Baytex Energy Corp.

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Baytex Energy Corp. Second Quarter 2026 Financial and Operating Results Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity for analysts to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. You may also submit questions in writing at any time using the form in the lower section of the webcast frame. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star then zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Chris Lessoway, Vice President of Finance and Treasurer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning and welcome to Bay Texas second quarter 2026 results conference call. Joining me today are Chad Lundberg, our president and chief executive officer, Kendall Arthur, our chief operating officer, and Chad Kalmakoff, our chief financial officer. Before we begin, please note that our discussion today contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. I refer you to the advisories regarding forward-looking statements oil and gas information and non-gap financial and capital management measures in yesterday's press release. All dollar amounts referenced in our remarks are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise specified. After our prepared remarks, we'll open the call for questions. Webcast participants can also submit questions online. With that, let me turn the call over to Chad.

Good morning. Q2 is another strong quarter. production average 71,200 BUE per day, above the high end of our guidance for the second straight quarter with continued outperformance across our heavy oil portfolio and first well results from our southern land block in the Duvernay that we call Gilby. We repurchased 22 million shares for $139 million and exited the quarter with net cash of $566 million. With strong well performance to date, full year production guidance has been raised to 71,000 BUE per day, up 1,000 from the midpoint of prior guidance, with a targeted exit rate of 72,000 BUE per day. There is no change to our capital program of $625 million. Momentum is building with a renewed interest in Baytex as we continue executing our strategy. We have a clean balance sheet Deep Inventory, and a team executing with discipline. Our Q2 results reflect that. I am pleased to announce the appointment of two new directors, Derek Evans and Deanna Zumwalt. These appointments enhance an already strong board with depth in resource development and energy finance that is directly relevant to our strategy. Growing production, capitalizing on opportunities in our portfolio, and building toward our 15% total shareholder return target. Thank you, Steve Ranish and Jeffrey Wojan for your significant contribution to Baytex. I'll now turn the call over to Kendall to walk us through operations, including our heavy oil and duvernay results, the waterfud pilots and our second half program.

Thanks, Chad. Production of 71,243 DOE per day exceeded the high end of guidance, representing 11% growth relative to Q2 2025. We invested $122 million on exploration and development and brought 24.6 wells on stream, consistent with our full year plan and waited to deliver strong production in the back half. Heavy oil was strong across the board. At Peavine, six of the wells brought on stream during the quarter have established average IP30 rates of 478 barrels per day per well. Well results in Peavine continue to outperform internal expectations as development expands from the core. At Lloyd Minster, seven Manville wells were brought on stream across multiple horizons. The stack keeps delivering and our multilateral and circulation stream capabilities are a significant advantage here. At Peace River, activity has picked up after spring breakup and we are on track with second half development now underway. We have an active second half plan throughout our heavy oil portfolio with four rigs running and a fifth starting in Moranville in August. On water floods, both initial Peabind pilots are now on injection, one testing repressurization through producer to injector conversion, the other testing pressure maintenance on new development. We are expanding water flood pilots in the second half with two additional patterns at Peavine and a Rex formation test in Moringville, both expected to be on injection by Q4. At Uticama, the 21-square-mile seismic program is complete, covering roughly 20% of our 109-section land position. Initial interpretations confirm the presence of the Kisco Mounds, and we are preparing for up to two exploration test wells in early 2027. In the DuVernay, the first pad was drilled on our South Gilby acreage and came on stream in June. Three of the four wells delivered average IP30 rates of 1,630 DOE per day per well with 88% liquids, amongst our strongest results in the DuVernay on a length normalized basis. The fourth well was completed at half lateral length after the bottom hole assembly became stuck during drilling and was unrecoverable. This well delivered an IP30 of 866 BOE per day. These results strengthen our confidence in the development opportunity across our southern DuVernay acreage. The second DuVernay pad was drilled on a north Pembina acreage. Inflation operations are now well underway. This pad is expected to be brought on production in September. The 2026 program is on track. 17 wells drilled, 13 on stream this year, and the last four well pad to be completed and on stream in early 2027. Q2 was a safe and productive quarter. I want to recognize our operating teams, field and office. Their focus and disciplined execution drove our strong two key results. With that, over to Chad Kalmakoff to discuss our financial performance. Thanks, Kendall.

