review the disclaimers outlined in our most recent MD&A. Listeners are also cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, since a number of factors could cause the actual future results to differ materially from the targets and expectations expressed. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless expressly required by applicable securities law. For further information on risk factors, please view our AIF file on CEDAR Plus and our website. Also note, all amounts discussed today are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated. On today's call, we'll hear from John Jeffery, Saturn's CEO, Scott Sanborn, our CFO, and Justin Kaufman, our Chief Development Officer, followed by a Q&A. I'll now hand the call over to John.

Thank you, Cindy. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for taking the time to join us today. Saturn's first quarter of 2026 built on the momentum we delivered in Q4. Volumes of over 43,100 BOEs a day beat analysts' expectations for the seventh consecutive quarter. while we exceeded our quarterly guidance by more than 1,600 VOE a day. We also came in ahead of the analyst forecast on adjusted funds flow and free funds flow, a notable achievement since we only benefited from one month of a stronger oil price in March. This really highlights what a difference one month can make. Earlier in the year, plenty of market commentary was calling for oil to drop below US $60 per barrel due to oversupply concerns. and it traded around that level for the first two months of the year. Fast forward to mid-March, and the Iranian conflict drove prices significantly higher, with the WTI benchmark averaging U.S. $91 per barrel in the month. Despite the volatility and ongoing uncertainty about how and when this conflict would be resolved, Saturn's focus has not changed. We continue to navigate those factors within our control, including being disciplined but opportunistic in our capital allocation. we remain committed to reducing debt and protecting the downside. Ultimately, our goal is to improve per share metrics and create lasting value for shareholders. Our 2026 capital budget was based off $60 WTI, so we intentionally kept it lower to protect the future value of the product in the ground. However, as the price of oil has risen drastically since the beginning of March, Saturn has closely monitored the macro environment and the forward curve for pricing. Since spring break was underway, our ability to drill is restricted. So we're using this natural pause to assess market conditions and explore potential adjustments to our capital program. We believe that the nimble nature of our asset base and the flexibility of our capital program represents key differentiators for Saturn. We've shown time and again that our team is ready and able to ramp up or slow down activity without negatively impacts to the assets or our partners in the service sector. And this time is no different. We're planning to accelerate capital from the second half of 2026 into Q2, which is typically our lowest capital expenditure period due to breakup, subject to whether we are aiming to get rigs back in the field more quickly this year, targeting late May to mid-June. This is expected to enable Saturn to bring new volumes on production earlier and capitalize on a stronger oil price for the benefit of the company and our shareholders. Should oil remain elevated, we may look to update our full year 2026 capital budget and guidance to better reflect what the curve is indicating and increase cash flow generation. Debt repayment remains paramount for Saturn, and our results in Q1 demonstrate our ongoing commitment to reducing net debt. Exiting Q1, our net debt declined 5% compared to year-end 2025. And every dollar of debt that we take down is accretive to our equity value and further improves our per share metrics. Alongside debt reduction, we are committed to returning capital to shareholders via Saturn Share Buyback Program. Our daily NCIB purchases continue through Q1 and help to showcase the successful execution of our buybacks. Since August of 2025, when we renewed our NCIB, the number of shares we have bought back is nearing the maximum allowable for a one-year period, equal to 12.1 million shares. As our share price strengthened into March, we've reduced the number of shares being purchased each day while remaining the same approximate dollar spent. To further minimize dilution, Saturn has elected to settle our equity-based compensation awards by purchasing shares in the open market rather than issuing new shares from Treasury. This is a deliberate outcome of our strategy and designed to support per share value increases across all performance metrics. Another element of our long-term strategy is hedging, which protects the downside, particularly when debt is included in the capital stack. As prices have increased, Saturn has continued to layer on incremental contracts, while still remaining meaningfully exposed to higher prices on our unhedged barrels. And Scott will speak further to our hedging program later on the call. From capital allocation perspective, we will continue to prioritize free funds flow towards a combination of debt reduction, ongoing share buyback, and other initiatives that improve our per share metric, such as accretive token acquisitions that meet our screening activity. In the first quarter, for example, we closed a small tuck-in acquisition that fits perfectly within our Flat Lake area of southeast Saskatchewan. This core-up acquisition adds immediate value to Saturn, with current production in the 300 to 400 BOE a day range, future identified locations, infrastructure consolidation opportunities, cost reduction potential, and a strategic pipeline. This pipeline has the potential to deliver oil into the North Dakota pricing hub, which is currently realizing a premium to WTI. Saturn is currently in the process of bringing this pipeline back into service, and we are excited to see what this prospect has for us. I'm very proud of the work and the dedication of our team through another successful quarter, that their tireless effort and adherence to our strong safety culture Scott will now provide a financial overview, followed by Justin, concluding the call with a discussion about Q1 development and Saturn's GoPort program. Scott.

