EQT Corp (EQT) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by. My name is Eric, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the EQT Q3 2023 Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the call over to Cameron Horwitz, Director of Investor Relations and Strategy. Please go ahead.

謝謝你的支持。我叫艾瑞克，今天我將擔任你們的會議操作員。此時此刻，我謹歡迎大家參加殷拓 2023 年第三季業績電話會議。 （操作員說明）我現在想將電話轉給投資者關係和策略總監 Cameron Horwitz。請繼續。

Good morning, and thank you for joining our third quarter 2023 earnings results conference call. With me today are Toby Rice, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Jeremy Knop, Chief Financial Officer. In a moment, Toby and Jeremy will present their prepared remarks with a question-and-answer session to follow. An updated investor presentation has been posted to the Investor Relations portion of our website, and we will reference certain slides during today's discussion. A replay of today's call will be available on our website beginning this evening.

早安，感謝您參加我們的 2023 年第三季財報電話會議。今天與我在一起的有總裁兼執行長 Toby Rice；和財務長傑里米·諾普。稍後，托比和傑里米將發表他們準備好的發言，隨後進行問答環節。更新的投資者簡報已發佈到我們網站的投資者關係部分，我們將在今天的討論中引用某些幻燈片。從今晚開始，我們的網站將提供今天電話會議的重播。

I'd like to remind you that today's call may contain forward-looking statements. Actual results and future events could materially differ from these forward-looking statements because of factors described in yesterday's earnings release, in our investor presentation, the Risk Factors section of our Form 10-K and in subsequent filings we make with the SEC. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements.

我想提醒您，今天的電話會議可能包含前瞻性陳述。由於昨天的收益報告、我們的投資者介紹、我們的 10-K 表格的風險因素部分以及我們向 SEC 提交的後續文件中描述的因素，實際結果和未來事件可能與這些前瞻性陳述存在重大差異。我們不承擔更新任何前瞻性陳述的責任。

Today's call also contains certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our most recent earnings release and investor presentation for important disclosures regarding such measures, including reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP financial measures. With that, I'll turn the call over to Toby.

今天的電話會議也包含某些非公認會計準則財務指標。請參閱我們最新的收益報告和投資者介紹，以了解有關此類措施的重要揭露，包括與最具可比性的公認會計原則財務措施的調節。這樣，我就把電話轉給托比。

Thanks, Cam, and good morning, everyone. The third quarter saw a multitude of positive highlights and record-breaking performance at EQT, including closing the strategic acquisition of Tug Hill and XcL Midstream in late August. As shown on Slide 5 of our investor deck, with roughly 60 days under our belt post closing, we currently have 74% of total integration milestones actions completed. To put this in context, this is a record pace for EQT and the most efficient integration yet despite significantly greater deal complexity relative to Alta and Chevron.

謝謝卡姆，大家早安。 EQT 第三季出現了許多正面的亮點和破紀錄的業績，包括 8 月底完成對 Tug Hill 和 XcL Midstream 的策略性收購。正如我們投資者平台的幻燈片 5 所示，在交割後約 60 天的時間裡，我們目前已完成總整合里程碑行動的 74%。綜上所述，儘管交易複雜性相對於 Alta 和雪佛龍而言要大得多，但 EQT 的收購速度創下了紀錄，也是最高效的整合。

The successive improvement in our integration pace is reflective of leveraging lessons learned from previous transactions to refine our integration playbook, which is unique to EQT's proprietary digital platform and is a repeatable process that we have honed with each successful acquisition. I want to take a moment to send a huge shout-out to the EQT crew for all the hard work that has facilitated the incredible integration efficiency achieved over the past 2 months.

我們整合步伐的持續改進反映了我們利用以往交易中學到的經驗教訓來完善我們的整合策略，這是殷拓專有數位平台所獨有的，也是我們在每次成功收購中磨練出來的可重複流程。我想花點時間向 EQT 團隊表示衷心的感謝，感謝他們在過去 2 個月所付出的辛勤工作，實現了令人難以置信的整合效率。

Alongside efficiently integrating the Tug Hill and XcL Midstream assets, the teams have identified multiple areas of potential operational improvements that we did not contemplate when underwriting the acquisition. We broadly see these opportunities falling into 2 buckets comprised of well-designed and operational efficiencies. As it relates to operational efficiencies, I want to first talk about third quarter performance for stand-alone EQT and then provide some stats on what the teams have already achieved on the Tug Hill assets.

除了有效整合 Tug Hill 和 XcL Midstream 資產外，團隊還確定了我們在承銷收購時沒有考慮到的多個潛在營運改善領域。我們大致認為這些機會分為兩類：精心設​​計和營運效率。由於它與營運效率相關，我想先談談獨立 EQT 第三季的表現，然後提供一些有關團隊在 Tug Hill 資產上已經取得的成就的統計數據。

As shown on Slide 7 of our investor deck, after posting stellar second quarter operational performance, both our drilling and completions again set new internal and world records in 3Q. Recall last quarter, we highlighted EQT's world record of drilling over 18,200 feet in 48 hours on the same run. This record lasted a mere 60 days as our team bested that effort by drilling 18,264 feet in 48 hours on our Denver 5H well in August. On the completions front, our teams are firing on all cylinders with third quarter pumping hours per crew averaging north of 400 hours, which is an all-time high pace for EQT. This includes besting our prior record for monthly pumping hours twice during the quarter, with 2 crews each achieving north of 500 pumping hours in a month.

正如我們投資者平台的幻燈片 7 所示，在第二季度表現出色之後，我們的鑽井和完井作業在第三季度再次創下了新的內部和世界紀錄。回顧上個季度，我們重點介紹了 EQT 在同一次作業中 48 小時內鑽探超過 18,200 英尺的世界紀錄。這項記錄僅持續了 60 天，而我們的團隊在 8 月在丹佛 5H 井上用 48 小時鑽探了 18,264 英尺，從而打破了這一記錄。在完工方面，我們的團隊正在全力以赴，第三季每位工作人員的平均泵送時間超過 400 小時，這是 EQT 的歷史最高速度。這包括在本季度兩次打破我們之前的每月抽水時間記錄，兩名工作人員每個月的抽水時間超過 500 小時。

To put this into context, the theoretical maximum pumping hours in a month for a single frac crew is roughly 600 hours after accounting for minimum maintenance time, so our teams are knocking on the doorstep of perfection. This performance reflects our strategy of aggressively attacking all facets of the supply chain to eliminate as many bottlenecks as possible for our completions team, and our Q3 execution underscores the dividends accruing from these efforts.

考慮到這一點，在考慮最短維護時間後，理論上單一壓裂人員每月的最大泵送時間約為 600 小時，因此我們的團隊正在敲響完美的大門。這項業績反映了我們積極進攻供應鏈各個方面的策略，以消除我們的完工團隊盡可能多的瓶頸，而我們第三季的執行突顯了這些努力所帶來的紅利。

Turning back to Tug Hill. As shown on Slide 6 of our investor deck, our teams are wasting no time unleashing EQT's industry-leading operational progress as we've taken over the assets. To put some numbers around this, in just 60 days since taking over operations, our completions team has already increased the amount of stages completed per day by 35% relative to legacy Tug Hill development, and we see room for additional upside as our teams optimize water handling and sand logistics across the asset base.

轉身回到塔格山。正如我們投資者平台的幻燈片 6 所示，隨著我們接管資產，我們的團隊正在不失時機地釋放殷拓行業領先的營運進展。用一些數字來說明這一點，在接管營運後的短短60 天內，我們的完井團隊已經將每天完成的階段數量相對於傳統的Tug Hill 開發增加了35%，並且隨著我們的團隊優化，我們看到了額外的上升空間整個資產基礎的水處理和沙子物流。

On the drilling front, since taking over operations, our team has already improved horizontal drilling speeds by 50% relative to legacy Tug Hill performance and driven down horizontal drilling cost per foot by more than 40%. As we high-grade equipment and fully implement EQT best practices, we expect further efficiency gains that will allow us to drop drilling activity on Tug's acreage from 2 rigs to 1 by the end of the year all while still drilling the same amount of lateral footage year-over-year in 2024.

