Black Stone Minerals LP (BSM) 2015 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Black Stone Minerals third-quarter earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will follow at that time.

女士們先生們，美好的一天，歡迎參加 Black Stone Minerals 第三季收益電話會議。此時，所有參與者都處於只聽模式。稍後，我們將進行問答環節，屆時將有說明。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the call over to Mr. Brent Collins, Vice President of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.

提醒一下，本次會議正在錄製中。現在我想將電話轉交給投資人關係副總裁布倫特‧柯林斯先生。先生，您可以開始了。

Thank you, Chelsea. Good morning to all joining us by phone and online for Black Stone Minerals LP's third quarter 2015 earnings conference call. Today's call is being recorded, and will be available on our website, along with the earnings release that was issued yesterday afternoon. Before we start, I would like to advise you that we will be making forward-looking statements during this call about our plans, expectations, and assumptions regarding our future performance.

謝謝你，切爾西。大家早安，透過電話和線上參加 Black Stone Minerals LP 2015 年第三季財報電話會議。今天的電話會議正在錄音，並將與昨天下午發布的收益報告一起發佈在我們的網站上。在我們開始之前，我想建議您，我們將在本次電話會議期間就我們的計劃、期望和有關未來業績的假設做出前瞻性聲明。

These statements involve risks that may cause our actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements. For a discussion of these risks, you should refer to the cautionary information about our forward-looking statements in our press release from yesterday afternoon, and the risk factors section of our prospectus that was filed earlier this year, and our Form 10-Q, which will be filed later today.

這些陳述涉及可能導致我們的實際結果與我們的前瞻性陳述中明示或暗示的結果有重大差異的風險。對於這些風險的討論，您應該參考昨天下午我們新聞稿中關於我們前瞻性陳述的警示信息，以及我們今年早些時候提交的招股說明書中的風險因素部分，以及我們的 10-Q 表格，將於今天晚些時候提交。

We may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures that we believe are useful in evaluating our performance. Reconciliation of those measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures, and other information about these non-GAAP metrics, are described in our earnings press release from yesterday, which can be found on our website at blackstoneminerals.com.

我們可能會參考某些我們認為有助於評估我們績效的非公認會計準則財務指標。這些指標與最直接可比較的 GAAP 指標的調整以及有關這些非 GAAP 指標的其他資訊在我們昨天的收益新聞稿中進行了描述，該新聞稿可以在我們的網站 blackstoneminerals.com 上找到。

Company officials on the call this morning are Tom Carter, Chairman, President and CEO; Marc Carroll, Senior Vice President and CFO; Holbrook Dorn, Senior Vice President of Business Development and Land; and Brock Morris, Senior Vice President of Engineering and Geology. I will now turn the call over to Tom.

今天上午參加電話會議的公司官員包括董事長、總裁兼執行長 Tom Carter；馬克‧卡羅爾，資深副總裁兼財務長； Holbrook Dorn，業務發展和土地高級副總裁；布洛克‧莫里斯（Brock Morris），工程與地質學資深副總裁。我現在會把電話轉給湯姆。

Good morning to all of you that are joining us on the call today. Everyone on the call knows the challenging environment that the energy industry is facing. And it is times like these that the benefits of our business model really stand out, in a comparative sense. The inherent low level of capital intensity in our core mineral and royalty business, combined with the strength of our balance sheet, are significant advantages for us. I will spend a few minutes talking about the steps we are taking to respond to this environment.

今天參加我們電話會議的所有人早安。與會的每個人都知道能源產業面臨的充滿挑戰的環境。從比較的角度來看，正是在這樣的時期，我們的商業模式的優勢才真正凸顯出來。我們的核心礦產和特許權使用費業務固有的低資本密集度，加上我們資產負債表的實力，對我們來說是顯著的優勢。我將花幾分鐘討論我們為應對這種環境而採取的步驟。

First, we are very actively getting in front of our lessees, to ensure, as best possible, that our minerals are in the front of the Q, as operators begin to thinking about of their capital allocations for 2016. And we have quite a number of levers we're pulling to accomplish this positioning. Because of the nuances of our leasing strategy, we leave ourselves with ways to work with operators in times like these. For example, in areas where we own large contiguous tracts of acreage, such as East Texas, amending the royalty structure in a lease can have a meaningful positive impact on the drilling economics for an operator.

