ARC Resources Ltd.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the ARC Resources Limited Year-End 2021 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all lines are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Friday, February 11, 2022. I would now like to turn the conference over to Dale Lucco. Please go ahead.

thank you operator good morning everyone and thank you for joining us on our fourth quarter earnings conference call joining me on the call today are terry anderson president and chief executive officer chris bibby chief financial officer armin jahangiri chief operating officer and laura conrad chief development officer before i before i turn it over to our executive team to take you through our fourth quarter and year-end results i'll remind everyone that this conference call includes forward-looking statements and non-gap and other financial measures with the associated risks outlined in the earnings release and our MD&A. All dollar amounts discussed today are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated. The press release, financial statements, and MD&A are also available on our website as well as CDAR. Following our prepared remarks, we'll open the line to questions. With that, I'll turn it over to our president and CEO, Terry Anderson. Terry, please go ahead.

Hey, thanks, Dale, and good morning, everyone. Let me start by congratulating Armin and Laura on their appointments to our C-suite. They are proven leaders within our industry and have played an important role in our company over the past 10 years. People and assets are differentiators in our business, and I firmly believe ARC has the best of both. I'll keep my remarks relatively brief, touching on three key items before I pass it over to Chris. First, highlights from a record year. Second, an operational update that focuses on our learnings at CAQA. And third, our outlook and priorities for 2022 and beyond. Let's begin with a brief look back at last year. Our fourth quarter results capped off in an exceptional and transformational year for us. With acquisition and integration of seven generations, we strengthened our competitive position and delivered a record year for our shareholders. The business combination was our first major acquisition in over a decade, and our 2021 results are proven that our patients paid off. We added high-quality assets and a team of great people at the right time in the cycle, and our company is more profitable as a result. 2021 was also a demonstration of how ARC operates, discipline allocators of capital with a continuous focus on operational efficiency. The result was record performance across several key measures. First, ARC generated $1.4 billion in free cash flow, the highest in our 25-year history, driven by our low cost structure and strong commodity prices. Second, our field operations team delivered the lowest operating cost in our history of $3.86 per BOE, reinforcing that owning and operating our infrastructure is a competitive advantage. Finally, we delivered record average annual production of 302,000 BOE a day, This comes after a strong Q4 of 345,000 DOE a day. Other noteworthy achievements include the progress we've made deleveraging the business following the transaction. With the strong commodity price environment, we were able to aggressively pay down debt to well below one times debt to cash flow, allowing us to return more of our profits to shareholders faster than we anticipated. ARC has now completed the integration We captured $190 million of synergies, which was well above the initial 110 million target due to lower financing costs and more recently operational and marketing efficiencies that far exceeded our expectations. And finally, we leveraged our scale to secure a transaction with an LNG Canada participant to supply gas for the project. An example of our market diversification strategy, an important first step into LNG supply. As many of you know, this project is very material for Western Canada Fundamentals, gas fundamentals, adding two BCF a day demand at startup. Turning to operations, we were able to continue the momentum we achieved in the third quarter, and most importantly, we did it safely. Our team has now surpassed eight years without an employee lost time incident, an achievement that we are very proud of. Safety is our number one priority. I'd also like to take a few moments to just discuss the progress we've made at CAPA. This is a world-class asset, and we are realizing the benefits of integrating it into our portfolio. Simply put, we have made this high-quality asset even more profitable. In particular, I'm really pleased with how our people have come together and shared and applied what they have learned. Well costs have decreased by over 10% from drilling and completing the wells differently. and early indications show better deliverability by changing where and how we land the wells. Ultimately, this is encouraging and we expect that we'll be able to reduce sustaining capital at CAFLA by approximately 10% over time. Finally, our priorities for 2022 have not changed. We put forth a budget in November that balances reinvestment in our highest return assets, reduces emissions, and prioritizes a meaningful return of capital to shareholders through the base dividend and share repurchases. We believe this generates the optimal risk-adjusted returns for our shareholders. Our near-term priorities are to safely and efficiently sustain production at our base assets and invest in our highest-return projects like Sunrise and Hitachi once the regulatory environment in BC supports it. To that end, we remain confident there will be resolution between the Blueberry River First Nation and the BC government in a timely manner. With that, I'll turn it over to Chris to go through some of our financial highlights.