在鑽井方面，自接手營運以來，我們的團隊已將水平鑽井速度相對於傳統 Tug Hill 性能提高了 50%，並將每英尺水平鑽井成本降低了 40% 以上。隨著我們使用高檔設備並全面實施EQT 最佳實踐，我們預計效率將進一步提高，這將使我們能夠在年底前將Tug 鑽探面積的鑽探活動從2 個鑽機減少到1 個，同時仍鑽探相同數量的橫向進尺2024 年同比。

Our teams also plan to methodically test various EQT well design changes on the Tug Hill assets, including cluster spacing, clusters per stage, proppant loading, proppant type and casing weight, to name a few. While it's still early to quantify the full impact of efficiency gains and operational synergies on the Tug Hill assets, we preliminarily see the potential for up to $150 per foot of well cost savings associated with these efforts.

我們的團隊還計劃系統地測試 Tug Hill 資產上的各種 EQT 井設計變更，包括簇間距、每級簇、支撐劑負載、支撐劑類型和套管重量等。雖然現在量化效率提升和營運協同效應對 Tug Hill 資產的全面影響還為時過早，但我們初步認為與這些努力相關的每英尺油井成本節省高達 150 美元。

The potential impact from optimizing well design parameters and improving operational efficiencies represent value creation upside on top of the $80 million of synergy value potential we announced with the deal. As a reminder, the original synergies we discussed were only driven by water system integration, firm transport optimization and land spend efficiencies, which should accrue over the next several years.

除了我們透過該交易宣布的 8000 萬美元協同價值潛力之外，優化油井設計參數和提高營運效率的潛在影響代表了價值創造的上升空間。提醒一下，我們討論的最初協同效應只是由水系統整合、公司運輸優化和土地支出效率驅動，這些應該在未來幾年內產生。

Looking ahead to 2024, while we are still in the process of fine-tuning our pro forma operation schedule, we preliminarily expect to run 3 horizontal rigs and 3 to 4 frac crews in total next year, which is a level of activity that maintains production at approximately 2.3 Tcfe per annum. At current strip pricing of approximately $3.40 per million BTU next year, we preliminarily see roughly $1.7 billion of pro forma free cash flow in 2024 and cumulative free cash flow of approximately $14 billion from 2024 to 2028. As shown on Slide 11 of our investor deck, this equates to cumulative free cash flow of approximately 60% of our enterprise value, which is the highest not only among our gas peers but also the broader upstream energy sector. We believe this outlook underscores the tremendous absolute and relative value proposition of EQT shares even after strong relative stock performance over the past several years.

展望2024年，雖然我們仍在微調預計作業計劃，但我們初步預計明年將運行3台水平鑽機和3至4名壓裂人員，這是維持生產的活動水平每年約 2.3 Tcfe。以目前明年每百萬BTU 約3.40 美元的帶鋼定價，我們初步預計2024 年預計自由現金流約為17 億美元，2024 年至2028 年累計自由現金流約為140 億美元。如我們投資者平台的幻燈片11 所示，這相當於我們企業價值約 60% 的累積自由現金流，這不僅是我們的天然氣同行中最高的，也是更廣泛的上游能源產業中最高的。我們認為，這一前景凸顯了殷拓股票巨大的絕對和相對價值主張，即使在過去幾年相對強勁的股票表現之後也是如此。

Shifting gears to Slide 8 of our investor presentation, we are excited to announce that we have signed 2 10-year firm sales agreements with investment-grade utilities covering all 1.2 Bcf per day of our capacity on MVP that will commence concurrent with the completion of downstream expansion projects in 2027. Recall, we had previously entered into an AMA for 525 million cubic feet per day of our MVP capacity, which we have restructured into an 800 million cubic feet per day firm sales arrangement with the same counterparty and entered into an additional 400 million cubic feet per day firm sale with a separate counterparty. These are 2 of the largest long-term physical supply deals ever executed in the North American natural gas market, and we believe signal the buyers confidence in EQT's unique ability to deliver reliable, clean and affordable natural gas supply to millions of customers in the southeastern part of the United States.

轉到我們投資者簡報的幻燈片8，我們很高興地宣布，我們已與投資級公用事業公司簽署了2 份為期10 年的固定銷售協議，涵蓋我們每天1.2 Bcf 的MVP 容量，該協議將與完成2027 年的下游擴建項目。回想一下，我們之前簽訂了5.25 億立方英尺/天MVP 產能的AMA，我們已將其重組為與同一交易對手達成的8 億立方英尺/天的固定銷售安排，並簽訂了2027 年下游擴建項目。每天與單獨的交易對手另外確認出售 4 億立方英尺。這是北美天然氣市場有史以來執行的最大的兩筆長期實體供應交易，我們相信這表明買家對殷拓向東南部數百萬客戶提供可靠、清潔和負擔得起的天然氣供應的獨特能力充滿信心美國的一部分。

These agreements also highlight how EQT's scale and depth of inventory are catalyzing the expansion opportunities downstream of MVP, which will bring gas further into the Southeast demand centers where it is critically needed to replace coal-fired power generation and meet the region's climate goals. To put the environmental benefits into perspective, assuming EQT's natural gas displaces coal-fired power generation, the combined impact of these supply agreements would result in approximately 40 million tons per annum of emissions reductions, which is equivalent to taking more than 8 million gasoline-powered vehicles off the road every year.

這些協議還凸顯了殷拓的庫存規模和深度如何促進 MVP 下游的擴張機會，這將把天然氣進一步帶入東南部需求中心，那裡迫切需要天然氣來取代燃煤發電並實現該地區的氣候目標。從環境效益的角度來看，假設殷拓的天然氣取代燃煤發電，這些供應協議的綜合影響將導致每年約4000萬噸的減排，這相當於消耗超過800萬汽油。每年都有動力車輛離開道路。

On top of the environmental benefits, these deals should create a win-win economic impact, providing cash flow uplift for EQT while concurrently dampening natural gas price volatility for consumers in the Southeast region. Recall, our capacity on MVP will initially receive pricing at Station 165, but as downstream projects and these new firm sales arrangements commence, EQT's capacity will be debottlenecked and our pricing exposure will shift to a blend of premium demand areas, including Henry Hub and Transco Zones 4 and 5 South. To put the impact of this in context, we see these firm sales arrangements and associated downstream debottlenecking projects increasing our annual free cash flow by more than $300 million beginning in 2028.

除了環境效益之外，這些交易還應產生雙贏的經濟影響，為殷拓提供現金流，同時為東南地區的消費者抑制天然氣價格波動。回想一下，我們的MVP 產能最初將在165 站定價，但隨著下游項目和這些新公司銷售安排的開始，EQT 的產能將消除瓶頸，我們的定價敞口將轉向優質需求領域的混合，包括Henry Hub 和Transco 4 區和 5 區南。綜合考慮這一影響，我們發現這些堅定的銷售安排和相關的下游瓶頸項目從 2028 年開始使我們的年度自由現金流增加了 3 億多美元。

At the same time, the debottlenecking of EQT supply further into the Southeast should dampen natural gas price volatility for consumers in the region, improve grid reliability and materially reduce the risk of service interruptions. In our view, these agreements represent clear and tangible examples of EQT's ability to generate differentiated shareholder value out of each molecule while simultaneously fostering better outcomes for American consumers by leveraging our unique platform consisting of peer-leading scale, a strong investment-grade balance sheet, low cost structure, deep high-quality inventory and advantaged environmental attributes.

同時，進一步消除東南地區 EQT 供應的瓶頸，應該會抑制該地區消費者的天然氣價格波動，提高電網可靠性，並大幅降低服務中斷的風險。我們認為，這些協議代表了殷拓有能力利用每個分子創造差異化股東價值的能力，同時透過利用我們獨特的平台（包括同行領先的規模和強大的投資級資產負債表）為美國消費者創造更好的結果。 、低成本結構、深厚的優質庫存和得天獨厚的環保屬性。

Turning to LNG. Last month, we announced a heads of agreement for liquefaction services from Commonwealth LNG facility in Cameron Parish, Louisiana to produce 1 million tons per annum of LNG under a 15-year tolling agreement. This comes on the heel of a prior HOA with Lake Charles LNG and upon completion of definitive agreements will take our total committed LNG tolling capacity to 2 million tons per annum or roughly 270 million cubic feet of gas per day. The Commonwealth agreement is a continuation of our LNG strategy we described on our last call, which entails diversifying a portion of the 1.2 Bcf per day we delivered to the Gulf Coast via firm pipeline capacity into international markets.

