Diversified Energy Co (DEC) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Diversified Energy 2024 interim results conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

您好，歡迎參加多元化能源 2024 年中期業績電話會議。（操作員指示）謹此提醒，本次會議正在錄製中。

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Douglas Kris, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. Thank you. Please go ahead.

現在我很高興向您介紹主持人道格拉斯·克里斯 (Douglas Kris)，他是負責投資者關係和企業傳播的高級副總裁。謝謝。請繼續。

Good morning and welcome to our interim results conference call. Joining me here today are Rusty Hudson, our CEO; and Brad Gray, our CFO. For reference, we will make notes and comments around certain non-GAAP and non-IFRS financial measures. All of our disclosures around those are found in our earnings materials or in our earnings release on our website and also issued via the RNS service.

早安，歡迎參加我們的中期業績電話會議。今天和我一起來的是我們的執行長 Rusty Hudson；和我們的財務長布拉德·格雷（Brad Gray）。作為參考，我們將圍繞某些非 GAAP 和非 IFRS 財務指標進行註釋和評論。我們所有與這些相關的揭露資訊都可以在我們的收益資料或我們網站上的收益發布中找到，也可以透過 RNS 服務發布。

I'll now turn the call over to Rusty Hudson, our CEO. Rusty, please go ahead.

我現在將把電話轉給我們的執行長 Rusty Hudson。魯斯蒂，請繼續。

Thank you, Doug. Thank you, moderator, and thank you for everyone that's on the phone today. We're going to go through several slides here, talk a little bit about the first half of the year, talk a little more granularity around a few of those key metrics, and then I'll turn it over to Brad to talk about a few slides on the financial side and I'll come back and wrap it up.

謝謝你，道格。謝謝主持人，也謝謝今天打電話的人。我們將在這裡瀏覽幾張投影片，談談今年上半年的情況，更詳細地討論其中一些關鍵指標，然後我將把它交給 Brad 來討論幾張關於財務方面的幻燈片，我會回來總結一下。

And I'll start here on slide 3. And really just kind of focus a little bit on some of those metrics that I was referencing in terms of the first half results. Before I do that, I do want to recognize our employees that may be on the phone with us today or will listen to this later and really just recognize them for their outstanding contributions and their achievements in coming up with these numbers and really just what they do for us on a day to day basis.

我將從幻燈片 3 開始。實際上只是稍微關心一下我在上半年結果中引用的一些指標。在此之前，我確實想表彰今天可能與我們通電話或稍後收聽此內容的員工，並表彰他們在得出這些數字方面的傑出貢獻和成就，以及他們所做的一切每天為我們做的事情。

We always talk about them, that without them, we don't have a company and they have truly outperformed, not only in this first half of the year, but over the years. And it shows in these results. Those results of their hard work are highlighted here. A few of those highlights: the free cash flow generation of the business is $121 million, 38% free cash flow yield. That kind of pairs with the 50% cash margins, which we'll talk about in a minute.

我們總是談論他們，沒有他們，我們就沒有公司，他們的表現確實出色，不僅在今年上半年，而且多年來都是如此。這在這些結果中得到了體現。他們辛勤工作的成果在這裡得到了強調。其中一些亮點是：該業務的自由現金流量為 1.21 億美元，自由現金流量收益率為 38%。這種情況與 50% 的現金利潤率相匹配，我們稍後會討論這一點。

We continue to see $108 million of debt principal payments made in our amortizing ABS notes, which is crucial to our overall strategy long term. We are focused on shareholder returns. We've paid around $65 million in dividends and share repurchases through the first half of the year and I will get into a little more details of that. I think it's really, really important for people to understand that our business, we had 0% decline essentially over the last three fiscal quarters when you adjust for the acquisition that we did.

我們繼續看到我們的攤銷 ABS 票據中支付了 1.08 億美元的債務本金，這對我們的長期整體戰略至關重要。我們關注股東回報。今年上半年我們已經支付了約 6,500 萬美元的股利和股票回購，我將詳細介紹這一點。我認為讓人們了解我們的業務非常非常重要，當你對我們所做的收購進行調整時，我們在過去三個財政季度基本上下降了 0%。

But that's a tremendous testament to the work that our guys do in the field -- guys and ladies do in the field on a day-to-day basis in getting additional production and improving, enhancing production on the portfolio. So that's been three straight quarters. I think it's also very, very important to see that over the -- since our IPO, we paid over $850 million of capital has been returned to our shareholders over a 7.5 year period, which I think is extraordinary, so reliable, measurable results, which is what we pride ourselves in.

但這是對我們的工作人員在該領域所做的工作的巨大證明——男男女女每天在該領域所做的工作，以獲得額外的產量並改進、提高產品組合的產量。這已經是連續三個季度了。我認為也非常非常重要的是，自從我們首次公開募股以來，我們支付的超過 8.5 億美元的資本在 7.5 年內已返還給我們的股東，我認為這是非凡的、可靠的、可衡量的結果，這是我們引以為傲的。

Looking into page 4, kind of summarizes our capital allocation framework that we laid out earlier in the year. You can see here, kind of a quick update on this, what we call our four pillars. We talk about it. $108 million of debt principal reductions, payments. The systematic debt reduction that we talked about we paid over $55 million in dividends, fixed per share dividends for the first half of the year. We bought back around $10 million of our shares, 2% of our outstanding shares over the last six months.

查看第四頁，總結了我們今年早些時候制定的資本配置框架。您可以在這裡看到對此的快速更新，我們稱之為四大支柱。我們談論它。 1.08 億美元的債務本金減少、支付。我們談到的系統性債務削減，我們支付了超過 5500 萬美元的股息，上半年固定每股股息。我們回購了約 1,000 萬美元的股票，佔過去六個月已發行股票的 2%。

And then we talk about the growth pillar. We've announced the Crescent Pass acquisition, and we've closed on the Oaktree acquisition, over $516 million worth of accretive acquisitions that will continue to contribute to our future success. So those are our four pillars. Kind of update on where those stand for the first six months of the year.

