11/7/2025

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to ARC Resources Q3 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all lines are in a 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, November 7, 2025. I would now like to turn the conference over to Tareen Boulder. Please go ahead.

speaker
Tareen Boulder
Vice President, Investor Relations

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our third quarter earnings conference call. Joining me today are Terry Anderson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Chris Bibby, Chief Financial Officer, Armin Jahangiri, Chief Operating Officer, Ryan Barrett, Senior Vice President, Marketing. Before I turn it over to Terry and Chris to take you through our third quarter results, I'll remind everyone that this conference call includes forward-looking statements, and non-GAAP measures, with the associated risks outlined in the earnings release and our MD&As. All dollar amounts discussed today are in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise stated. Finally, the press release, financial statements, and MD&A are available on our website, as well as CEDAR. 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.

speaker
Terry Anderson
President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. This morning, we'll discuss our third quarter results in the 2026 budget. After that, I'll hand it over to Chris to review our financial results and provide a little more color on our plans for next year. Beginning with the quarter, overall, we executed a safe, efficient capital program and remain focused on profitability over BOEs, delivering solid operational and financial results. Third quarter production averaged approximately 360,000 BOE per day, which represents a 10% increase year over year and a 13% increase on a per share basis. This included a record high 114,000 barrels per day of condensate and oil, driven primarily from CAQA and Hitachi. In the quarter, we generated $283 million of free cash flow and returned it all to shareholders. This is a result of our low cost structure and a balanced commodity mix that includes a high proportion of CONSATE. At CAQA, which is our largest CONSATE asset, production averaged 206,000 BOE per day. This was above expectations due to better than anticipated performance from the assets we acquired in July. With the integration complete, We have now identified and advanced optimization opportunities to further enhance profitability on those assets and the overall property. Moving on to Hitachi. Third quarter production averaged approximately 27,000 BOE per day, which was below our expectations. However, Kansai production was 13,000 barrels per day, which is a relatively strong number that drives the returns on this asset. Our recent focus has been on optimizing our well design based on what we have learned to date to improve predictability and performance. We are seeing evidence of our optimization initiatives on the most recent pads that were successfully drilled and completed as planned and will be on production in Q4. For 2026, we expect CONCE production to increase to 15,000 barrels per day, which is in line with our original plan, and total production between 30 and 35,000 BUE per day. At Sunrise, our low-cost natural gas asset, we curtailed approximately 360 million cubic feet per day or 60,000 BUE per day during the quarter when Western Canadian natural gas prices were weak. This allowed us to preserve resource and defer capital. In the backdrop of strengthening fundamentals and higher natural gas prices, We resumed production in late October. A core part of our natural gas business is our transportation portfolio. Having long-term, low-cost access to key demand markets in the U.S. has been instrumental in allowing us to maintain high natural gas margins when ACO prices are low. During the third quarter, we realized the natural gas price of $2.75 per mcf compared to the AECO monthly index of $1 per MCF. As an extension to our natural gas marketing, our long-term LNG agreements will take effect in late 2026 or 2027. ARC will deliver approximately 140 million cubic feet per day of natural gas to Chenier's Corpus Christi Stage 3 project, and in return receive JKM pricing less than about $5.50 per MCF. Our strategy is to diversify our natural gas sales over the long term by accessing global natural gas prices. Moving on to next year's budget and our strategic priorities. The 2026 budget will deliver higher production, lower capital and higher free cash flow compared to 2025 and aligns with our long term strategy to grow free funds flow per share. Our budget of $1.8 to $1.9 billion will generate annual production between 405,000 and 420,000 BOE per day and CONCE production of approximately 110,000 barrels per day. Operationally, the focus will be, first, to continue to deliver consistent results and capture cost reduction opportunities to achieve a best-in-class cost structure, and second, to apply the learnings we've gained from our first full year of production at Hitachi to improve capital efficiencies and profitability. These results will inform the optimal development plan to maximize profits for Hitachi Phase 2. At the current forward prices, ARC expects to generate approximately $1.5 billion in free cash flow. With this balance sheet strong, we once again intend to return essentially all free cash flow to shareholders. As evidence of this, we were pleased to announce an 11% increase in our base dividend this quarter, alongside a significant step up in share repurchases. We continue to believe that the combination of growing base dividend and share buybacks is the optimal way to return capital to shareholders. With that, I'll hand it over to Chris.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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