首先，隨著業者開始考慮 2016 年的資本配置，我們非常積極地站在承租人的立場上，盡可能確保我們的礦產處於 Q 的前面。我們有很多槓桿來實現這一定位。由於我們的租賃策略存在細微差別，因此我們在這樣的時期為自己留下了與營運商合作的方法。例如，在我們擁有大片連續土地的地區，例如德克薩斯州東部，修改租賃中的特許權使用費結構可以對運營商的鑽井經濟產生有意義的積極影響。

Also, we often don't lease -- or very rarely do lease all of our acreage in emerging play, in the early stages of testing, which leaves us the opportunity to offer more acreage later, in return for increased drilling activity. Accordingly, we can drive activity onto our acreage that we may not have seen otherwise during this downturn, and positively impact our production and reserve adds in the near term.

此外，在測試的早期階段，我們通常不會租賃——或很少租賃新興作業區的所有面積，這使我們有機會在以後提供更多面積，以換取增加鑽探活動。因此，我們可以推動我們在這次經濟低迷期間可能不會看到的活動，並在短期內對我們的產量和儲備增加產生積極影響。

Second, lower levels of industry activity have allowed us and our lessees to catch our collective breath, and spend more time addressing some outstanding issues. We have over 40,000 wells and 3,600 leases, and we have allocated more resources to focus on resolving issues such as title defects and suspended revenue cases. On the cost side, we are working to ensure that operators are making appropriate cost adjustments to our royalty payments, and that we are receiving all severance tax credits to which we are entitled.

其次，較低的行業活動水平使我們和我們的承租人能夠集體喘口氣，並花更多時間解決一些懸而未決的問題。我們擁有 40,000 多口井和 3,600 個租賃合同，我們分配了更多資源來重點解決所有權缺陷和收入暫停案件等問題。在成本方面，我們正在努力確保營運商對我們的特許權使用費進行適當的成本調整，並確保我們獲得我們有權獲得的所有遣散費稅收抵免。

Third, we are managing our cost structure to reflect the environment that we are in. In yesterday's release, we noted that we are taking a close look at G&A. We are considering options that are fair to our valued employees, while helping get cash costs to a more appropriate level for this environment. Our decision to tender for our outstanding preferred units is another example of a proactive step we are taking to work cash costs down.

第三，我們正在管理成本結構以反映我們所處的環境。在昨天的新聞稿中，我們指出我們正在密切關註一般管理費用。我們正在考慮對我們尊貴的員工公平的選擇，同時幫助將現金成本降低到更適合當前環境的水平。我們決定對優秀的優先單位進行招標，這是我們為降低現金成本而採取的積極措施的另一個例子。

On the acquisition front, we are seeing a good amount of deal flow. As a general statement, it does seem as if the bid ask spread may be narrowing. We closed on a little over $60 million worth of acquisitions this year, the majority of which are in the Midland Basin and the Eagle Ford Shale. Mark will speak more to this, but the balance sheet is in great shape, and we clearly have the capacity to do some significant deals.

在收購方面，我們看到了大量的交易流。整體而言，買賣價差似乎確實正在縮小。今年我們完成了價值略高於 6000 萬美元的收購，其中大部分位於米德蘭盆地和 Eagle Ford 頁岩。馬克將對此進行更多討論，但資產負債表狀況良好，我們顯然有能力進行一些重大交易。

We announced our distribution for the third quarter yesterday of $0.2625 for the quarter, with a quarterly coverage ratio of 1.2 times. I think it's important to point out that owners of our common units can effectively double that coverage ratio, given our common substructure that ensures that common units -- common unit holders are paid first. The number of MLPs that can say they have a 2.4 times distribution coverage has got to be pretty small. So far, an investor who believes -- so for an investor who believes that oil and gas prices will improve over time, I would argue that the common units provide an attractive and secure way to receive distributions, while you wait for better prices.