轉向液化天然氣。上個月，我們宣布了路易斯安那州卡梅倫教區聯邦液化天然氣設施液化服務的主要協議，根據一項為期 15 年的收費協議，每年生產 100 萬噸液化天然氣。在此之前，我們與 Lake Charles LNG 簽訂了 HOA，最終協議完成後，我們承諾的 LNG 總收費能力將達到每年 200 萬噸或每天約 2.7 億立方英尺天然氣。英聯邦協議是我們在上次電話會議中描述的液化天然氣戰略的延續，該戰略需要將我們每天通過穩定的管道能力輸送到墨西哥灣沿岸的 1.2 Bcf 天然氣的一部分多樣化到國際市場。

As a reminder, EQT is pursuing a differentiated and more integrated approach to international exposure through tolling arrangements, which we believe provide the best combination of upside exposure with downside risk mitigation. Our strategy gives us direct connectivity to end users of our gas globally, allows for end market structuring flexibility and superior downside protection. We are currently pursuing signing SPAs with prospective international buyers as well as additional opportunities to increase our tolling exposure.

需要提醒的是，殷拓正在透過收費安排尋求一種差異化且更全面的國際風險敞口方法，我們認為這提供了上行風險敞口與下行風險緩解的最佳組合。我們的策略使我們能夠直接連接到全球天然氣的最終用戶，從而實現終端市場結構的靈活性和卓越的下行保護。我們目前正在尋求與潛在的國際買家簽署SPA，以及增加我們的收費業務的額外機會。

Our scale, low-cost structure, peer-leading core inventory depth and environmental attributes uniquely position us to compete and win in the global energy arena. And we believe the international market will increasingly covet EQT's molecules as a long-duration secure supply source that can drive meaningful emissions reductions via coal displacement, similar to the precedent we are setting in the U.S. Southeast market with our newly announced firm sales agreements directly with utilities.

我們的規模、低成本結構、同業領先的核心庫存深度和環境屬性使我們能夠在全球能源領域競爭並獲勝。我們相信，國際市場將越來越垂涎 EQT 的分子作為長期安全供應來源，可以透過煤炭替代推動有意義的減排，類似於我們在美國東南市場建立的先例，我們新宣布的直接與公用事業。

Shifting to Slide 16 of our investor deck, we recently announced a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership with the state of West Virginia to identify and implement forest management practices across the state. Facilitated by the state's Department of Commerce, Division of Forestry and Division of Natural Resources, the partnership brings together EQT's transparent, data-driven approach to emissions reduction and West Virginia's commitment to the conservation, development and protection of its renowned forest lands to advance Appalachia's position as a premier world partner in decarbonization. We plan to deploy advanced soil probe technology from our partners at Teralytic, which allow for real-time soil measurement to ensure the quantification of carbon reduction is accurate and transparent.

轉向我們投資者平台的幻燈片 16，我們最近宣布與西維吉尼亞州建立首個公私合作夥伴關係，以在全州範圍內確定和實施森林管理實踐。在該州商務部、林業部和自然資源部的推動下，該合作夥伴關係將殷拓透明、數據驅動的減排方法與西維吉尼亞州對其著名林地的保護、開發和保護的承諾結合起來，以推動阿巴拉契亞地區的永續發展。作為脫碳領域的首要世界合作夥伴。我們計劃部署 Teralytic 合作夥伴的先進土壤探針技術，該技術可以進行即時土壤測量，以確保碳減排的量化準確且透明。

We will also leverage our strategic partnership with Context Labs to provide full digital integration and accountability of our carbon reduction effort. Operational efficacy of these projects will be assured and audited by West Virginia University's Natural Resources Analysis Center, a multidisciplinary research and teaching facility. We believe the processes being deployed in our partnership with West Virginia will create one of the highest-quality, most verifiable nature-based carbon sequestration projects anywhere around the globe. The output of this effort will be a key enabling factor for EQT to become the first energy company in the world of meaningful scale to achieve verifiable net 0 Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions.

我們還將利用與 Context Labs 的策略合作夥伴關係，為我們的碳減排工作提供全面的數位整合和問責制。這些計畫的營運效率將由西維吉尼亞大學自然資源分析中心（一個多學科研究和教學機構）進行保證和審查。我們相信，我們與西維吉尼亞州合作部署的流程將創建全球範圍內最高品質、最可驗證的基於自然的碳封存專案之一。這項努力的成果將成為殷拓成為世界上第一家具有有意義的規模、實現可驗證的範圍 1 和 2 溫室氣體淨零排放的能源公司的關鍵推動因素。

Turning to Slide 17 of our investor presentation. We were excited to see the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub, or ARCH2, recently selected as 1 of 7 hydrogen hubs in the country to receive DOE funding to accelerate the deployment of U.S. hydrogen technologies and contribute to decarbonizing multiple sectors of the economy. As a reminder, ARCH2 is a collaboration initiated by EQT, the state of West Virginia, Battelle, GTI Energy and Allegheny Science and Technology. The broader ARCH2 team is comprised of multiple entities with operations across the Appalachian region, spanning the hydrogen value chain as well as technology organizations, consultants, academic institutions, community organizations and NGOs that will provide commercial and technical leadership for the development and build-out of the hub.

轉向我們的投資者簡報的幻燈片 17。我們很高興看到阿巴拉契亞地區清潔氫中心（ARCH2）最近被選為該國七個氫中心之一，接受美國能源部的資助，以加速美國氫技術的部署，並為多個經濟部門脫碳做出貢獻。需要提醒的是，ARCH2 是由 EQT、西維吉尼亞州、Battelle、GTI Energy 和 Allegheny Science and Technology 發起的合作計畫。更廣泛的ARCH2 團隊由多個實體組成，這些實體在阿巴拉契亞地區開展業務，涵蓋氫價值鏈，以及技術組織、顧問、學術機構、社區組織和非政府組織，將為開發和建設提供商業和技術領導。的樞紐。

The DOE has allocated up to $925 million to ARCH2, noting the hub will leverage the region's ample access to low-cost, low emissions natural gas to produce clean hydrogen and permanently sequester CO2. Along with the decarbonization impact, ARCH2 is anticipated to facilitate various community benefits, including the potential to create more than 21,000 high-paying jobs. The selection of ARCH2 deeply reinforces the critical role natural gas, particularly Appalachian natural gas, will play in our nation's transition to a lower carbon energy future, and EQT is uniquely positioned to be at the forefront of this process.

美國能源部已向 ARCH2 撥款 9.25 億美元，指出該中心將利用該地區豐富的低成本、低排放天然氣來生產清潔氫氣並永久封存二氧化碳。除了脫碳影響之外，ARCH2 預計還將促進各種社區效益，包括創造超過 21,000 個高薪就業機會的潛力。 ARCH2 的選擇進一步強化了天然氣（特別是阿巴拉契亞天然氣）在我國向低碳能源未來轉型中所發揮的關鍵作用，而 EQT 處於這一進程的前沿，具有獨特的優勢。

In terms of EQT's participation, we are in the early stages of formulating a high-level development plan with rigorous assessment of project economics to better understand value creation potential, and we expect minimal capital requirements over the next couple of years. Over the medium term, EQT will have significant optionality to evaluate and participate in projects within the ARCH2 hub, all while retaining complete flexibility as it relates to our level of exposure. Outside of our direct participation, we expect ARCH2 will also have second-order effects of driving greater in-basin demand for EQT's low emissions natural gas and could present opportunities for us to leverage our subsurface expertise and 1.9 million net acreage position for CO2 sequestration.

就殷拓的參與而言，我們正處於製定高水準發展計畫的早期階段，對專案經濟進行嚴格評估，以更好地了解價值創造潛力，我們預計未來幾年的資本要求最低。從中期來看，EQT 將擁有很大的選擇權來評估和參與 ARCH2 中心內的項目，同時保留與我們的曝光水平相關的完全靈活性。除了我們的直接參與之外，我們預計ARCH2 還將產生二階效應，推動盆地內對EQT 低排放天然氣的更大需求，並可能為我們提供利用我們的地下專業知識和190 萬淨面積二氧化碳封存的機會。

While still very early in the evolution of ARCH2, we believe EQT's participation in the hub, along with various other pillars of our new venture strategy, are planting the seeds that have the potential to catalyze the transformation of natural gas into the holy grail of cheap, reliable and zero carbon energy. I'll now turn the call over to Jeremy.