Thanks, John, and good morning, everyone. Saturn's financial performance continued to excel this quarter, despite only realizing escalated oil prices beginning in March. The company generated adjusted funds flow of $170 million, or $0.59 per basic share, beating the average analyst consensus by 5%, while our free funds flow of $62 million, exceeded the average consensus by 13%. Royalties in the quarter came in below guidance, averaging approximately 11% due to the Alberta royalty incentive on new wells and the impact of the sliding scale royalty framework. Operating costs at 2049 per BOE were exactly at midpoint of our annual guidance range, but higher than previous quarter, reflecting the usual seasonality and colder weather conditions faced by our team during the first quarter. With a rapid escalation of oil prices in March, we recorded a realized hedging loss of $21 million, or $5.45 per VOE, for the quarter as the market price for crude oil exceeded the price set in the company's derivative contracts. That said, our hedging program is working exactly as intended from a risk management perspective by influencing stability and certainty. Our hedging strategy goes beyond timing the cycle's tops and bottoms. It's about average costing and consistency, ensuring we can always meet our financial obligations while protecting Saturn's resilience. With the current price volatility, Saturn's strategy has been to add additional hedges at smaller increments but at higher frequency in order to capture average prices in the period, and also weight those incremental volumes towards the near term at payroll prices rather than the tail end of the curve in a declining price environment. From an accounting perspective, the sharp move in commodity prices also drove a large unrealized hedging loss in the quarter, impacting net income and earnings per share figures. This created a wide swing in reported earnings, but the impact is non-cash, so does not impact cash flow. As such, this quarter's earnings are not an accurate indicator of the cash-generating and debt-servicing capability of our business. Net debt declined 5% from the year-end 2025, and we exited Q1 with approximately $725 million, reflecting Saturn's ongoing commitment to debt repayment. Saturn retains ample liquidity with a $150 million credit facility with a small $14 million draw quarter end plus an uncommitted accordion feature that can expand total capacity to $250 million. The non-call feature of our U.S.-nominated senior notes expires in June this year and are subject to step-down premiums for the next two years. As a result, we continue to actively monitor yield curves and evaluate future opportunities that may allow Saturn to reduce our cost of capital and improve leverage metrics. Alongside debt repayment, we continue to prioritize the return of capital to shareholders. As John already mentioned, at March 31st, we had 181 million shares outstanding, 8% lower than the number just one year ago. During the first quarter, we returned over 12 million shareholders with a repurchase and cancellation of approximately 3.7 million shares under our NCIB. Since then, we have returned an additional $3.4 million through open market purchases of 600,000 shares. Despite the strong oil price environment and potential to generate higher income, Staten remains well protected over $1.6 billion of taxables. And given this coverage, we do not anticipate to become cash taxable until 2028 and beyond, given our current capital allocation strategy. This contributes positively to free funds flow generation in the current environment. With that overview, I'll hand things over to Justin to talk through our Q1 development program and your view on our capital going forward. Thanks, Scott.