然後我們談論成長支柱。我們已經宣布收購 Crescent Pass，並完成了對 Oaktree 的收購，這些價值超過 5.16 億美元的增值收購將繼續為我們未來的成功做出貢獻。這就是我們的四大支柱。有關今年前六個月的最新情況。

Moving to page or slide 5. One of those pillars that we talk about is the growth pillar. And I think it's, you can see here, the two acquisitions that we've either completed or announced that will be completed in the third quarter. It's two great transactions. We have stayed true to our valuation expectations throughout these years. The one thing that we've always said, we're not going to do a deal just to be doing a deal. We haven't compromised our valuation metrics.

移至第 5 頁或投影片 5。我們談論的支柱之一是成長支柱。我認為，您可以在這裡看到，我們已經完成或宣布將在第三季完成的兩項收購。這是兩筆偉大的交易。這些年來，我們一直堅持我們的估值預期。我們一直說的一件事是，我們不會只是為了達成協議而達成協議。我們沒有損害我們的估值指標。

And you can see here that these two transactions have been that PV-17 to PV-20 range on just PDP, we still haven't paid for any undeveloped value in these two acquisitions. The multiples that we paid continue to be under our equity valuation multiples, which is accretive to our shareholders.

您可以在這裡看到，這兩筆交易只是 PDP 上的 PV-17 到 PV-20 範圍，我們仍然沒有支付這兩筆收購中任何未開發的價值。我們支付的倍數仍然低於我們的股權估值倍數，這對我們的股東來說是增值的。

And more importantly, it's adding value for the future and helping to increased cash flows and sustainability of the business model over a long period of time. The way we look at it is we go, we buy good assets, we put our operating procedures and processes in place to operate them better, get more out of them, and it's a big win for Diversified. So these two transactions continue that trend that we set for the last seven years.

更重要的是，它可以為未來增加價值，並有助於增加現金流和業務模式的長期可持續性。我們看待它的方式是，我們購買優質資產，我們將我們的營運程序和流程落實到位，以更好地運作它們，從它們中獲得更多收益，這對多元化來說是一個巨大的勝利。因此，這兩筆交易延續了我們過去七年所設定的趨勢。

Moving to slide 6. I want to spend the next few slides talking a little more granularity around a couple of key aspects of our corporate strategy and our business model. Obviously, growth is a big aspect, but being capital-efficient is also equally important. And what I mean by that is, our capital intensity, that 10% is significantly lower than most of our peers.

轉到投影片 6。我想在接下來的幾張投影片中更詳細地討論我們公司策略和業務模式的幾個關鍵面向。顯然，成長是一個重要方面，但資本效率也同樣重要。我的意思是，我們的資本密集度為 10%，明顯低於大多數同行。

And that gives us a big advantage because we have lower CapEx to keep our production profiles, our engineered production profiles, where they need to be successful in our going forward forecast. Lower CapEx to maintain those production means higher free cash flow. And so we have a low decline rate. We have a very low capital intensity. It means higher free cash flow that we can then allocate to those four pillars that we talked about earlier in our presentation.

這給我們帶來了很大的優勢，因為我們有較低的資本支出來維持我們的生產概況、我們的工程生產概況，他們需要在我們的未來預測中取得成功。維持這些生產的較低資本支出意味著更高的自由現金流。所以我們的下降率很低。我們的資本密集度非常低。這意味著更高的自由現金流，我們可以將其分配給我們之前在演講中討論過的四大支柱。

Flipping to page 7. Very proud of this run that we've had, this is since the IPO in 2017, but you can see that we've had -- we've averaged 50% cash margins over a seven year period, which I think is pretty remarkable. And that's with a very, very volatile natural gas markets, which makes it that much more difficult for most companies to really have this kind of consistency across many years of operations. That's a testament to our ability to acquire good assets and good valuations to replace the production that's rolling off on an annual basis.

翻到第7頁。我們對自 2017 年 IPO 以來的這種表現感到非常自豪，但你可以看到我們在七年期間的平均現金利潤率為 50%，我認為這是相當了不起的。天然氣市場非常非常不穩定，這使得大多數公司在多年的營運中真正保持這種一致性變得更加困難。這證明了我們有能力獲得良好的資產和良好的估值，以取代每年不斷減少的生產。

It shows the effectiveness of our hedging strategy and our ability to have predictability in our production, that we can then hedge out and lock in those cash margins for a longer period of time. And then it shows the scale that we built and our ability to drive down operating costs through geographical concentration and smarter asset management processes.

它顯示了我們對沖策略的有效性以及我們對生產進行預測的能力，然後我們可以對沖並在更長的時間內鎖定這些現金利潤。然後它顯示了我們建立的規模以及我們透過地理集中和更智慧的資產管理流程降低營運成本的能力。

And so that's what's allowed us and given us the ability to be very successful over a long period of time. But more importantly, not just successful, consistent, and for our business model, that's an extremely important factor.

這就是我們能夠在很長一段時間內取得巨大成功的原因。但更重要的是，不只是成功、一致，對我們的商業模式來說，這是一個極為重要的因素。

Flipping over to page 8. At the end of the day, you take that low capital intensity that we were discussing at 10%, you take strong margins 50% on average, and that equals a high free cash flow conversion rate. And you can see here that we lead the pack as it relates to our peers on the natural gas side, in terms of converting EBITDA into free cash flow. And so you can see at a 55%. And that's a very, very strong free cash flow conversion rate. And again, it represents free cash flow that can then be allocated to those four capital allocation pillars that result in shareholder returns to all of our shareholders that hold our shares. So, very important aspect there.