雖然 ARCH2 的發展仍處於早期階段，但我們相信 EQT 參與該中心以及我們新創投策略的其他各個支柱正在播下種子，有可能促進天然氣轉變為廉價能源的聖杯、可靠且零碳的能源。我現在將把電話轉給傑里米。

Thanks, Toby, and good morning, everyone. I'll start by briefly summarizing our third quarter results, which as a reminder, includes 39 days of contribution from the Tug Hill and XcL assets. Sales volumes in the third quarter were 523 Bcfe, comprised of 491 Bcf of natural gas and 5.2 million barrels of liquids. We note third quarter production volumes included roughly 5 Bcfe of curtailment principally in response to weak local demand and approximately 8 Bcfe associated with lower-than-expected nonoperated turn-in lines and curtailments.

謝謝托比，大家早安。首先，我將簡要總結我們第三季的業績，作為提醒，其中包括 Tug Hill 和 XcL 資產的 39 天貢獻。第三季銷量為 523 Bcfe，其中包括 491 Bcf 天然氣和 520 萬桶液體。我們注意到，第三季產量包括約 5 Bcfe 的削減，主要是由於當地需求疲軟，以及約 8 Bcfe 與低於預期的非營運上交線和削減有關。

On a per unit basis, adjusted operating revenues were $2.28 per Mcfe, and our total per unit operating costs were $1.29, down from $1.37 in the second quarter, reflecting the accretion benefit from a partial quarter contribution of Tug Hill's low-cost assets and lower-than-expected LOE due to increased produced water recycling. Capital expenditures, excluding noncontrolling interests, were $445 million, including stand-alone EQT CapEx of approximately $400 million, which was at the low end of our guidance range, reflecting the continued operational efficiency gains Toby mentioned previously.

以每單位計算，調整後的營運收入為每Mcfe 2.28 美元，每單位營運成本總額為1.29 美元，低於第二季的1.37 美元，反映了Tug Hill 低成本資產和較低資產的部分季度貢獻帶來的增值收益- 由於採出水循環利用增加，LOE 超出預期。資本支出（不包括非控制權益）為 4.45 億美元，包括約 4 億美元的獨立殷拓資本支出，處於我們指導範圍的下限，反映了 Toby 先前提到的持續營運效率提升。

Adjusted operating cash flow and free cash flow were $443 million and negative $2 million, respectively. It's worth noting, however, free cash flow was negatively impacted by $28 million of nonrecurring expenses from the Tug Hill transaction, without which we would have generated positive free cash flow during the quarter.

調整後的營運現金流和自由現金流分別為 4.43 億美元和負 200 萬美元。然而，值得注意的是，自由現金流受到 Tug Hill 交易中 2800 萬美元的非經常性費用的負面影響，如果沒有這些費用，我們本季將產生正的自由現金流。

Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, we provided guidance on Slide 33, which reflects a full quarter of contribution from Tug Hill and XcL Midstream acquisitions. It's worth highlighting that the midpoint of our GP&T guidance range of $1 per Mcfe is roughly $0.10 lower than our stand-alone GP&T in the second quarter, which underscores the cost structure accretion from the low breakeven Tug Hill and XcL assets. I'd also note our fourth quarter production outlook embeds expectations of curtailments in the first half of the quarter, given elevated Eastern storage and seasonal demand weakness.

展望第四季度，我們提供了投影片 33 的指引，該指引反映了 Tug Hill 和 XcL Midstream 收購對整個季度的貢獻。值得強調的是，我們的GP&T 指導範圍的中點為每Mcfe 1 美元，比我們第二季度的獨立GP&T 低約0.10 美元，這突顯了低盈虧平衡的Tug Hill 和XcL 資產帶來的成本結構增加。我還想指出，鑑於東部庫存增加和季節性需求疲軟，我們第四季的產量展望包含了對上半季減產的預期。

While we're still early in the budgeting process and working through the optimization of our development schedule for 2024, we preliminarily expect to run 3 rigs and 3 to 4 frac crews next year, which should allow us to maintain pro forma production at approximately 2.3 Tcfe. We anticipate free cash flow of roughly $1.7 billion next year at recent strip pricing of approximately $3.40 per MMBtu, which equates to a 2024 free cash flow yield of 10%. On a cumulative basis, we project nearly $14 billion of free cash flow from 2024 to 2028, which is roughly 60% of our enterprise value and 80% of equity market capitalization. This means at our current valuation, investors have the opportunity to buy the premier natural gas company in North America with the most scale, the deepest and highest quality inventory and among the lowest cost structures and the best credit rating at a material discount to peers.

雖然我們仍處於預算編制的早期階段，並正在優化 2024 年的開發計劃，但我們初步預計明年將運行 3 台鑽機和 3 至 4 名壓裂人員，這將使我們能夠將預計產量維持在約 2.3 TCFE。我們預計明年的自由現金流約為 17 億美元，最近的剝離定價約為每 MMBtu 3.40 美元，相當於 2024 年自由現金流收益率為 10%。從累計來看，我們預計 2024 年至 2028 年自由現金流將接近 140 億美元，約占我們企業價值的 60% 和股票市值的 80%。這意味著，按照我們目前的估值，投資者有機會以相對於同業的大幅折扣購買規模最大、庫存最深、品質最高、成本結構最低、信用評級最好的北美首屈一指的天然氣公司。

Turning to the balance sheet. Recall, we funded the cash consideration of the Tug Hill and XcL acquisition upon close in August with $1 billion of cash on hand and $1.25 billion of term loan borrowings. We exited the third quarter with $5.9 billion of total debt, including $400 million related to equity-light convertible notes, which equates to an LTM leverage of 2.1x, though we note this figure includes the full impact of financing the Tug Hill and XcL acquisitions with just 39 days of EBITDA contribution. For reference, excluding Tug Hill and XcL impacts, we estimate LTM net debt to EBITDA would have been approximately 1.25x at the end of the third quarter.

轉向資產負債表。回想一下，8 月交易結束時，我們以 10 億美元的手頭現金和 12.5 億美元的定期貸款為收購 Tug Hill 和 XcL 的現金對價提供了資金。第三季結束時，我們的總債務為59 億美元，其中包括4 億美元與輕股權可轉換票據相關的債務，相當於2.1 倍的LTM 槓桿，儘管我們注意到這一數字包括了Tug Hill 和XcL 收購融資的全部影響EBITDA 貢獻僅 39 天。作為參考，排除 Tug Hill 和 XcL 的影響，我們估計第三季末 LTM 淨債務與 EBITDA 比率約為 1.25 倍。

Despite rising treasury yields, EQT's credit spreads have tightened, highlighting our strong credit profile. Recall, we were upgraded to Baa3 by Moody's shortly after we closed the Tug Hill acquisition, so we are now investment-grade across all 3 credit rating agencies. I will also note that EQT has the lowest 5-year bond yields among natural gas-weighted peers, 100 basis points below the average, which also reflects the strength of our credit quality, an unwavering commitment to low leverage and our differentiated scale, inventory quality and low cost structure.

儘管國債殖利率不斷上升，殷拓的信用利差卻收緊，凸顯了我們強勁的信用狀況。回想一下，在我們完成對 Tug Hill 的收購後不久，穆迪就將我們的評級升級為 Baa3，因此我們現在在所有 3 個信用評級機構中均達到投資級別。我還要指出的是，EQT 的5 年期債券收益率是天然氣加權同行中最低的，比平均水平低100 個基點，這也反映了我們的信貸品質實力、對低槓桿率的堅定承諾以及我們差異化的規模、庫存質優價廉的結構。

As it relates to capital allocation, we remain pleased with the execution of our shareholder return framework to date, and we'll continue with our opportunistic all-the-above strategy with our North Star being the countercyclical long-term compounding of cash flow. Consistent with our track record, we will maintain a strong bias towards debt repayment over the coming quarters, at least until we achieve our 1x leverage target at $2.75 per MMBtu natural gas pricing, which will provide a fortress balance sheet through all parts of the commodity cycle. This will, in turn, minimize downside risk to our enterprise while allowing us to limit the need to defensively hedge and cap what we anticipate being unpredictable asymmetric price movements to the upside in the years ahead.

由於與資本配置相關，我們對迄今為止股東回報框架的執行仍然感到滿意，我們將繼續執行我們的機會主義所有上述策略，我們的北極星是現金流的反週期長期複利。與我們的往績記錄一致，我們將在未來幾個季度保持債務償還的強烈傾向，至少直到我們實現每MMBtu 天然氣定價2.75 美元的1 倍槓桿目標，這將為商品的所有部分提供一個堡壘資產負債表循環。反過來，這將最大限度地減少我們企業的下行風險，同時允許我們限制防禦性對沖的需要，並限制我們預計未來幾年不可預測的不對稱價格上漲走勢。

We also continue to rigorously assess new investment opportunities with strong risk-adjusted returns that improve the quality of our business, similar to our West Virginia water system we highlighted last quarter. With the XcL Midstream team now part of EQT, we are actively exploring opportunities to deploy capital into differentiated infrastructure investments that can debottleneck our upstream production, allow us to durably compound cash flow at very attractive rates of return with minimal risk while simultaneously improving our operational efficiency.