Our strong operating results translate into strong finance performance. We generated adjusted funds flow of $254 million in the second quarter, or 35% per share. Our operating net back was $55.33 per PoE, up from $35.36 per PoE in Q1, reflecting strong realized pricing and continued cost discipline. As a reminder, on an unhedged basis, every $5 move in WTI impacts our annualized adjusted funds flow by approximately $125 million. The hedges that were in place prior to the sale for U.S. assets have rolled off as of Q2, and we no longer have WTI hedges in place. With a strong balance sheet, we don't anticipate entering into WTI hedges. We generated net income of $175 million in the quarter, or 24 cents per share, bringing year-to-date net income to $108 million, or 15 cents per share. Free cash flow was $128 million, or 18 cents per share, compared to $2 million in Q1. The improvement reflects higher adjusted funds flow combined with investing $122 million on exploration and development. Holding annual capital flat while raising production guidance reflects strong operational performance and cost discipline. During Q2, we repurchased 22 million shares for $136 million at an average price of $6.27 per share and declared a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share payable October 1st. Since the sale of our Eagleford business in December 2025, we have repurchased 69 million shares, approximately 9% of the shares outstanding, for $378 million. In July, our normal course HR bid was renewed, providing capacity to repurchase up to 70.9 million shares through July 1, 2027. We continue to be active on the NCIB and anticipate repurchasing $650 million of shares from the proceeds of the U.S. disposition. Our balance sheet remains very strong. We exited the quarter with net cash at $566 million, which allows us to execute our plans and be resilient through all parts of the cycle. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Chad.

I want to close by putting Q2 in the broader context of where we are headed. The strategy is straightforward. Grow production 6% to 8% annually, capitalize on our heavy oil expertise, commercialize the DuVernay, drive the cost structure lower and return capital to shareholders. It's that simple. We are targeting a 15% annual total shareholder return at a mid-cycle price of $70 through production growth, dividends, and buybacks. That's the target we are building toward. The commodity price environment this quarter continued to prove constructive with WTI averaging $93 a barrel. and we maintain capital discipline throughout. The increased guidance reflects the quality of our inventory and strong execution from our teams. Heavy oil is the foundation. Over 12 years of risk drilling inventory, decades of multilateral and circulation strength expertise, active exploration and water flood pilots at Peavine that could meaningfully improve long-term recovery. The DuVernay continues to advance. With the first pad now drilled on our southern acreage in Gilby, it confirms high-quality reservoir, strong well results, and verifies inventory as we work towards running a full commercial program in 2027. Gemini Thermal sits beyond the three-year outlook, and we continue to advance our technical and commercial understanding working towards an FID target half to 27. Q2 was a strong quarter for Baytex as we executed our plans and advanced our strategy. I would like to thank our employees and service providers for their tremendous efforts to deliver these results. And lastly, before we open for questions, I want to acknowledge Brian Ector. Today is Brian's last day at Baytex Closing out nearly two decades as the trusted voice of this company to the investment community, Brian has worked hard to set myself, Chris, and our company up for success. On behalf of everyone at Baytex, thank you, Brian. It's been a privilege. With that, operator, we are ready for questions.

Thank you. We will now begin the analyst question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. To submit your question in writing, please use the form in the lower right section of the webcast frame. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue. The first question today comes from Phillips Johnston with Capital One Securities. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for the time and congrats again to Brian on his well-deserved retirement. My first question is for Chad Kalmakoff. You just affirmed, I guess, the target of $650 million of buybacks for this year in your prepared remarks. You're about halfway through, I think, at the end of June. If we look back at the monthly activity within the second quarter. Looks like there was some price sensitivity. Looks like you guys dialed back some activity in May when the share price was floating around seven bucks a share. So, and I know at one point you guys were considering an SIB to accelerate the buyback. So my question is, are you still, I guess my question is how opportunistic are you guys planning on being in terms of the share price in order to, avoid pro-cyclical buybacks.

Thanks, Phyllis. Generally, we really just like the dollar cost averaging, so we do try to be reasonably steady where we can. We do feel like on a fixed dollar amount per day, kind of naturally dollar cost averages to the lower end, so you're buying more at the lower end and less at the higher end. and the $650 million. That's about $2.5 million a day. We probably plan to be fairly steady with that through the back half of the year.

Okay. And have you ruled out an SIV at this point?

Yeah. In fact, yeah, we've basically ruled out an SIV today. I think we can meet this commitment through the NCIB. We like the NCIB approach. It's tax efficient. It's dollar cost averaging efficient and it's not trying to time the market.

Okay, perfect. And then maybe second question for Kendall. Nice to see the strong results on the three Gilby wells. Wanted to ask if those results sort of alter your development strategy for the southern acreage going forward, and do you think the results imply some upside to your inventory assumptions, or is the success there sort of already baked into what you've laid out?