And good morning, everyone. First quarter of 2026 production was above 43,000 barrels per day, carried through the momentum we achieved in the previous quarter. This led to Saturn beating analyst expectations for the seventh consecutive quarter, as John mentioned, showcasing how our wells continue to outperform Tidecurve. Heading into spring break-up, Saturn had four rigs running. Three rigs were drilling open-hole multilateral wells. We had two of the three rigs in the Balkan and one in the Midale on lands we acquired through a 2025 tuck-in. The fourth rig was drilling conventional Mississippian and spearfish wells. We deployed $45 million of capital in the quarter, which resulted in 23 gross wells being drilled, completed, and brought on production, contributing to our strong volumes. The capital was the direct sigil of 21 wells in southeast Saskatchewan, including 10 open-hole multilateral wells that included five Bakken, three in Midale, and two spearfish wells. In addition, we participated in two non-operated Nauticune wells drilled in central Alberta in our West Pemina area. Our siren team continues to be excited about our open-hole multi-leg program, which offers some of the shortest payouts and highest returns in our inventory. As mentioned in our year and 2025 press release, we drilled our fourth open-hole multi-leg spearfish well at 1306, a six-layer that came on with an IP30 of 365 barrels per day. This well had a peak volume rate of 400 barrels per day during the first 30 days and had a capital efficiency of $5,000 per barrel. Given this performance, we would expect to see the 1306 well included on a list of the top performing industry wells in Saskatchewan for April, compiled by independent research firms. This well is directly adjacent to our previous 1605 Spiritfish well, which exceeded type period expectations by about three times and was profiled as a top producer in Saskatchewan. As John highlighted, flexibility has always been a key differentiator for our capital program. Southern has demonstrated the ability to pivot quickly and scale activity up or down depending on commodity prices, which supports our decision to accelerate some capital from the back half of the year into Q2. Our original Q2 capital budget ranged between $50 and $20 million and contemplated limited drilling. However, we are now planning to bring forward approximately $20 million of capital from the latter half of this year into the second quarter, subject to weather conditions. In light of the strong price environment, we want to get rigs back in the field to target our short cycle time inventory, which allows us to rapidly bring on volumes on stream and capitalize on higher prices in the near term. By accelerating capital into Q2, we can get rigs back to work earlier than originally expected in southeast Saskatchewan, where we are planning a staggered start after the May long weekend. As soon as the ground is firm, we planned out a fifth rig in west central Saskatchewan targeting high impact fields, including our biking and success plays. which will supplement the existing four rigs running in southeast Saskatchewan. Depending on weather and based on current forecasts, Theron anticipates drilling four or five wells in the west central Saskatchewan area with an estimated 10 or 12 wells brought forward from our planned Q3 drilling in southeast Saskatchewan. This capital acceleration is expected to result in Q2 2026 capital spending ranging between 35 and 40 million. with quarterly volumes anticipated to average between 40 and 41,000 barrels per day. Given the oil price appreciation over the past eight weeks and the forward curve looking favorable, Senators also explore the potential to increase oil year 2026 capital. Given approximately 70% of our total capital budget is employed in Q3 and Q4, we believe any adjustments would be seamless from a rig availability, services, and efficiency standpoint. With that, I'd like to thank everyone for joining us this morning, and we'll hand the call back to the operator to begin the Q&A.

At this time, if you would like to ask a question, press star, then one on your telephone keypad. And your first question comes from the line of Adam Joe with Ventum Financial. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, everyone. Congrats on a solid quarter. Quick question for me. What exactly are you looking for in terms of oil prices to make the final decision to actually ramp up capital spending for the year? And what's kind of the upper limit on where that spending could end up?

Well, really, thanks for joining us today, Adam. Really, we're looking just for some stability here in the price range. as everyone will tell you is the volatility is very hard to plan around. But if we were seeing kind of sustained prices, mid to upper seventies, I think we're going to take a hard look at expanding that capital plan. So again, we got a few weeks here before we're able to get back in the field in a weather dependent, of course, but I think if we see oil kind of hanging in, you know, who the heck knows what's going on, but I think if we can see it, high 70s, even in the 80s or higher, I think you could, you know, we could execute on. So basically, we went into last year with a $320 million program. We ended up pairing that back. So I think getting back to that $300 million mark, really what that would effectively done is just have deferred some of those wells into this year. So we have the locations. The team is ready for it. Again, we've already ramped up for that in the past. So I think about a 50% expansion to our CapEx plan would be the higher end if we see oil kind of close to that $80 mark or even higher.

Okay, sounds good. Thank you. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Jamie Somerville with Ross Canada. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Can you hear me? Yes, sir. Perfect. Thanks. A similar question, which is all price dependent, but debt and hedging. On the last call, I think you mentioned a repayment acceleration option on your bonds. I'm wondering if you could provide any detail on the timing, likely potential timing window and amounts around that. And then also with either that or your current bonds, amortization schedule. How does that impact the amount of hedging that you're likely to do going forward, given unpredictable oil prices and interesting futures?

Yeah, you know, again, the problem with the curve, as you can see, is just backwardation. It is starting to come up a little bit, so it Contractually, we have to maintain 50% rolling hedges for the next 12 months. Now, in a raised oil environment like we're seeing today, we are 55%, even closer to 60%. So we are trying to take advantage of this hard price. Again, it was just four months ago we came into this year guiding at $60. You can hedge out into Q1 of $27 right now, closer to $80. So locking in some of that is what we're trying to do while we're bringing on more production. But I'm going to pass it over to Scott to talk on the actual debt instrument itself.

Hey, Jamie. So we have an on-call feature rolling off on June 15th, and the first step down premium will be 4.81%. So that's roughly $24 million in the event that we go to refinance that.

Perfect. Thanks. Just to clarify John's answer, there's no reduction in that 50% hedging for 12 months requirement as you're paying down the bonds. As long as they're there, that requirement stays in place. Is that what you're saying?