翻到第8頁。歸根究底，我們討論的低資本密集度為 10%，平均利潤率高達 50%，這相當於較高的自由現金流轉換率。您可以在這裡看到，在將 EBITDA 轉化為自由現金流方面，我們領先於天然氣領域的同行。所以你可以看到 55%。這是一個非常非常強烈的自由現金流轉換率。再說一遍，它代表自由現金流，然後可以分配給這四個資本配置支柱，從而為持有我們股票的所有股東帶來股東回報。所以，這是非常重要的面向。

On page 9, this is something I really want to lean into on this call. And I want people to really focus on this because I think it's a very, very important slide and one that I think gets overlooked in the valuation of our company and in our equity. As you look at this, this represents our undeveloped acreage that we've acquired over the years that we've paid nothing for. We have around 8.6 million net acres within our operating footprint, and that includes Appalachia in the Central Region.

在第 9 頁上，這是我在這次電話會議中真正想了解的內容。我希望人們真正關注這一點，因為我認為這是一張非常非常重要的幻燈片，而且我認為在我們公司和股權的估值中被忽略了。正如您所看到的，這代表了我們多年來未支付任何費用而獲得的未開發土地。我們的經營範圍內淨面積約為 860 萬英畝，其中包括中部地區的阿巴拉契亞地區。

All of that, essentially is held by production, which means we don't have any time commitments or any reasons to be concerned about losing something because it doesn't get drilled. Of that 8.6 million, [not] 65% of that is undeveloped. It's a large percentage. And you've seen, over the last several quarters, us leaning into some of those acreage sales. In the first half of this year, we've sold about [$15 million] of undeveloped acreage sales, potentially mostly in Oklahoma.

所有這些，本質上都是由生產持有的，這意味著我們沒有任何時間承諾，也沒有任何理由擔心失去一些東西，因為它沒有被鑽探。在這 860 萬個土地中，65% 尚未開發。這是一個很大的百分比。您已經看到，在過去的幾個季度中，我們傾向於出售其中一些土地。今年上半年，我們已售出約 [1500 萬美元] 的未開發土地，其中大部分可能位於俄克拉荷馬州。

But if you take that and you look at just Oklahoma alone or the Central Region, and you take that $1,100 an acre, which is what we've generated on the land sales that we've done so far in 2024, and you apply that across just the Central Region, undeveloped acreage, that's over $800 million of value in Oklahoma alone, because we are like top one or two acreage holders, acreage positions in the State of Oklahoma. We have value that is being evaluated, and we will cash in on long term.

但如果你只看俄克拉荷馬州或中部地區，每英畝 1,100 美元，這是我們在 2024 年迄今為止所做的土地銷售中產生的收入，你應用這個僅在中部地區，未開發的土地，僅在俄克拉荷馬州的價值就超過8 億美元，因為我們就像俄克拉荷馬州的一兩個最大的土地持有者和土地位置。我們擁有正在評估的價值，我們將長期兌現。

It gives us the ability we can do it through monetization, we can do it through organic development, or through JV strategic partnerships with others to drill it. But at the end of the day, this is being missed. When people look at our company and they take a look at where's the value in the NAV and all that, we also see this as a way for us to increase liquidity, to grow the business long term.

它使我們有能力透過貨幣化來做到這一點，我們可以透過有機發展來做到這一點，或者透過與其他人建立合資策略夥伴關係來進行鑽探。但歸根結底，這一點被忽視了。當人們審視我們的公司時，他們會專注於資產淨值的價值等等，我們也認為這是我們增加流動性、長期發展業務的一種方式。

As we do these acreage sales increase or generate liquidity, we can use that to buy PDP in other positions that we can sell the undeveloped acreage down the road. So this is a very overlooked part of our business that I think people really need to take a harder look on the forward basis.

當我們這些面積銷售增加或產生流動性時，我們可以用它來購買其他位置的 PDP，以便我們可以在未來出售未開發的面積。因此，這是我們業務中一個非常被忽視的部分，我認為人們確實需要更仔細地審視未來。

On page 10, we continue to see a discount -- our share, our equity value will be trading at a discount not only to our peers but even on a historical basis, where we traded at on a historical average, we continue to underperform our peers in that situation about a 30% -- 37% discount to the current peer average. Now, what I see that being is that it's a great opportunity as people invest in the company today, we've only been in the US now about eight months, so we're starting to develop some maturity and trying to get more and more U.S. shareholders involved.

在第10 頁，我們繼續看到折扣——我們的股票、我們的股權價值不僅會比我們的同行打折，而且即使在歷史基礎上，我們按照歷史平均水平進行交易，我們的表現仍然低於我們的表現。現在，我認為這是一個很好的機會，因為人們今天對公司進行投資，我們現在只在美國待了大約八個月，所以我們開始變得成熟，並努力獲得越來越多的機會美國股東參與其中。

We're doing a lot of investor outreach in the US. We believe that trading discount will continue to shrink, and we should see our multiple move up closer to our peers over the next several months as those investors start to increase and trade in the shares. This is a very important factor and I believe represents a great buying opportunity in the company and in our equity value as we sit here today, and a great opportunity to see multiple expansion moving forward.

我們在美國進行了大量的投資者宣傳活動。我們相信交易折扣將繼續縮小，並且隨著這些投資者開始增加和交易股票，我們應該會看到我們的本益比在未來幾個月內接近同業。這是一個非常重要的因素，我相信這代表著公司和我們今天坐在這裡的股權價值的絕佳買入機會，也是看到未來多重擴張的絕佳機會。

So, with that, I'll stop and I'll turn it over to Brad for a few slides related to some financial metrics.