Yeah, I mean, I think, thanks for the question. I think it's early time, but obviously I think this confirms our expectations for the acreage. in terms of upside at this point in time, too early to say your comment further.

Yeah, I think, Phil, like IP30s are great and these wells at 1,630 BUE per day, 90% liquids essentially, were great results. Some of it was a result of flowing through surface facilities and capacity. and then the second was just a little bit on performance. And really the question now is where do these now trend to with respect to curve? They're slightly beating right now, but we just need more time to analyze. No change to plans.

Okay, that makes sense. Thanks, guys, appreciate it. Thank you.

The next question comes from Amir Arif with ATB Capital. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning, guys, and congrats on a great quarter. Just a follow-up question on the Duvernay. The results were very strong. I was just curious, did you do anything different on the completion approach out here, or do you think it's more just a reflection of that southern acreage in terms of the oil cuts and the higher rates?

Thanks, Amir. It's Chad L., I guess. This is a continuation of a long journey in the Duvernay, and so we are continuing to try new things. I think Last year, as I've spoke before, was all about near wellbore uniformity. This year, we're really looking to far fields. So as we move the sand and commodity further from the wellbore, can we still build that efficient frac pack to drain the reservoir? So there's some nuances with respect to the cluster and perf design. We have also been testing different tonnages and water loadings, and you can expect to see more of that through our program this year. In terms of Gilby itself, we did test a higher tonnage loading specifically. But as of right now, it is just pad results. It's rock results. And it's going to take time, as we just spoke, to really understand what's happening and the nuances with the completion program.

That's helpful, Connor. And then just a second question more on the P-Line. are the injection pilots that you have. The first two are on injection. I was just curious, what different pattern design are you planning to test with the two additional pilots that you're planning to do out there?

So the two additional pilots are new injectors in combination with new drills. So injection on stream, same time as production. So that differs from one of the two original pilots. The first pilot is injection into our original discovery well to egg lateral, where that will be all about fill up, how fast can we fill up the injector that was a producer and then start to see response on the producers. These expanded patterns are just to gain an understanding of a slightly different rock So to continue to develop our statistical average of what this looks like. And then second, to observe what happens when we inject at the same time as start first production.

Okay. So it's similar to one of your existing injection, but it's a different pattern, different layout, or just different rates that you're planning to set?

So very, very similar to... The second pilot, where it's new injectors, new producers, just different pad. This pad's further to the west, so slightly different rock.

Got it. Okay, that's helpful. And then on the Petisco mound, opportunities that I know you've run the size, Nick, just curious when you'll be starting to drill any of those prospects that might be on your lands?

Yeah, you betcha. Kendall here. Currently, we're just getting ready for, permitting ready for would be T1 2027, that's what's going in.

Okay, and then do you know what the average cost would be on one of those tests for the PIC-HISCO?

Yes, sorry, about $2.5 million per ball.

$2.5 million, okay, sounds good. And then just a final question, just more on the hedging philosophy, as you've let the hedges roll off, I know you've got a clean balance sheet, no need to add hedges, but historically you have put in wider collars to at least provide a floor for your CapEx. level spend. Any thoughts in terms of going forward? Are you just planning to keep it completely unhedged, or are you still thinking about maybe having some wider collars out there for some downside protection?

Thanks, Amir. I think actually now we're, you know, with the balance, even before, I think we always kind of linked the hedging to the balance sheet. Where the balance sheet's at today, we're not looking to do any more WTI hedges, so we'll just let it flow with the commodity.

Okay. Sounds great. Thank you.

Thank you, Amir.

The next question comes from Dennis Song with CIBC WM. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Congrats on a strong quarter, and again, as well to Brian Ector. Thanks for taking my question. My first one is maybe kind of continue to focus on the DuVernay. You've obviously seen cost efficiencies as you continue to evolve kind of the way that you're developing it. Are you seeing anything further as you kind of move to a little bit more of a commercial style development and maybe ramp up the level of activity as well? And can you talk towards some of the kind of further innovations or maybe we'll call it tweaks to your development model as to how you think about completion design, and so forth as you evolve through the play.