Well, that's right. But it also aligns with what we are aiming to do here as a management team as well. Basically, that 12 months, in our opinion, gets through any major hiccups, even if you go back to 2020 and COVID. If you look before COVID and after COVID, it took about 12 months to kind of resolve some of these issues. Basically, what we're trying to do here is that in any pricing environment, can we ensure that we can pay all our debt obligations? Let's say oil goes to five bucks a barrel. Can we still satisfy all of our obligations as a company, and that allows us to do so. So corporately, that does align with what we would do. Now, again, in this raised pricing environment, I think we're in a great position to take advantage of a higher strip. But, yes, as long as those bonds are in place, that is the minimum we have to have.

Perfect. Thank you for clarifying. Hey, thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Chris DeMoss with BCMI Research. Please go ahead.

Yeah, good morning. Thanks for taking my call. You have a significant shareholder that owns about 35% of the stock and also has a board member. They've indicated they're selling 10 million shares. I wondered, how do you handle the major shareholder when you're doing your NCIB? And secondly, can you give us some color on what GMT Capital's

intent is and whether the company should probably try and shop that block around so if you actually look back they have posted that several times that's just their kind of standard requirement that they that they do post um they've never filled that or so also near that many uh they've sold they've posted similar ones for some of their other bigger oil holdings as well um basically just gives them flexibility You've actually seen over the years that they have grown their position, never shrank it, despite having filed up. In fact, I think last year they had bought an additional 9 million shares through the market. So they want the flexibility to buy and sell kind of at whim, so they filed those on all of their major holdings that we can see. So that is pretty standard. They've never sold anywhere near that amount. And, again, it's their strategy. I'm not – I'm not too concerned. We stay in great contact with them. We work very closely with them. Same with, again, all of our key shareholders in the top 10. We're in pretty frequent conversation with. They're quite happy, as I can tell, with what we're doing, with the share performance. And, again, they've been very supportive. So in terms of actual strategy, if it comes to Libra or GMT or any of these, I can't speak to that, but I will say that they have filed these reports. Similar companies that filed them in the past with us, and yet year over year their shareholdings tend to grow with a little bit of buying and selling on the margin. So none of that is overly concerning, but I will say we're very happy to have them as part of the story, and our relationship with them has been fantastic.

Yeah, and listen, I really believe the stock is undervalued. It's a bit of a gem. And with your strategy, I like the idea of counting pencils at the head office, which is very rare these days. Is there any indication that you might want to put the company up for sale, given you've been active in M&A on the other sides?

Yeah, I think for $20 a share, you know, we'd be willing to let it go, I think. But listen, you know, what we've built here, I agree with you. I think we should be trading closer to our 1P. And, you know, right now, our 1P on the last reserve deck that came out at the end of March is $11.32. You know, I'd say a lot of companies, that should be the floor of their value. But you fast forward to the end of the year, once we have more debt paid down, more shares paid down, you're going to see that, you know, probably approaching $13 to $14. So, you know... Again, it's not our company to sell. We're just a steward of shareholders' capital. But for us as a management team, I can say we didn't design this thing for a quick flip. We have a great team here. We have great assets. And we've got 20-plus years of drilling inventory that we'd like to see exploited. And we want to get the value for the shareholders and everybody. So if there's an offer that comes along and the shareholders believe it's in their best interest, then that's our job to execute. But in the interim... We're just running the best company we can. I haven't heard any of our major shareholders ask for that, or none of them have came to us and said, listen, let's try and get a quick clip out of this. All of them that we've talked to, I think, see the long-term value and support kind of our vision in executing.

Okay, thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Jesus Santos with Kastner. Please go ahead.

Hi. First of all, congratulations for this outstanding result. You mentioned that we are going to bring some CapEx forward. My question is if there is room for accelerating that even more and spotting some wealth earlier?

Yeah. So as you're aware, with what we deal with specifically in our field, Central Alberta and Saskatchewan, we deal with break-up, where kind of generally from mid-March until mid-May, we can't get out in the field just due to road bans and other things. But I'm actually going to pass it over to Justin Kaufman, and JK should be able to kind of walk through the intricacies of drilling and what we're able to do given our timeline and the weather. Yeah.

Generally we get out into the field somewhere between mid-June and July. There's a lot of wet weather that we're dealing with coming out of spring. This year we do want to accelerate that. We're going to be out in the field next week pre-setting our biking wells and then the following weeks we'll have a staggered start with about four rigs out the door after May long with the fifth rig in June. five operating rigs before the end of this quarter, with a sixth starting just after the July 1 weekend. So we are accelerating that from our previous plan. That acceleration will be in southeast and west central. We have mentioned before three core areas. We really like the short full cycle times of the biking. We can drill well at three to four days, complete it, bring it online within two weeks. So we're looking to take advantage of these commodity prices, and that's what we're doing in those places.

Thank you very much. I will pass the line.

Since there are no more questions, this concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.