我們也繼續嚴格評估具有強大風險調整回報的新投資機會，以提高我們的業務質量，類似於我們上季度強調的西維吉尼亞州供水系統。隨著XcL 中游團隊現在已成為EQT 的一部分，我們正在積極探索將資本部署到差異化基礎設施投資的機會，這些投資可以消除我們上游生產的瓶頸，使我們能夠以極具吸引力的回報率和最小的風險持久地複合現金流，同時改善我們的營運效率。

Our share buyback program also remains a key tool for opportunistic execution at points in the cycle where we see favorable risk-reward potential for generating returns well in excess of our weighted average cost of capital. Recall, at our current share price, we have generated an approximate 40% return for shareholders on the roughly $600 million of share repurchases we have executed to date, which is the highest amongst our peer group, and we still have approximately $1.4 billion remaining under our existing authorization.

我們的股票回購計畫仍然是週期中機會主義執行的關鍵工具，我們認為有利的風險回報潛力可以產生遠遠超過我們加權平均資本成本的回報。回想一下，按照我們目前的股價，我們迄今為止執行的約6 億美元的股票回購為股東帶來了約40% 的回報，這是我們同行中最高的，而且我們仍有約14 億美元的剩餘回報。我們現有的授權。

And finally, sustainable long-term base dividend growth is a key pillar of our shareholder return strategy, and to this end, we recently raised our dividend by 5% to $0.63 per share on an annualized basis. Since initiating our dividend in late 2021, we have now increased it by more than 25% cumulatively over that period, which underscores our confidence in the sustainability of our business and a corporate free cash flow breakeven price that is amongst the lowest in North America. As we eliminate structural costs from the business through actions such as debt repayment, share repurchases and synergy capture, we expect to continue growing our base dividend over time without putting upward pressure on our corporate cost structure.

最後，可持續的長期基礎股息成長是我們股東回報策略的關鍵支柱，為此，我們最近將年化股息提高了 5% 至每股 0.63 美元。自 2021 年底開始派息以來，我們在此期間累計增加了 25% 以上，這突顯了我們對業務可持續性的信心，以及公司自由現金流盈虧平衡價格是北美最低之一的信心。隨著我們透過債務償還、股票回購和協同效應捕獲等行動消除業務的結構性成本，我們預計隨著時間的推移，我們的基本股息將繼續增長，而不會給我們的企業成本結構帶來上行壓力。

Turning to the macro environment. We see several factors lending support to the natural gas market in 2024 and beyond. First, strong gas-fired power generation, resilient LNG export demand and lower-than-expected production this summer reduced expected storage overhang than many were forecasting back in the spring by over 300 Bcf. Second, while we do expect some incremental supply from associated gas in connection with new Permian pipeline capacity commencing in the fourth quarter, we see Lower 48 volumes exiting this year flat to slightly down compared to Q3 of 2023. And we see further declines in the first half of 2024 as the impact from a 25%-plus drop in gas rigs since March begins to set in, especially in the high decline Haynesville play where the rig count remains well below maintenance levels.

轉向宏觀環境。我們認為有幾個因素將為 2024 年及以後的天然氣市場提供支援。首先，強勁的燃氣發電、彈性的液化天然氣出口需求以及今年夏季低於預期的產量，使預期儲存過剩量比許多人春季預測的減少了 300 Bcf 以上。其次，雖然我們確實預計與第四季開始的新二疊紀管道產能相關的伴生氣供應會有所增加，但我們預計今年48 州天然氣出口量與2023 年第三季相比持平甚至略有下降。2024 年上半年，天然氣鑽機數量自3 月份以來下降25% 以上的影響開始顯現，特別是在海恩斯維爾(Haynesville) 地區，鑽機數量大幅下降，該區域的鑽機數量仍遠低於維護水平。

Third, the progress demonstrated commissioning the Golden Pass and Plaquemines LNG facilities has been encouraging and will create structural tailwinds, allowing LNG demand to reach a record 15 Bcf per day even before the facilities are fully operational. Fourth, we expect natural gas power generation to continue taking away share from coal as the investment case for coal weakens further, with the market increasingly turning to cleaner burning natural gas. We expect coal production to drop by over 20% year-over-year in 2024 as the effect of the recent wave of coal retirement takes hold, and a tightening coal market will further support the natural gas fundamentals in the power sector moving forward, where total gas equivalent demand for coal still stands at 14 Bcf per day in the United States alone.

第三，Golden Pass 和 Plaquemines 液化天然氣設施的調試所取得的進展令人鼓舞，並將創造結構性順風，使液化天然氣需求即使在設施全面投入運營之前也能達到創紀錄的每天 15 Bcf。第四，隨著市場越來越多地轉向更清潔的天然氣，我們預計隨著煤炭投資理由進一步減弱，天然氣發電將繼續奪走煤炭發電份額。我們預計，隨著近期煤炭退役浪潮的影響，2024年煤炭產量將年減20%以上，而煤炭市場趨緊將進一步支撐電力產業未來的天然氣基本面。僅在美國，煤炭的天然氣當量總需求仍為每天14 Bcf。

Moving to hedging. We tactically added to our hedge position during the quarter to further derisk a portion of our expected free cash flow and debt repayment goals. We now have greater than 40% of our Q1 through Q3 2024 production hedged, inclusive of Tug Hill's volumes, with a weighted average core price of approximately $3.60 per MMBtu and a weighted average ceiling of $4.10 per MMBtu. Note, our hedge position remains strategically tilted towards the first half of 2024, where we see the most potential downside risk should normal weather again not materialize. While protecting near-term cash flow and prioritizing our debt repayment goals, we are intentionally creating the flexibility to maintain maximum upside price exposure in late 2024, 2025 and beyond when the natural gas market looks increasingly tight and we see the potential for pricing to move asymmetrically higher.

轉向對沖。我們在本季戰術性地增加了對沖頭寸，以進一步降低我們預期自由現金流和債務償還目標的部分風險。目前，我們對 2024 年第一季至第三季產量的 40% 以上進行了對沖，包括 Tug Hill 的產量，加權平均核心價格約為每 MMBtu 3.60 美元，加權平均上限為每 MMBtu 4.10 美元。請注意，我們的對沖部位在策略上仍傾向 2024 年上半年，如果正常天氣不再出現，我們認為最潛在的下行風險。在保護短期現金流並優先考慮我們的債務償還目標的同時，我們有意創造靈活性，以便在2024 年末、2025 年及以後，當天然氣市場看起來越來越緊張並且我們看到價格變動的潛力時，維持最大的價格上漲風險不對稱地更高。

As it relates to basis, Appalachian differentials have been relatively wide of late, driven by elevated Eastern storage levels, a byproduct of the warm prior winter. Our strong basis hedge position paid dividends this quarter, boosting our corporate-wide realized natural gas price by $0.12 per MMBtu. We have roughly 80% of expected fourth quarter local volumes covered with basis hedges that are in the money relative to the current strip, so we remain in an advantaged position near term. Over the medium to long term, we see several factors that could lend structural support to Appalachian bases, including the commencement of MVP and additional coal-fired power retirements in the PJM market, creating incremental demand upward of 4 Bcf per day.

就基差而言，阿巴拉契亞差異最近相對較大，這是由於東部儲存水平升高所致，這是前一個溫暖冬季的副產品。我們強大的基差對沖頭寸在本季度帶來了紅利，使我們全公司的天然氣實現價格每 MMBtu 上漲了 0.12 美元。我們預計第四季度本地交易量的大約 80% 覆蓋了基差對沖，這些對沖相對於當前地帶而言是實值的，因此我們短期內仍處於優勢地位。從中長期來看，我們認為有幾個因素可以為阿巴拉契亞基地提供結構性支持，包括 MVP 的啟動和 PJM 市場額外的燃煤發電退役，從而創造每天 4 Bcf 以上的增量需求。

As it relates to MVP timing, we're encouraged by the recent Equitrans and FEMSA consent order and continue to model the first quarter of 2024 in-service date. The outlook for MVP increasingly derisks expansion projects to move production further into the Southeast U.S. are progressing. As Toby highlighted, EQT's scale, quality and depth of inventory, low cost structure and investment-grade balance sheet uniquely position us to help facilitate these expansion projects. This dynamic is underscored by the 1.2 Bcf per day of long-term firm sales agreements that we recently signed with investment-grade utilities in the Southeast region. These deals create a win-win outcome as they underpin the debottlenecking of downstream markets and directly link EQT's volumes to a market price at a meaningful premium to Henry Hub while simultaneously providing utility customers with surety of low-cost natural gas supply for decades to come.