Sure. Thanks, Dennis. Just as a reminder, in 2024, we were about $1,150 per foot total DCE costs. Last year, 2025, $1,050 per foot. This year, we're budgeting $1,000 and our target is $900. That has been a steady increase. a steady improvement on efficiency through the process. We're continuing to see efficiencies. We expect to have a full cost kind of come out in Q3 as we're only on the second pad. We're just currently fracking second pad right now. What I can say is on the drilling rig, we are starting to see further efficiency going to the 17 wells per year now that we've committed to drill for 2026. and then some on the completion rigs. To be very, very specific, some of the work we're doing with cluster designs that I talked about previous, not only will help with respect to potential performance increase, but could help on the cost efficiency side, i.e. if we can put commodity in the ground at a more efficient way, maybe we can put less in to garner the same results. We have gone to trials on wellbore gas where we're actually using gas rate at site to power the frac equipment. That's been pretty exciting. And then just some of the work we're doing with mud systems, centrifuges, further processing of the muds at surface, drilling muds, I should say, before they go back into the well to drill with our helping to improve costs on the drill side. maybe just the last on infrastructure. So we have complete in Q2 our second of five main water reservoirs that will also help just with respect to the amount of lay flat we have to lay to ultimately frack the wells. So it's a variety of fronts, kind of all fronts, not just drilling that we're really working on.

Great, I appreciate that color. Switching over to Gemini, I appreciate your comments about moving towards a decision later in 2027. Can you talk towards what there's left in terms of work to do to feel comfortable moving forward with an FID on Gemini and kind of how to think about the items that you're balancing going into a potential sanctioning of that project?

Yeah, so there's three main things. I'd start with this. We've continued to add to our Gemini team. So we had a skeleton crew coming in left over at Batex, and we've now got three incremental team members, great hires that we're really excited about advancing it forward. So the engine is running full steam ahead. There's three things that we're reacquainting with. First on just the subsurface characterization, furthering our understanding of the ROC models and deliverability. Second is on the surface facilities. So there's been a lot of work done in the last decade with respect to small scale modular SAGD operations, a lot of advancements technologically. So we're just getting our hands around that and around ultimately the capital costs. and then the third is just regulatory. So obviously regulatory has been a big part of our world for the last decade. There's significant optimism and it looks like could be movement to help incentivize new growth in the province to fill this notional 3 million barrels of incremental capacity and egress out. And so really just getting and putting a pin in the regulatory framework and how that intersects with the other two Great.

Really appreciate that color. I'll turn it back.

Thanks, Dennis.

This concludes the question and answer session from the phone lines. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Chris Lessoway for any questions received online.

Thanks, operator. Several questions here. I'll start with one for Chad K. You know, obviously some cash on the balance sheet here at Q2. Maybe talk a little bit about how that cash is invested and what kind of rate we're earning on the cash.

Sure. Thanks, Chris. So we do keep cashes within the Canadian chartered banks within our syndicate. Generally keep it liquid just in savings accounts. Having quick access all the time. So we're generally getting around 2.75% cash invested.

Great, thanks, Chad. I'm going to follow this up with a question on debt as well. So a small portion of the USD bonds remain outstanding currently. Maybe talk about plans for those going forward and how we intend to fund the repayment of those.

So, yes, obviously still kind of have the stub bonds left over from the Eagleford disposition. They're fine in the capital structure for now. I think the first call on those bonds would come next March. opportunity to take them out if we felt that was the right idea. We have cash on hand to do that. We wouldn't be looking to do anything other funding alternatives to kind of take those out. Those would just be funded with cash on hand.

Perfect. Thanks, Chad. A couple of questions here on the water flood. I'll point these to Kendall. Maybe a couple of comments on milestones we're working towards on the pilots. What are you looking to see? And then a second question here. Where is the water coming from? and just talk about availability as we expand those pilots. Yeah, sure, Chris.

First, just on the water and where it's coming from, that's just produced water from the field currently. So we have sufficient water volumes produced for the pilots that we're undertaking right now, subsequently into, if we were to move into commercial operations with drill and dedicated source wells, it would be a similar but different formation for no expectations on challenges there. With respect to what we're looking to see, probably that 12 to 18 month timeframe, depending on injectivity, starting to see response deviation from primary base decline rates and also GORs becoming suppressed in that time horizon.

I'd probably just, I would just add that the very first, just on the injectivity front, that's something that we're going to have a handle on right away. So several markers.

Thank you. Last question here. I'll put this back to Chad K. Remain listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Maybe talk about that going forward. Yeah, we're obviously on the NYSE. No plans to change that at all. So I think we can expect to be trading on the NYSE for the foreseeable future. Perfect.

So I think that wraps everything up for today. Thanks, everyone, for joining our call. For those of you who submitted webcast questions that we did not get to, please reach out to our investor relations team and we'll follow up directly. Thanks again for your time today and have a great day.

This brings a close to today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.