因此，我會停下來，將其交給布拉德，以播放一些與某些財務指標相關的幻燈片。

Okay. Thank you, Rusty. As you stated earlier, we are very pleased with our mid-year results and I also appreciate the hard work and efforts of our diversified team members as they continue to perform at high levels during some candidly challenging markets.

好的。謝謝你，魯斯蒂。正如您之前所說，我們對年中業績感到非常滿意，我也感謝我們多元化團隊成員的辛勤工作和努力，他們在一些充滿挑戰的市場中繼續保持高水準表現。

So, on slide 11, we're highlighting the favorable impacts of our consistent and disciplined hedging strategy. Hedging the prices of our commodities is a fundamental part of our business model as we are committed to protect the robust cash flows of our assets that produces for our shareholders. And as seen on this page, our average floor price for the second half of 2024 is $3.34 per MMBtu, which represents a 40% improvement over the corresponding period strip price.

因此，在投影片 11 中，我們強調了我們一致且嚴格的對沖策略的有利影響。對沖商品價格是我們商業模式的基本組成部分，因為我們致力於保護為股東創造的資產的強勁現金流。如本頁所示，我們 2024 年下半年的平均底價為每 MMBtu 3.34 美元，比同期帶鋼價格提高了 40%。

And this margin will allow us to continue to deliver almost 50% cash margins that Rusty mentioned earlier. Additionally, as noted in our mid-year results, our hedging program provided $78 million of realized gains during the first six months of 2024. And as we look ahead, we are well positioned, especially compared to our natural gas peers, to protect our cash flows while also having some exposure to the opportunity for higher prices in all three of our product streams, which are natural gas, oil, and NGLs.

這個利潤率將使我們能夠繼續提供 Rusty 之前提到的近 50% 的現金利潤率。此外，正如我們在年中業績中指出的那樣，我們的對沖計劃在 2024 年前六個月實現了 7,800 萬美元的已實現收益。展望未來，我們處於有利地位，特別是與天然氣同行相比，可以保護我們的現金流，同時也有機會在我們的所有三個產品流（天然氣、石油、和 NGL。

Moving to slide 12. I've had the privilege of working directly with our information technology teams since 2018, and our technology teams, just like our field teams, are focused on optimization and efficiency. And with our strategy of growing primarily through acquisition, it is imperative that we have the ability to integrate new assets and processes with speed and efficiency. And we take a very data-driven approach using modern technology tools to manage our assets.

轉到投影片 12。自 2018 年以來，我有幸直接與我們的資訊科技團隊合作，我們的技術團隊就像我們的現場團隊一樣，專注於優化和效率。由於我們主要透過收購實現成長的策略，我們必須有能力快速且有效率地整合新資產和流程。我們採用高度數據驅動的方法，使用現代技術工具來管理我們的資產。

This process includes that we require common systems. We standardize our data. We provide business intelligence tools to all of our teams and we are a 100% cloud-based company with no physical servers in our IT or our OT environments. Our systems provide our operators with time series visualization tools that help us quickly see trends and find opportunities for improvements. The systems that we have built also allow our teams to efficiently and cost-effectively manage our assets. Our systems, importantly, are scalable, repeatable, and very cost-effective, which gives us great confidence as we continue to execute on our growth strategy.

這個過程包括我們需要一個通用系統。我們對數據進行標準化。我們為所有團隊提供商業智慧工具，我們是一家 100% 基於雲端的公司，IT 或 OT 環境中沒有實體伺服器。我們的系統為操作員提供時間序列視覺化工具，幫助我們快速查看趨勢並找到改進機會。我們建立的系統也使我們的團隊能夠有效率且經濟高效地管理我們的資產。重要的是，我們的系統具有可擴展性、可重複性，並且非常具有成本效益，這讓我們在繼續執行成長策略時充滿信心。

On slide 13, as Rusty discussed earlier, we are committed to a balanced approach to capital allocation. The strong free cash flow that our assets and our teams produce allow us to create shareholder value through growing our production base with either accretive optimization projects or from new asset acquisitions.

在投影片 13 上，正如 Rusty 之前討論的那樣，我們致力於採用平衡的資本配置方法。我們的資產和團隊產生的強勁自由現金流使我們能夠透過增值優化項目或新資產收購來擴大我們的生產基地，從而創造股東價值。

Additionally, systematic and significant debt reduction through our ABS structures and returning capital to our shareholders via our fixed quarterly dividend of $0.29 per share along with share repurchases. This balanced approach provides us with flexibility to allocate our cash flows to the highest and best uses.

此外，透過我們的 ABS 結構系統性地大幅減少債務，並透過每股 0.29 美元的固定季度股息以及股票回購向股東返還資本。這種平衡的方法使我們能夠靈活地將現金流分配到最高和最佳用途。

Back to you, Rusty.

回到你身邊，拉斯蒂。

Thanks, Brad. And I think just finishing up and I really want to allow more time for questions here, but building a strategic, resilient energy producer, we really pride ourselves in a differentiated model. One that gives investors the ability to invest in something that's not drill-bit focused, with less risk, more price protection and production that's more predictable. So we believe that we are building that business model that's giving people a differentiated look at the energy space.

謝謝，布拉德。我想剛剛結束，我真的想留出更多時間在這裡提問，但是建立一個戰略性的、有彈性的能源生產商，我們真的為自己的差異化模式感到自豪。它使投資者能夠投資於不以鑽頭為重點的產品，風險更低，價格保護更多，產量更可預測。因此，我們相信我們正在建立一種商業模式，讓人們對能源領域有不同的看法。

We feel that there's still a lot of opportunity in the market. There's a significant amount of M&A activity that we're seeing on a day-to-day basis. And we believe that we're in a good position to be -- to take advantage of that on a going-forward basis.