昨天我們宣布了第三季的分配金額為 0.2625 美元，季度覆蓋率為 1.2 倍。我認為重要的是要指出，我們的共同單位的所有者可以有效地將覆蓋率加倍，因為我們的共同基礎結構確保了共同單位——共同單位持有人首先得到付款。可以說擁有 2.4 倍分佈覆蓋率的 MLP 數量肯定非常少。到目前為止，對於相信石油和天然氣價格會隨著時間的推移而改善的投資者來說，我認為普通單位提供了一種有吸引力且安全的方式來接收分配，同時您等待更好的價格。

In summary, we are well-positioned for the tough micro-environment the energy industry finds itself in, and we are managing the business to ensure we can maintain and improve our position. With that, I'll turn it over to Marc.

總而言之，我們已經為能源產業所處的嚴峻微觀環境做好了準備，我們正在管理業務以確保我們能夠保持和提高我們的地位。有了這個，我會把它交給馬克。

Thanks, Tom. Good morning, everyone. Production for the quarter came in at 29,000 Boe per day, about a 2.5% increase year over year, with a slight decrease on a sequential basis. We performed modestly better than expected for the quarter.

謝謝，湯姆。大家，早安。本季產量為每天 29,000 桶油當量，較去年同期成長約 2.5%，較上季略有下降。我們本季的表現略優於預期。

One of the strengths of Black Stone is the scale and diversity of our mineral position. We are exposed in numerous plays, in every producing basin in the US. A good part of our out-performance this quarter came from plays outside the big five programs that we've highlighted in the past.

Black Stone 的優勢之一是我們礦產資源的規模和多樣性。我們在美國每個產盆地都有大量的業務。我們本季出色表現的很大一部分來自於我們過去強調的五大計劃之外的表現。

Our oil mix increased slightly to 35% for the quarter, but we expect that to decline a bit going forward, as some of the Haynesville wells that have been deferred come online. We are expecting those in Q1, I believe.

本季我們的石油混合物略有增加至 35%，但我們預計未來會略有下降，因為一些已推遲的海恩斯維爾油井已上線。我相信，我們期待第一季的成果。

You can see that our realized prices improved, on a reported basis, in the third quarter, as compared to the second. As Tom mentioned, this collective slowdown in the industry has allowed us and our lessees to catch up on some things, like suspended revenue and title disputes. And we continue to stay focused on these types of initiatives.

您可以看到，根據報告，與第二季相比，我們第三季的實現價格有所提高。正如湯姆所提到的，產業的集體放緩使我們和我們的承租人能夠迎頭趕上一些事情，例如收入暫停和產權糾紛。我們將繼續關注這些類型的舉措。

In the third quarter, a number of these resolutions involved revenue pertaining to periods when commodity prices were higher, resulting in an increase in the average realized price for the quarter, exclusive of hedges. Going forward, we think that these realizations should be something more consistent with what we've posted in the past.

第三季度，其中許多決議涉及大宗商品價格較高期間的收入，導致該季度的平均實現價格上漲（不包括對沖）。展望未來，我們認為這些認識應該與我們過去發布的內容更加一致。

We had a gain a $56.4 million on commodity derivative instruments in the quarter. Of this amount, about $12.5 million was realized in the quarter, and the non-cash component was about $44 million. The majority of our PDP is hedged through the middle of 2017, and our 10-Q that goes our today will give you the detailed prices and positions by quarter.

本季我們在商品衍生性商品上獲得了 5,640 萬美元的收益。其中，本季實現了約 1,250 萬美元，非現金部分約為 4,400 萬美元。我們的大部分 PDP 在 2017 年中期進行對沖，今天發布的 10-Q 將為您提供按季度的詳細價格和頭寸。

Lease bonus came in at $4.3 million for the quarter, which is light to the S-1 forecast. As you've heard us say before, the timing and amount of the lease bonus is variable. It's hard to predict, each quarter, exactly what that's going to be. We've closed a couple transactions since the quarter ended, and a number of transactions are still being negotiated. So we are hopeful that we will finish this year strong, despite the current industry environment.