由於它與 MVP 時間相關，我們對最近的 Equitrans 和 FEMSA 同意令感到鼓舞，並繼續對 2024 年第一季的投入日期進行建模。 MVP 的前景越來越危險，將生產進一步轉移到美國東南部的擴張項目正在取得進展。正如托比所強調的，殷拓的庫存規模、品質和深度、低成本結構和投資等級資產負債表使我們處於獨特的地位，可以幫助促進這些擴張項目。我們最近與東南地區投資級公用事業公司簽署的每天 1.2 Bcf 的長期固定銷售協議凸顯了這一動態。這些交易創造了雙贏的結果，因為它們有助於消除下游市場的瓶頸，並將殷拓的產量與市場價格直接掛鉤，價格較亨利港有顯著溢價，同時為公用事業客戶提供未來幾十年低成本天然氣供應的保證。

Upon commencement, we see these agreements and the associated debottlenecking projects improving our 2028 corporate-wide differentials by $0.18 per Mcf, which in turn should drive more than $300 million of annualized free cash flow uplift in 2028 and beyond. These deals provide EQT long-term supply growth optionality that is paired with sustainable utility demand, dynamics which could drive an even greater uplift to long-term free cash flow over time. Importantly, these contracts and debottleneckings occur around the same time our gathering rates with Equitrans complete the contractual step down from $0.80 today to $0.30 per Mcf in 2028, further accelerating the decline in our free cash flow breakeven price and supercharging the free cash flow growth at a time when we expect other gas plays, like the Haynesville, to be approaching inventory depletion, thus driving up the marginal cost of natural gas.

一旦開始，我們看到這些協議和相關的去瓶頸項目將我們2028 年全公司範圍內的差異改善為每McF 0.18 美元，這反過來將推動2028 年及以後的年化自由現金流增加超過3 億美元。這些交易為殷拓提供了長期供應成長的選擇權，與可持續的公用事業需求相結合，隨著時間的推移，動態可能會推動長期自由現金流的更大提升。重要的是，這些合約和消除瓶頸大約在我們與Equitrans 的收集費率完成合約降級的同時，從目前的每mcf 0.80 美元降至2028 年的0.30 美元，進一步加速我們自由現金流盈虧平衡價格的下降，並加速自由現金流增長我們預計海恩斯維爾等其他天然氣田將接近庫存枯竭，從而推高天然氣的邊際成本。

Quite simply, the difference between a higher marginal cost of natural gas experienced by peers compared to EQT's declining cost structure should uniquely accrue to EQT's shareholders in the form of free cash flow growth and value creation. These firm sales agreements represent examples of the various differentiated opportunities we are seeing arise from EQT's gravity and momentum as the clear operator of choice for the highest-quality long-duration inventory in the North American natural gas market. And we believe these opportunities will ultimately allow us to continue to create differentiated shareholder value relative to peers in the years ahead. Importantly, these types of opportunities are not simply due to scale but underpinned by EQT's world-class assets, coupled with a culture and teams that are relentless in their pursuit of excellence as the operator of choice and driven to maximize value for shareholders.

簡言之，與殷拓不斷下降的成本結構相比，同行所經歷的天然氣邊際成本較高之間的差異應該以自由現金流增長和價值創造的形式獨特地體現在殷拓股東身上。這些堅定的銷售協議代表了殷拓作為北美天然氣市場最高品質長期庫存的明確選擇營運商的重要性和勢頭所帶來的各種差異化機會的例子。我們相信，這些機會最終將使我們能夠在未來幾年繼續創造相對於同業的差異化股東價值。重要的是，這些類型的機會不僅取決於規模，而且以殷拓的世界級資產為基礎，加上作為首選運營商不懈追求卓越並致力於為股東實現價值最大化的文化和團隊。

I'll close by highlighting Slide 12 of our investor presentation, which illustrates an internal analysis of the natural gas price required to generate sufficient free cash flow such that a gas producer generates a simple 10% return on current respective enterprise value, what we view to be the most basic tenet of shareholder value creation. We believe the days of wellhead IRRs driving activity levels amongst U.S. gas producers are in the rearview mirror as this behavior related to the destruction of hundreds of billions of dollars of capital in the last decade. Put very simply, wellhead IRRs on D&C CapEx are unrelated to corporate returns and cost of capital. Instead, we see the marginal cost of U.S. natural gas supply beholden to a fully burdened corporate cost curve that requires a sufficient return on corporate capital or enterprise value, not just a return on field level CapEx.

最後，我將重點介紹我們投資者簡報的幻燈片12，該幻燈片說明了對產生足夠自由現金流所需的天然氣價格的內部分析，以便天然氣生產商在當前各自的企業價值上產生簡單的10% 回報，我們對此有何看法成為股東價值創造的最基本宗旨。我們認為，井口 IRR 推動美國天然氣生產商活動水準的日子已經成為過去，因為這種行為與過去十年數千億美元資本的破壞有關。簡而言之，D&C 資本支出的井口 IRR 與企業回報和資本成本無關。相反，我們看到美國天然氣供應的邊際成本取決於完全負擔的企業成本曲線，該曲線需要足夠的企業資本或企業價值回報，而不僅僅是現場資本支出回報。

I want to highlight a few observations from this slide. First, the marginal molecule of U.S. gas supply is coming from the Haynesville, requiring a natural gas price of approximately $3.50 per MMBtu to even begin generating cash flow in maintenance mode, meaning below this price, no shareholder value is being created and inventory optionality is being depleted. On the other hand, EQT is at the low end of the cost of supply curve, which translates to structurally more durable through-the-cycle free cash flow generation and returns for our shareholders and also less need to defensively hedge away gas price upside.

我想強調這張投影片中的一些觀察。首先，美國天然氣供應的邊際分子來自海恩斯維爾，需要每MMBtu 約3.50 美元的天然氣價格才能在維護模式下開始產生現金流，這意味著低於此價格，不會創造股東價值，庫存選擇性也會降低。正在耗盡。另一方面，殷拓處於供應成本曲線的低端，這意味著在結構上更持久的整個週期自由現金流產生和股東回報，也更少需要防禦性對沖天然氣價格上漲。

Further, we see the price required to generate corporate return for Haynesville producers already at north of $4 per MMBtu based on current market valuations. On the other hand, EQT shares are pricing in a level embedding a mid-$3 gap price, providing a superior entry point to gain exposure to natural gas prices and in a superior risk-adjusted manner due to EQT's lower cost of supply. As previously noted, our contractual gathering rate improvement, unrivaled depth of repeatable low-cost inventory and new firm sales agreements will drive EQT's cost of supply even lower over the next 5 years in contrast to the rest of the industry, which will likely see upward pressure over this period as peer producers move toward lower-quality inventory. As a result, we believe EQT is uniquely positioned to capture a disproportionate amount of natural gas price upside relative to peers in the years ahead.

此外，我們認為根據當前市場估值，海恩斯維爾生產商產生企業回報所需的價格已超過每 MMBtu 4 美元。另一方面，EQT 股票的定價水準包含 3 美元中間的價差，為獲得天然氣價格敞口提供了優越的切入點，並且由於 EQT 的供應成本較低，因此可以以優越的風險調整方式進行投資。如前所述，我們的合約收集率提高、無與倫比的可重複低成本庫存深度以及新的公司銷售協議將推動 EQT 的供應成本在未來 5 年內更低，而行業其他公司的供應成本可能會上升由於同行生產商轉向較低品質的庫存，在此期間面臨壓力。因此，我們認為殷拓擁有獨特的優勢，能夠在未來幾年抓住與同行不成比例的天然氣價格上漲空間。

I'll now turn the call back over to Toby for some concluding remarks.

現在我將把電話轉回托比，讓其做一些總結性發言。

Thanks, Jeremy. To conclude today's prepared remarks, I want to reiterate a few key points. Number one, the momentum and gravity at EQT right now is unrivaled, and I have never felt anything like it in my career. We are executing at record levels, signing historic physical supply deals that simultaneously maximize the value of each molecule and provide secure supply to end customers while cutting emissions and executing on a vision to create the preeminent low-cost producer of natural gas on the global stage.