我們覺得市場上還有很多機會。我們每天都會看到大量的併購活動。我們相信，我們處於有利的位置，可以在未來的基礎上利用這一點。

We continue to focus on our delivering for our shareholders and we talked about those four pillars. And leveraging our reliable production and our hedging and our vertical integration to continue to provide meaningful cash flow, to provide to those capital allocation pillars that we can then generate returns for our shareholders.

我們繼續專注於為股東提供服務，我們討論了這四大支柱。並利用我們可靠的生產、對沖和垂直整合繼續提供有意義的現金流，為這些資本配置支柱提供資金，然後我們可以為股東創造回報。

Brad talked about our technology and our ability to really modernize our field management. We continue to put great efforts into that, capital into that because we believe at the end of the day that that's what's going to drive our synergies and our long-term efficiencies in the business that we can take advantage of and continue to expand the margins.

布拉德談到了我們的技術以及我們真正實現現場管理現代化的能力。我們繼續為此投入巨大的努力和資本，因為我們相信最終這將推動我們的協同效應和業務的長期效率，我們可以利用並繼續擴大利潤率。

And doing all of this without relenting on our emissions reductions and our technology that we're putting there and our well retirement processes. All of these things makes Diversified the right company at the right time and we'll continue to execute on this business model on a going-forward basis and we believe being highly successful over the long sustainable period.

在完成所有這一切的同時，我們不放鬆我們的減排量、我們所採用的技術以及我們的退休流程。所有這些都使得 Diversified 在正確的時間成為正確的公司，我們將繼續在未來的基礎上執行這種業務模式，我們相信在長期可持續的時期內會取得巨大成功。

With that, I will stop our comments and I will open it up for questions from anyone that has any.

至此，我將停止我們的評論，並開放評論以供任何有疑問的人提問。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Bret Donnes, Truist Securities.

布雷特‧多尼斯 (Bret Donnes)，Truist 證券公司。

Good morning, Rusty, Brad and team. Thank you for the update.

早上好，Rusty、Brad 和團隊。感謝您的更新。

Good morning. And on the first question, just the Crescent Pass acquisition screened pretty well on our estimates. Could you maybe talk about the depth of opportunities that you have that maybe have similar attributes? Has the volatility in the gas space helped, or like, are more companies looking to unload assets to improve their balance sheets, or is this maybe the bid-ask spread has widened due to the sharp moves in the strip?

早安.關於第一個問題，光是 Crescent Pass 收購就符合我們的預期。您能否談談您擁有的具有相似屬性的機會的深度？天然氣領域的波動是否有所幫助，或者有更多的公司尋求出售資產以改善其資產負債表，或者這可能是由於天然氣帶的急劇波動而導致買賣價差擴大？

Well, I think that last comment that you just made regarding the strip, the strip we're in a slightly, I would say contango. I wouldn't call it extreme contango, which we've seen in the past. But obviously the first 12 months, the price is the lowest that you see in the forward curve. So I would say that the multiples on just a pure natural gas deal look a little higher, but that's only because for the next 12 months are your lowest prices.

好吧，我認為您剛剛對地帶發表的最後評論，我們處於輕微的地帶，我想說的是期貨溢價。我不會稱之為我們過去見過的極端期貨溢價。但顯然前 12 個月，價格是您在遠期曲線中看到的最低價格。所以我想說，純天然氣交易的本益比看起來有點高，但這只是因為未來 12 個月是最低價格。

And what's really interesting to me, Bert, is as you look at these deals, you may pay a 3.5 multiple, but your net cash back to the demand would be 4.5 because the price gets higher as you go out and brings more cash flow in. So it's really the opposite of oil. Oil has the higher prices in the front 12 months and the lower prices in the back. But we're seeing, I think that there's going to be significant asset movement over the next several months and quarters.

Bert，對我來說真正有趣的是，當你查看這些交易時，你可能會支付3.5 倍，但你的淨現金回饋需求將是4.5，因為隨著你走出去，價格會變得更高，並帶來更多的現金流。所以它實際上與石油相反。石油的前 12 個月價格較高，後 12 個月價格較低。但我們看到，我認為未來幾個月和幾季將會出現重大資產變動。

We've seen some of the big mergers take place. I think there'll be assets generated or divestments generated out of those as the FTC makes rulings and comes down as to their thoughts around some of these deals. We're seeing a lot of activity. We've got, obviously, we like the Gulf Coast. We believe that that's an area that we can be successful in at the LNG export capacity that we like and gives us a lot of variability there to move gas. But at the end of the day, I think that the valuations are still pretty, pretty good from our perspective. We feel like we can get some pretty decent deals out of it.

我們已經看到一些大型合併的發生。我認為，隨著聯邦貿易委員會做出裁決並就其中一些交易的想法進行總結，將會產生資產或撤資。我們看到很多活動。顯然，我們喜歡墨西哥灣沿岸。我們相信，這是一個我們可以在液化天然氣出口能力方面取得成功的領域，我們喜歡這一點，並為我們提供了巨大的天然氣運輸可變性。但歸根結底，我認為從我們的角度來看，估值仍然非常非常好。我們覺得我們可以從中獲得一些相當不錯的交易。

Perfect. That's a great update. And then on the, well retirements, it looked like you had a higher percentage of non-op activity in the last quarter. Is that indicative of more demand for next-level services, or am I looking into that too much, and maybe it's just a one-time data point? And then just, any thoughts on the cost of retirements or any profit margins for the third-party work? Thanks.

完美的。這是一個很棒的更新。然後，在退休方面，上個季度的非營運活動比例似乎更高。這是否表明對下一級服務的需求增加，或者我是否對此進行了太多研究，也許這只是一次性數據點？然後，對退休成本或第三方工作的利潤率有什麼想法嗎？謝謝。

Yeah, Bert. So, actually, the difference between this year and last year's performance in our next level, we're ahead of schedule on plugging diversified wells. The pace of bids or packages coming out with the federal money has changed to the back end of 2024, whereas the majority of our work in 2023 was on the -- I think you called it non-op, or we'll call it third party.