該季度的租賃獎金為 430 萬美元，低於 S-1 的預測。正如您之前聽我們說​​過的，租賃獎金的時間和金額是可變的。很難準確預測每季的情況。自本季結束以來，我們已經完成了幾筆交易，還有一些交易仍在談判中。因此，儘管當前的產業環境如此，我們仍希望今年能夠強勁地結束。

We also received about a $19 million payment in October that's related to a land transaction, but we can't book it as bonus. But at the end of the day, it's $19 million of cash that came in the door, and we used that to pay down part of our revolver.

10 月份，我們還收到了大約 1,900 萬美元的付款，與土地交易有關，但我們無法將其記為獎金。但最終，我們收到了 1,900 萬美元的現金，我們用它來償還部分左輪手槍的債務。

On the cost side, we saw almost all of our expenses decrease, on a per-unit basis, since the second quarter. The reduction we're seeing in LOE is in line with what should be expected in this environment of reduced activity, where service companies compete to retain market share, and operators are turning their focus to driving efficiencies in their operations.

在成本方面，自第二季以來，我們幾乎所有的單位費用都在下降。我們看到的 LOE 的減少符合在活動減少的環境下的預期，在這種環境下，服務公司競相保留市場份額，而營運商正在將重點轉向提高營運效率。

Production costs and ad valorem taxes benefited in part from a severance tax credit we received in the third quarter. The most notable decrease on the cost side was in DD&A, and it was a result of impairment we took in the second quarter of the year.

生產成本和從價稅部分受益於我們在第三季度獲得的遣散費稅收抵免。成本方面最顯著的下降是 DD&A，這是我們在今年第二季進行減損的結果。

You will note that we broke out exploration expense on the income statement this period. We invested approximately $1.8 million in seismic in the third quarter. We have significant mineral holdings in the Wilcox trend in Southeast Texas, and we plan to begin marketing some prospects there, and we acquired additional 3-D to aid in this effort.

您會注意到，我們本期損益表中列出了勘探費用。第三季我們在地震方面投資了約 180 萬美元。我們在德克薩斯州東南部的 Wilcox 礦區擁有大量礦產資源，我們計劃開始行銷那裡的一些前景，並且我們獲得了額外的 3-D 來幫助實現這一目標。

Consistent with others in the industry, we had a non-cash impairment in a quarter of $25 million. That was really spread among a lot of different plays, so nothing really specific of note there. Our net income for the quarter was $53.9 million, adjusted EBITDA came in at $64.8 million, and cash available for distributions and reinvestment was $61.1 million. We announced our distribution for the second quarter yesterday, and it will be payable on November 27. And our coverage ratio for the quarter comes in at 1.2 times on all units.

與業內其他公司一致，我們四分之一的非現金減損為 2500 萬美元。這確實分佈在許多不同的戲劇中，所以沒有什麼特別值得注意的。我們本季的淨利潤為 5,390 萬美元，調整後 EBITDA 為 6,480 萬美元，可用於分配和再投資的現金為 6,110 萬美元。我們昨天宣布了第二季的分配，將於 11 月 27 日支付。本季所有單位的覆蓋率為 1.2 倍。

The balance sheet is in great shape. Our credit facility was recently extended two years, and our borrowing base has been reset at $550 million. At the end of the quarter, we had $43 million outstanding on the revolver, but as of today, the balance is zero. So we have the full $550 million under the credit facility available to us.

資產負債表狀況良好。我們的信貸額度最近延長了兩年，我們的借款基礎已重置為 5.5 億美元。截至本季末，我們的左輪手槍餘額為 4,300 萬美元，但截至今天，餘額為零。因此，我們可以獲得全額 5.5 億美元的信貸額度。

I think that provides a pretty good summary of the quarter. So with that, I'm going to turn the call over for questions.

我認為這提供了對本季度的很好的總結。因此，我將轉接電話詢問問題。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Our first question comes from Dave Kistler with Simmons & Company.

我們的第一個問題來自西蒙斯公司的戴夫·奇斯特勒。

Good morning, guys.

早上好傢伙。

Good morning.

早安.

Real quickly, following up on your prepared remarks, production related to royalty revenues has exceeded the S-1 expectations throughout the year. Can you talk a little bit more about the drivers of that outperformance? Or maybe even more specifically, if some of those drivers were acceleration of title disputes, things like that? What would that royalty or production level have looked like, excluding those items, and comparable to the S-1?