謝謝，傑里米。作為今天準備好的發言的總結，我想重申幾個要點。第一，殷拓目前的動力和引力是無與倫比的，我在職業生涯中從未有過這樣的感覺。我們正在以創紀錄的水平執行，簽署歷史性的實物供應協議，同時最大限度地提高每個分子的價值，為最終客戶提供安全的供應，同時減少排放，並實現在全球舞台上創建卓越的低成本天然氣生產商的願景。

Second, integration of the Tug Hill and XcL assets is blazing ahead at record pace, which speaks to the power of our proprietary digital platform and continued refinements of our integration playbook. Third, after a stellar second quarter, our drilling and completions teams yet again set new internal and world records in Q3. Fourth, this superior operational execution is facilitating additional value creation potential on the Tug Hill assets, with EQT's team already improving drilling and completion efficiency by 40% in just 60 days of operating the assets, driving the potential for $150 per foot of well cost savings.

其次，Tug Hill 和 XcL 資產的整合正以創紀錄的速度快速推進，這證明了我們專有數位平台的力量以及我們整合策略的持續改進。第三，在第二季表現出色之後，我們的鑽井和完井團隊在第三季再次創造了新的內部和世界記錄。第四，這種卓越的營運執行力正在促進Tug Hill 資產的額外價值創造潛力，EQT 團隊在資產運營的短短60 天內就將鑽井和完井效率提高了40%，每英尺井成本節省了150美元。

Fifth, the firm sales agreements we announced associated with our MVP capacity are materially accretive to our long-term free cash flow outlook and shareholder value and highlight the differentiated opportunities arising from EQT's peer-leading scale, low cost structure, inventory depth and environmental attributes. And finally, sixth, our first-of-its-kind public-private forest management partnership with the state of West Virginia should create one of the highest quality, most verifiable nature-based carbon sequestration projects and should help facilitate EQT becoming the first energy company in the world of meaningful scale to achieve net 0 emissions. And with that, I'd now like to open the call to questions.

第五，我們宣布的與MVP 產能相關的公司銷售協議對我們的長期自由現金流前景和股東價值有實質性的促進作用，並凸顯了殷拓同行領先的規模、低成本結構、庫存深度和環境屬性所帶來的差異化機會。最後，第六，我們與西維吉尼亞州建立的首個公私森林管理夥伴關係應創建一個最高品質、最可驗證的基於自然的碳封存項目，並應有助於促進 EQT 成為第一個能源世界上具有有意義規模的公司實現淨零排放。現在我想開始提問。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Umang Choudhary with Goldman Sachs.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自高盛的 Umang Choudhary。

The firm sales contract on the Mountain Valley Pipeline is notable, given it improves the company's long-term supply cost positioning, which I assume is not completely reflected on Slide #12. So a couple of questions here. Like how did this deal come together? Is there a potential for similar opportunities in the future? And also if you can help investors get a better sense of the risk in achieving the free cash flow uplift of more than $300 million.

山谷管道的確定銷售合約值得注意，因為它改善了公司的長期供應成本定位，我認為幻燈片 #12 並未完全反映這一點。這裡有幾個問題。例如這筆交易是如何達成的？未來是否有可能出現類似的機會？另外，如果您可以幫助投資者更好地認識超過 3 億美元的自由現金流成長所面臨的風險。

Umang, this is Toby. Let me just put some broader color on what's happening in the United States, and then I'll kick it over to Jeremy for more of the details. Over the last 10 years, we've seen natural gas demand grow about 50% in this country. During that period of time, the pipeline capacity that's been built has only grown about 25%. And so it shows the drive from a need for more pipeline infrastructure that would lead to opportunities like this going forward. Jeremy, do you want to cover some of the more detailed points about this transaction, how it came together?

烏芒，這是托比。讓我對美國正在發生的事情進行一些更廣泛的描述，然後我將把它交給傑里米以了解更多細節。過去 10 年，我們看到該國的天然氣需求增加了約 50%。在此期間，已建成的管道容量僅增加了約25%。因此，它顯示了對更多管道基礎設施的需求的驅動力，這將導致未來出現類似的機會。傑里米（Jeremy），您想談談有關這筆交易的一些更詳細的問題嗎？它是如何進行的？

Yes, absolutely. So this is something we've been working on for several months, and it's part of just our ongoing commercial strategy to really find opportunities like this. If you want to think about it at a high level, we're effectively taking 1.2 Bcf a day of volume that's currently being sold in the local M2 market. And instead, through these transactions, the net effect is selling that at about a NYMEX minus $0.40 type differential when you take into account the premium in-market pricing we're getting and the cost to transport it there on MVP. That gets you to that, call it, $0.15 to $0.20 of all-in company-wide differential improvement in 2028 and beyond. And that's what gets that $300 million just in total of annual cash flow uplift.

是的，一點沒錯。因此，這是我們幾個月來一直在努力的事情，也是我們真正尋找這樣的機會的持續商業策略的一部分。如果您想從較高的層面考慮，我們實際上每天獲取 1.2 Bcf 的交易量，目前在當地 M2 市場上銷售。相反，透過這些交易，當你考慮到我們獲得的溢價市場定價以及透過 MVP 將其運輸到那裡的成本時，淨效應是以約 NYMEX 減去 0.40 美元的類型差價出售。這會讓你在 2028 年及以後實現全公司範圍內差異改善 0.15 至 0.20 美元。這就是年度現金流增加總計 3 億美元的原因。

Great. And is there any further opportunities of such nature which you foresee in the future? And also, if you can help us quantify the risk around that free cash flow uplift of $300 million. Do you see any scenarios where that $300 million will not come through for EQT?

偉大的。您預計未來還會有類似的機會嗎？另外，如果您能幫助我們量化 3 億美元自由現金流增加的風險。您是否認為殷拓無法支付這 3 億美元？

Yes. It's a good question. We think the risk is relatively low because the contracts were structured in different tranches. In many ways, we're actually linked to NYMEX pricing and Gulf Coast pricing. And so any change in NYMEX or just from the pull on the LNG market in that export Gulf Coast region should really benefit these contracts and the way they're priced directly.

是的。這是一個好問題。我們認為風險相對較低，因為合約的結構是不同的。在很多方面，我們實際上與 NYMEX 定價和墨西哥灣沿岸定價相關。因此，NYMEX 的任何變化或僅僅是墨西哥灣沿岸出口地區液化天然氣市場的拉動，都應該真正有利於這些合約及其直接定價方式。

In terms of further uplift, look, we hope this is really the first of a lot of contracts like this. We still have plenty of volume at our scale that we can use to try to pair into deals like this. And really, if you think about the way we're approaching our LNG strategy through the tolling structure, what we'd really like to do is try to replicate the essence of what we're doing here really on the global stage, taking molecules that are sold domestically and pairing them up with contracts like this and selling them abroad. So we really hope across the business, this is the first of many deals like this.

就進一步提升而言，我們希望這確實是許多此類合約中的第一個。我們的規模仍然有足夠的交易量，我們可以用來嘗試配對這樣的交易。事實上，如果你考慮一下我們透過收費結構實現液化天然氣戰略的方式，我們真正想做的是嘗試在全球舞台上複製我們正在做的事情的本質，採取分子在國內銷售並將它們與這樣的合同配對並在國外銷售。因此，我們真誠地希望整個行業都能做到這一點，這是眾多此類交易中的第一筆。

But they take time to do, but again, it's -- I think it's evidence we're building the business for the long run, doing deals like this that even if there might be some sort of near-term cost, I mean, you think about a deal like these firm sales deals, there might be, near term, a little bit of downside to cash flow. But think about it, the AMA that we restructured here is maybe a couple of hundred million dollars in the next year or 2 of hit, but that's really made up by 10x that over the life of these contracts. So it's really restructuring something for kind of a 10:1 investment return is really how we look at it as we're really trying to build long-term value.

但他們需要時間來做，但同樣，我認為這證明我們正在建立長期業務，進行這樣的交易，即使可能存在某種短期成本，我的意思是，你考慮一下像這些確定的銷售交易這樣的交易，短期內現金流可能會出現一些下行。但想一想，我們在這裡重組的 AMA 可能在未來一兩年內達到數億美元，但這實際上是由這些合約生命週期內的 10 倍彌補的。因此，這實際上是為了獲得 10:1 的投資回報而進行重組，這就是我們的看法，因為我們確實在努力建立長期價值。

Your next question comes from the line of John Abbott with Bank of America.