是的，伯特。所以，實際上，今年和去年的表現之間的差異在我們的下一個水平上，我們在堵塞多元化油井方面提前了。用聯邦資金提出的投標或一攬子計劃的節奏已更改為 2024 年年底，而我們 2023 年的大部分工作都在 - 我認為您稱之為非操作，或者我們將其稱為第三派對。

So we've just -- because of the pace of those federal contracts coming out, we have focused more on our internal plugging, and we're well ahead of that. We're almost completed for the year on our consent agreement requirements. So we're in a good position there, and we're well positioned for the second half of the year to plug for third parties.

因此，由於這些聯邦合約的出台速度，我們更加關注內部堵塞，並且我們遠遠領先於此。我們即將完成今年的同意協議要求。因此，我們在這方面處於有利位置，我們已準備好在今年下半年為第三方提供服務。

We have had a fair amount of activity with third-party operators and with all of our assets, which includes our wireline, our construction, our cementing assets, in addition to, well plugging. We've been working closely with some storage companies, coal companies, and so that's been some good revenue generation for us there. But we're in a good spot for the year on activity. And from a cost perspective, we really haven't had any significant adjustments up or down, that have changed on a year-over-year basis.

我們與第三方營運商以及我們的所有資產進行了大量的活動，其中包括我們的電纜、我們的建築、我們的固井資產以及堵井資產。我們一直與一些儲存公司、煤炭公司密切合作，這為我們創造了良好的收入。但我們今年的活動狀況良好。從成本角度來看，我們確實沒有進行任何重大的上下調整，這些調整與去年同期相比發生了變化。

That's great. Thanks.

那太棒了。謝謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Tim Hurst-Brown, Tennyson Securities.

蒂姆·赫斯特·布朗，丁尼生證券。

Good afternoon, or morning, gents. Thanks for the call. Just got a quick question around the underlying production. So, since Q4 last year, excluding acquisitions, production has been broadly flat versus the sort of 8% to 10% depletion rate that you had in 2023. Just wondering whether there are any sort of one-off factors in there that explain why it's flat? And what you expect production to do on an underlying basis, sort of through the second half of this year, i.e., will it be broadly flat or are we going to get back to the sort of 8% to 10% decline that you've had historically?

下午好，或早上好，先生們。感謝您的來電。剛剛有一個關於底層生產的快速問題。因此，自去年第四季以來，不包括收購在內，產量與 2023 年 8% 至 10% 的消耗率基本持平。只是想知道是否有任何一次性因素可以解釋為什麼它是平的？您預計今年下半年的生產將基本持平，還是會回到您所預測的 8% 至 10% 的下降水平歷史上有過嗎？

Tim, we've had good production results in both Appalachian and our Central Region. We've had some opportunities for some Marcellus production to come back online that had been impacted from some other operators has been helpful. And overall, the optimization projects that our teams in the field work on every day, we had good results from those.

提姆，我們在阿巴拉契亞和中部地區都取得了良好的生產成果。我們有一些機會讓一些受到其他運營商影響的馬塞勒斯生產重新上線，這很有幫助。總的來說，我們現場團隊每天進行的優化項目，我們都取得了良好的成果。

So I think that those will continue for the remainder of the year. I do think, though, that you'll see us trend back more towards our engineered declines in that high single digit for the second half of the year. It's in a portfolio of ours to have any quarter-over-quarter flat is impressive, but to put three together in a row here is a great testament to our team.

所以我認為這些將在今年剩餘時間內持續下去。不過，我確實認為，您會看到我們下半年的工程下降幅度將進一步趨於高個位數。在我們的投資組合中，擁有任何季度環比的公寓都令人印象深刻，但在這裡連續三個公寓在一起是對我們團隊的一個很好的證明。

And Tim, just to add one thing there. We did focus a heavy amount of our time and our capital late last year and early this year into oilier projects and field projects, so obviously that was because of price. And so we've seen some decent and oil uplift and NGL uplift from some of those projects that in addition to some of the stuff that Brad was talking about.

提姆，我想補充一件事。去年年底和今年年初，我們確實將大量時間和資金集中在石油項目和油田項目上，顯然這是因為價格。因此，除了布拉德正在談論的一些內容之外，我們還從其中一些項目中看到了一些不錯的石油和液化天然氣的成長。

So it's really, to Brad's point, a testament to build ops in the way that they're approaching the day-to-day operations of the wells, obviously focusing on those things that have the best payback, but also improving the production as we move forward on some of this stuff that -- that's helped to kind of stave off declines.

因此，在布拉德看來，這確實證明了他們以處理油井日常運營的方式建立運營，顯然專注於那些具有最佳回報的事情，但同時也提高了產量，因為我們在一些事情上取得進展，這有助於避免衰退。

That's great. Thanks, guys.

那太棒了。謝謝，夥計們。

Thanks.

謝謝。

David Round, Stifel.

大衛朗德，史蒂菲爾。

Thanks. Thanks for the presentation, guys. The hedging strategy that continues to work pretty well for you. I'm just wondering, though, how do you maintain the right level of hedging when you're acquiring businesses that may or may not come with a hedge book? I mean, Crescent Pass, for example, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think that did. So are you able to layer on, and do you want to layer on hedges in advance just to make sure you're positioned for when that deal completes?

謝謝。謝謝你們的介紹，夥伴們。對沖策略對您來說仍然非常有效。不過，我只是想知道，當您收購可能帶有或不帶有對沖帳簿的企業時，如何保持適當的對沖水平？我的意思是，例如，新月山口，如果我錯了，請糾正我，我認為沒有。那麼，您是否能夠分層進行避險，是否希望提前進行對沖，以確保您在交易完成時處於有利位置？

Absolutely. So we've got some provisions in our existing RBL that allows us to utilize and put on some hedges on acquisitions that have been announced or whatever. And so we're able to kind of hedge that prior to closing and lock in some of those prices that we've kind of factored and valued business on.