很快，按照您準備好的發言，與特許權使用費收入相關的產量全年都超出了 S-1 預期。您能多談談這種出色表現的驅動因素嗎？或者更具體地說，如果其中一些驅動因素加速了產權糾紛，諸如此類？排除這些物品後，與 S-1 相當的版稅或生產水準會是什麼樣子？

Hi, Dave, Brock Morris. I will take that. A lot of this came from the Bakken. And while there are some situations where we've got suspended revenues that we are clearing up related to some of these title issues, the Bakken is a place where we always lag in our true understanding of what the production is, because of the way wells are reported up there. So while, if you took away those situations that you mentioned, it would look like our Bakken production might be actually in line instead of exceeding our forecast. When you take into account the fact that a few months from now, we will look back and we realize we've got more Bakken production just because of a lag in reporting, I think it will offset that.

嗨，戴夫，布洛克·莫里斯。我會接受的。其中很多來自巴肯。雖然在某些情況下，我們已經暫停了收入，我們正在清理與其中一些所有權問題相關的收入，但巴肯是一個我們對產量的真正了解總是滯後的地方，因為油井的方式那裡有報道。因此，如果您剔除您提到的這些情況，我們的巴肯產量可能實際上符合預期，而不是超出我們的預測。當你考慮到幾個月後的事實時，當我們回顧過去時，我們意識到我們僅僅因為報告的滯後而獲得了更多的巴肯產量，我認為這將抵消這一點。

Okay. So if we just were to compare it to the S-1, and strip out these adjustments, still tracking right in line with the S-1 production levels and revenue levels?

好的。因此，如果我們只是將其與 S-1 進行比較，並剔除這些調整，仍然與 S-1 的生產水準和收入水準保持一致？

Yes, actually, I think, a little bit higher.

是的，實際上，我認為，有點高。

Okay. That's a helpful [clarification].

好的。這是一個很有幫助的[澄清]。

The Bakken has been pretty resilient, amazingly.

令人驚訝的是，巴肯的恢復能力非常強。

Okay. That's a helpful clarification. And then another item you mentioned in the prepared remarks was benefiting from the lower cost structure that many of the operators are realizing, as a result of lower prices, lower activity and efficiency gains. How do you guys think about that, going forward? And are you factoring any of that into guidance, as you think about 2016? Obviously, 2015 guidance is unchanged at this juncture.

好的。這是一個很有幫助的澄清。您在準備好的發言中提到的另一件事是受益於許多營運商正在實現的較低成本結構，這是由於價格降低、活動減少和效率提高而導致的。對此，大家怎麼看，未來如何？當您考慮 2016 年時，您是否將其中任何因素納入指導？顯然，2015 年的指引目前沒有改變。

We will, as we finalize our 2016 production projections and guidance, take those things into account. But it helps, on the operating cost side, for our working interest position. But where it really impacts us in a positive way is, it allows operators to do more with their capital that they've got allocated, right -- drilling more wells, and that accretes to us on the royalty side, significantly. So that will impact the way we view our forecast in 2016, for sure.

當我們最終確定 2016 年產量預測和指導時，我們將考慮這些因素。但在營運成本方面，它有助於我們的工作利益狀況。但它真正對我們產生積極影響的是，它允許營運商利用他們分配的資本做更多事情，對吧——鑽更多井，這在特許權使用費方面顯著增加了我們的收益。因此，這肯定會影響我們對 2016 年預測的看法。

Great. I appreciate the added details there, and great operations. Thank you.

偉大的。我很欣賞那裡添加的細節和出色的操作。謝謝。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Our next question comes from Nick Raza with Citigroup.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗集團的尼克·拉扎。

Thank you. Good morning, guys. Just a quick couple of questions around the cancellation -- I believe you mentioned it was about $19 million. What region was that lease canceled in?

謝謝。早上好傢伙。關於取消的幾個問題，我想您提到過，金額約為 1900 萬美元。該租約是在哪個地區取消的？

Nick, hi, this is Holbrook. That was in the Haynesville, in the Shelby Trough. That was a transaction we had entered a few years back. And to unwind that transaction, the operator had to make a payment of $18.8 million.