絕對地。因此，我們現有的 RBL 中有一些條款，允許我們利用已經宣布的收購或其他收購併對沖進行一些對沖。因此，我們能夠在成交之前進行對沖，並鎖定我們已經考慮和評估業務的一些價格。

So we do that consistently. So, for example, on the Crescent Pass deal, I would say that we're not even closed yet, but there are probably already hedge is on to kind of lock in the value that we strive to the business. So it's something that we've been doing for a long period of time.

所以我們始終如一地這樣做。因此，例如，就 Crescent Pass 交易而言，我想說我們甚至還沒有結束，但可能已經開始對沖以鎖定我們努力為業務帶來的價值。所以這是我們長期以來一直在做的事情。

We don't want to take a lot of price risk. We always talk about that. We don't want to be at the mercy of prices. Thank God we haven't been over the last four or five years, especially as prices have been extremely volatile. So, yes, we do have abilities to lock in gas on these acquisitions prior to closing them.

我們不想冒太大的價格風險。我們總是談論這個。我們不想受價格的擺佈。感謝上帝，過去四、五年我們沒有經歷過這樣的情況，尤其是在價格極度波動的情況下。所以，是的，我們確實有能力在完成這些收購之前鎖定這些收購的天然氣。

Okay, brilliant. Appreciate it. Thanks.

好吧，太棒了。欣賞它。謝謝。

Sure.

當然。

Simon Scholz, First Berlin.

西蒙‧肖爾茨，《第一柏林》。

Yes. Hello. Thanks for taking my questions. I've got two. Just on the subject of undeveloped acreage. So you've raised $15 million in Oklahoma in the first half. I was just wondering if there's any prospect of you accelerating the disposal rate going forward? And what the average tax burden on your remaining portfolio is?

是的。你好。感謝您回答我的問題。我有兩個。只是關於未開發面積的問題。上半年您在俄克拉荷馬州籌集了 1500 萬美元。我只是想知道你們是否有可能加快未來的處置速度？您剩餘投資組合的平均稅負是多少？

And then second, just on the full year volume outcome. I mean, if we assume that you go back to the previous decline rate in the second half, am I right in thinking that after the Oaktree and Crescent Pass acquisitions, average volume in '24 is like, to be slightly below '23, assuming no further acquisitions?

其次，就是全年銷量結果。我的意思是，如果我們假設你回到之前下半年的下降率，那麼我的想法是否正確，在收購 Oaktree 和 Crescent Pass 後，假設 24 年的平均交易量略低於 23 年沒有進一步的收購？

Let me go to the first question, which I think was related to the, I'm sorry, acreage sales. Yes. So accelerating those, we will absolutely -- when we have acreage positions that others are interested in, and that seems, especially in Oklahoma, that's been a really hotbed of activity there, we obviously will accelerate those and try to get as many of them as we possibly can.

讓我回答第一個問題，我認為這與，抱歉，面積銷售有關。是的。因此，當我們擁有其他人感興趣的土地位置時，我們絕對會加快這些步伐，而且似乎，特別是在俄克拉荷馬州，那確實是那裡活動的溫床，我們顯然會加快這些步伐，並嘗試獲得盡可能多的土地盡我們所能。

We obviously have a lot of levers to pull there. And so it does take some time to work through those. You've got land investigations and title searches and all those things that the buyer has to go through. So they can't -- they typically go a little bit at the buyer's pace, but we have a very, very good team on our side that's working those deals and have been highly successful through the first half.

顯然，我們有很多槓桿可以拉動。因此，解決這些問題確實需要一些時間。您需要進行土地調查和產權搜索以及買方必須經歷的所有這些事情。所以他們不能——他們通常會稍微跟上買家的節奏，但我們這邊有一支非常非常優秀的團隊，他們正在處理這些交易，並且在上半年取得了巨大成功。

We could see some big ones over a course of time. And so that's always, for us, that's always a big opportunity set. And if you can generate a $15 million to $20 million to $30 million acreage sale. That's a lot of value for us. And so definitely are working those every day. We would love to accelerate them, and there's always the opportunity set. There's always the opportunity that that could happen.

隨著時間的推移，我們可能會看到一些大的。因此，對我們來說，這始終是一個巨大的機會。如果您能獲得 1500 萬至 2000 萬至 3000 萬美元的土地銷售收入。這對我們來說很有價值。所以肯定每天都在做這些工作。我們很樂意加速它們的發展，而且機會總是存在的。總是有機會發生這種情況。

Related to the -- go ahead on that one.

與此相關——繼續那個。

Yeah. So, Simon, I believe your question is related to gross volumes for the end of the year. If you layer in the Oaktree transaction, which, as you know, closed in early June, that adds about a 15% uplift in production. And then you layer on the Crescent Pass will be additional to that. So we believe that that's going to effectively offset overall declines for a period of about 18 months. So we should be higher at the end of '24 versus '23 volume.

是的。所以，西蒙，我相信你的問題與年底的總銷售量有關。如您所知，橡樹交易已於 6 月初完成，如果將其納入其中，產量將增加約 15%。然後你再疊加新月山口將是額外的。因此，我們相信這將有效抵消約 18 個月期間的整體下滑。因此，24 年末的成交量應該比 23 年末的成交量更高。

Okay. So above 820 million per day.

好的。所以每天超過 8.2 億。

Did you say above or at? I didn't hear. I'm sorry.

你是說上面還是在？我沒聽見。對不起。

Well, yeah, I mean, I think the figure for last year was 821 million cubic feet per day.

嗯，是的，我的意思是，我認為去年的數字是每天 8.21 億立方英尺。

I think we exited the second quarter at [855]. So an Crescent Pass will add to that. So yes, we should be above that 820 million bar.

我認為我們在第二季度結束時[855]。所以新月通行證將增加這一點。所以是的，我們應該高於 8.2 億條。

Okay, great. Thanks. And how about the tax burden on the undeveloped acreage?

好的，太好了。謝謝。未開發土地的稅負又如何呢？

Well, from the tax burden on [it don't] generate any capital gain by selling those. I don't think we've got a pretty advantaged tax position with our federal tax rates and the marginal tax credits. So we don't anticipate any significant cash tax burden, even in light of additional land sales that will likely occur.

好吧，從稅負來看，出售這些產品並不會產生任何資本利得。我不認為我們在聯邦稅率和邊際稅收抵免方面擁有相當有利的稅收地位。因此，即使考慮到可能發生的額外土地出售，我們預計也不會產生任何重大的現金稅負。

Okay. Thanks. That's very helpful.

好的。謝謝。這非常有幫助。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Malcolm Graham-Wood, Hydrocarbon Capital.

馬爾科姆·格雷厄姆·伍德，碳氫化合物資本。

Rusty and the team, good afternoon. How are you doing? I am very well, thanks. I'm better off having seen a great presentation. Well done. And my question is also about slide 9, the undeveloped acreage. And to be honest, you have answered a fair bit of my question. But my question was originally. I mean, it is a -- I've always said, ever since you started, that this company could go on for 10 years and more without doing any on the basis of what you have in your portfolio, which is what this. I'm so pleased to see this chart.

Rusty 和團隊，下午好。你好嗎？我很好，謝謝。我最好能看到一場精彩的演講。幹得好。我的問題還涉及第 9 張投影片，即未開發面積。說實話，你已經回答了我大部分的問題。但我的問題本來是。我的意思是，自從你創立以來，我一直說，這家公司可以持續 10 年甚至更長時間，而無需根據你的投資組合中的任何內容進行任何操作，這就是這個。我很高興看到這張圖表。

What I would ask you is, what do you think the value -- I mean, certainly, you asked it about the tax. What's the value of that slide that you can see with regard to all your acquisitions? So if you compare it with what you're paying for acquisitions that you're doing at the moment.

我想問你的是，你認為價值是多少——我的意思是，當然，你問的是關於稅收的問題。您可以看到的這張投影片對於您所有的收購有何價值？因此，如果你將其與你目前正在進行的收購所支付的費用進行比較。

Yeah. That's a great question. I can't put a dollar amount on it, Malcolm, but I can say that we know there's value across the portfolio. But more importantly, that value is going to continue to materialize in all areas of the portfolio as time goes by, because the inventory of drilling opportunities over time will continue to deplete. So companies are going to need additional acreage. They're going to need additional opportunities.

是的。這是一個很好的問題。馬爾科姆，我無法給出具體金額，但我可以說我們知道整個投資組合都有價值。但更重要的是，隨著時間的推移，這種價值將繼續在投資組合的所有領域實現，因為隨著時間的推移，鑽探機會的庫存將繼續耗盡。因此，公司將需要額外的面積。他們將需要額外的機會。

And I think, more importantly, there could be new formations and new opportunities set underneath the acreage we have that somebody's not even really focused on now. For example, in Oklahoma, we've been selling acreage to some of the producers out there that have been drilling a new formation called the Cherokee that was never even really that thought of two years ago. But now it seems to be a pretty hot and heavy formation that's being drilled. So there's always new things that come available.

我認為，更重要的是，在我們擁有的土地下可能會出現新的陣型和新的機會，而有些人現在甚至沒有真正關注這些。例如，在俄克拉荷馬州，我們一直在向一些生產商出售土地，這些生產商一直在鑽探一個名為「切諾基」的新地層，而兩年前，他們根本沒有想到這種情況。但現在正在鑽探的似乎是一個相當炎熱和沈重的地層。所以總是有新的東西出現。

And when you have acreage in these areas, it becomes a valuable proposition for some of these producers. I will say this, we have, over time, accumulated a lot of acreage. We've never, and we've been very clear in this, we don't pay for it. We don't pay for that upside. And so for us to who continue to be able to lay into that value, that's value that we didn't pay for, it's just bonus for not only for diversified, but for our shareholders.

當你在這些地區擁有土地時，這對其中一些生產者來說就成為一個有價值的提議。我想說的是，隨著時間的推移，我們已經累積了大量的種植面積。我們從來沒有，而且我們在這一點上一直非常明確，我們不會為此付出代價。我們不會為此付出代價。因此，對於我們那些能夠繼續發揮這價值的人來說，這是我們沒有付出代價的價值，這不僅是對多元化的獎勵，也是對我們股東的獎勵。

Thank you. At this time, I would like to turn the floor back over to Mr. Hutson for closing comments.

謝謝。現在，我想把發言權交還給赫特森先生以作結束發言。

Thank you all for joining us today. I would just end the call with very pleased with the first half of the year we feel like that we're setting ourselves up for some great success moving forward with the our capital allocation strategy, the operations being strong, we'll continue to drive free cash flow and results that will make our shareholders happy over the long haul. So thank you all for joining and see you soon.

感謝大家今天加入我們。我對今年上半年非常滿意地結束了這次電話會議，我們覺得我們正在為我們的資本配置策略取得巨大成功做好準備，營運強勁，我們將繼續推動自由現金流和業績將使我們的股東長期滿意。感謝大家的加入，很快再見。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's event. You may disconnect your lines off the webcast at this time and enjoy the rest of your day.

女士們、先生們，今天的活動到此結束。此時您可以斷開網路廣播的線路並享受剩下的一天。