尼克，嗨，我是霍爾布魯克。那是在海恩斯維爾，在謝爾比海槽。這是我們幾年前進行的一項交易。為了解除這筆交易，營運商必須支付 1880 萬美元。

And I will tell you, it is a little frustrating from the land perspective that this is not counting as bonus. We view it as a bonus-like item; but for accounting purposes, you can't. There wasn't a cancellation of any leases. What it was, was a break-up fee for failure to perform. So we are now marketing that acreage to another party, and we're pretty far down the road in negotiations at this point.

我會告訴你，從土地的角度來看，這不算是獎金，這有點令人沮喪。我們將其視為類似獎勵的物品；但出於會計目的，你不能。沒有取消任何租約。它是因未能履行職責而支付的分手費。因此，我們現在正在向另一方推銷該面積，目前我們的談判進展相當順利。

Got you. Awesome. Just around the -- (multiple speakers).

明白你了。驚人的。就在－（多個發言者）周圍。

Let me just say this: With that, and what year to date, I see us have already hit our, really, on the nose of our $40 million target, although Marc is not going to let me count that. (laughter) That aside, we've got a lot of really interesting land trades we are mid-stream on that, even without that, we feel good about our position right now.

讓我這麼說：至此，以及迄今為止的哪一年，我認為我們已經真正實現了 4000 萬美元的目標，儘管 Marc 不會讓我算這個數字。（笑聲）除此之外，我們還有很多非常有趣的土地交易，我們正處於中流狀態，即使沒有這些，我們現在對我們的處境感覺很好。

Got you. Fair enough. And on your acquisitions, the $62 million, could you give us a sense of what sort of activity, production and EBITDA contribution those are bringing in?

明白你了。很公平。關於您的 6,200 萬美元收購，您能否讓我們了解這些收購帶來了什麼樣的活動、生產和 EBITDA 貢獻？

Yes. We're working on that. I can't give you definitive guidance on that yet. They are outperforming our modeled expectations, and we're trying to tighten that up for our -- I guess when we get into our 2016 estimates.

是的。我們正在努力解決這個問題。我還不能給你明確的指導。他們的表現超出了我們的模型預期，我們正在努力加強我們的預測——我想當我們進入 2016 年的預測時。

(Multiple speakers) have those -- is there a timing sense, in terms of what you guys are looking at? Or I'm assuming -- have they closed already?

（多位發言者）有那些 - 就你們所關注的內容而言，是否有時機感？或者我假設──他們已經關門了嗎？

All those have closed, and we are currently talking to a number of different parties on the acquisition front, from small deals to very large transactions.

所有這些都已經結束，我們目前正在與收購方面的許多不同各方進行談判，從小型交易到非常大的交易。

Got you. Thanks, guys. And then the last question from me is around the seismic that you guys spend money on. When do you anticipate starting to market the Wilcox acreage?

明白你了。多謝你們。我的最後一個問題是關於你們花錢買的地震。您預計什麼時候開始銷售威爾科克斯的土地？

That will likely be in the first quarter of next year. There's a chance it could be ahead of that. But just given where we are, close to the end of the year and the holidays, most likely would be in January or early February.

這可能是在明年第一季。它有可能領先於這一點。但考慮到我們所處的位置，接近年底和假期，最有可能是在一月或二月初。

Got you. Thanks, guys. That's all I had.

明白你了。多謝你們。這就是我所擁有的一切。

Thanks, Nick.

謝謝，尼克。

I am not showing any further questions at this time. I would now like to hand the call back to Tom Carter, President and Chief Executive Officer, for closing remarks.

我目前不會提出任何進一步的問題。現在我想將電話轉回給總裁兼執行長湯姆卡特 (Tom Carter)，讓其致閉幕詞。

Thank you all for joining us today, and your interest and support of Black Stone. And we look forward to working with you and speaking with you in the future.

感謝大家今天加入我們，感謝大家對 Black Stone 的關注與支持。我們期待將來與您合作並交談。

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This does conclude the program, and you may all disconnect. Everyone, have a wonderful day.

女士們、先生們，感謝你們參加今天的會議。這確實結束了程序，你們都可以斷開連接。祝大家有美好的一天。