你的下一個問題來自美國銀行的約翰·阿博特。

Toby, there's been a lot of press speculation recently about further industry consolidation even between gas companies. How do you think about industry consolidation from here and how do you see EQT's potential role in that?

托比，最近有許多媒體猜測甚至天然氣公司之間會進一步進行產業整合。您如何看待目前的產業整合？您如何看待殷拓在其中的潛在角色？

Well, my view hasn't changed. We think consolidation is a tool, when used correctly, to create a lot of value for shareholders. I think you look at the track record that we've established over the past few years, we've done really smart deals and we've created a lot of value. Look at the Tug Hill acquisition, we are focused on lowering our cost structure. Those assets have lowered our cost structure by about $0.15 pre-synergies. So the operational efficiencies that we're demonstrating now will be additive on top of that, improved our long-life inventory and also making the energy cleaner.

嗯，我的看法沒有改變。我們認為，合併是一種工具，如果使用得當，可以為股東創造大量價值。我想你看看我們過去幾年所建立的業績記錄，我們做了非常明智的交易，並且創造了很多價值。看看對 Tug Hill 的收購，我們專注於降低成本結構。這些資產使我們的成本結構在協同效應前降低了約 0.15 美元。因此，我們現在展示的營運效率將在此之上增加，改善我們的長壽命庫存，並使能源更加清潔。

Tug Hill ran a pretty clean program, but now these assets are going to be incorporated into our net 0 goal, so make the energy we produce cleaner as well. So I think every opportunity has to be looked at, at a stand-alone basis. But for us, the guiding light is always what can we do to lower our cost structure, make us a better business, produce more reliable and cleaner energy. And we'll be disciplined and continue to wait until we see anything that looks attractive to us.

Tug Hill 運行了一個相當清潔的計劃，但現在這些資產將納入我們的淨零目標，因此也使我們生產的能源更加清潔。因此，我認為每個機會都必須單獨考慮。但對我們來說，指路明燈始終是我們能做些什麼來降低成本結構，讓我們的業務變得更好，生產更可靠、更乾淨的能源。我們會遵守紀律，繼續等待，直到看到任何對我們有吸引力的東西。

Appreciate that. And then for our follow-up question, appreciate the free cash flow guidance that you sort of provided right there. But when you think about spending, I mean, you haven't put out your budget, but when you think about long-term -- true long-term maintenance CapEx without taking into account potential debottlenecking opportunities, how do you think of that at this point in time from a spend perspective to hold maybe 2.3 Tcfe flat?

感謝。然後，對於我們的後續問題，感謝您在那裡提供的自由現金流指導。但是，當你考慮支出時，我的意思是，你還沒有拿出預算，但是當你考慮長期——真正的長期維護資本支出而不考慮潛在的消除瓶頸機會時，你如何看待這一點從支出角度來看，此時此刻是否可以保持2.3 Tcfe 持平？

Yes, let me take that one. So let's use next year as a proxy. So we expect, while we're still working through the budget, we expect a low $2 billion type all-in CapEx number. But we'll provide more color at a later date on this, but it's really important to note that the CapEx required to just maintain our base business is really quite a bit below that. Really, what we're trying to do right now is find new opportunities to reinvest into low-risk, strong return opportunities, so things like the West Virginia water system that we invested in talked about last quarter, good example of that.

是的，讓我拿那個。所以讓我們用明年來當代理。因此，我們預計，雖然我們仍在製定預算，但總資本支出預計將達到 20 億美元。但我們稍後會對此提供更多信息，但值得注意的是，維持我們的基礎業務所需的資本支出實際上遠低於此水平。事實上，我們現在正在努力尋找新的機會，對低風險、高回報的機會進行再投資，所以我們上季度談到的西維吉尼亞州供水系統就是一個很好的例子。

We're looking at a couple of other infrastructure projects through our XcL platform now to debottleneck volumes, to realize better pricing. We're also seeing opportunities really on the land front, which we think are unique to Appalachia, opportunities where we effectively can acquire new locations for about $1 million per location, and these are locations worth $5 million to $10 million when drilled. So we have a pretty active program replacing about 80% of our lateral footage developed each year, which sort of perpetually extends our inventory.

我們現在正在透過 XcL 平台研究其他幾個基礎設施項目，以消除數量瓶頸，以實現更好的定價。我們也真正看到了陸地方面的機會，我們認為這是阿巴拉契亞獨有的，我們可以有效地以每個地點約100 萬美元的價格獲得新地點的機會，而這些地點在鑽探後價值500 萬至1000 萬美元。因此，我們有一個非常活躍的計劃，取代了每年開發的約 80% 的橫向鏡頭，這在某種程度上永久地擴展了我們的庫存。

And so on a rate of return basis, we see those as, call it, 5:1, 10:1 type investments. And so as we see those come up, we'll continue to allocate CapEx towards that. But really that long-term just maintenance CapEx number for the base business is probably closer to right about $2 billion. And we don't see that changing materially in the really 5-year forecast at least.

因此，在回報率的基礎上，我們將這些視為 5:1、10:1 類型的投資。因此，當我們看到這些問題出現時，我們將繼續為此分配資本支出。但實際上，基礎業務的長期維護資本支出數字可能更接近 20 億美元。至少在實際的 5 年預測中，我們認為這種情況不會有重大變化。

Your next question comes from the line of Arun Jayaram with JPMorgan.

你的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Arun Jayaram。

Toby, the crown jewel of the Tug Hill deal was the XcL Midstream system. I wanted to get your thoughts on value creation opportunities from integrating the midstream further in terms of internal and third-party opportunities. Obviously, it is going to help your cost structure as you highlighted as well.

Toby 是 Tug Hill 交易皇冠上的明珠，它是 XcL Midstream 系統。我想了解您對透過內部和第三方機會進一步整合中游來創造價值的機會的看法。顯然，正如您所強調的那樣，這將有助於您的成本結構。

Yes. Arun, we're excited about the potential for this asset base and the leadership team we picked up to create value in this area. But I'd say as we're looking for more investment opportunities that will generate pretty attractive low-risk returns that we're looking for, we're going to continue to just keep pushing the ball on and capturing those synergies that we identified. That Clarington Connector is something that's top of mind for us, looking to accelerate any water debottlenecking.

是的。阿倫，我們對這個資產基礎的潛力以及我們挑選的在該領域創造價值的領導團隊感到興奮。但我想說，當我們正在尋找更多投資機會，這些機會將產生我們正在尋找的相當有吸引力的低風險回報時，我們將繼續繼續推動並捕捉我們確定的協同效應。 Clarington Connector 是我們的首要考慮因素，旨在加速消除水資源瓶頸。

One thing that's really important to just highlight is a lot of the completion efficiency gains have come from debottlenecking water. So that will be -- continue to be a big focus there on that front. And hopefully, these investments in water infrastructure will give us an opportunity to continually come back and talk about the cost savings, both on an LOE front and the completion side of things.

需要強調的一件非常重要的事情是，完井效率的提升很大程度上來自於消除水瓶頸。因此，這將繼續成為這方面的重點。希望這些對水利基礎設施的投資將使我們有機會不斷回來討論成本節約，無論是在 LOE 方面還是在完成方面。

From a third-party business opportunity, this team is definitely capable and with our systems that we have, we're able to provide those opportunities to others where it makes sense. But one of the things with a really large contiguous acreage position is third-party opportunities are limited, but if they do pop up, we've got our eyes out for them and we'll be taking advantage of those.

從第三方業務機會來看，這個團隊絕對有能力，而且憑藉我們擁有的系統，我們能夠在有意義的情況下向其他人提供這些機會。但擁有大量連續種植面積的原因之一是第三方機會有限，但如果它們確實出現，我們會密切注意並利用它們。

Great. And just maybe a follow-up on the 2024 outlook where you've highlighted $1.7 billion of free cash flow potential. It sounds like CapEx will be in the low $2 billion range. Can you give us a sense on your thoughts on differentials for next year?

偉大的。也許只是 2024 年展望的後續，您強調了 17 億美元的自由現金流潛力。聽起來資本支出將在 20 億美元左右。您能否告訴我們您對明年差速器的想法？

Yes. I'd say on a -- kind of what's embedded in that is on an all-in company basis like a $0.55 to $0.60 kind of all-in differential. I mean, we're seeing quite a bit of movement right now, but that's probably the appropriate range if you're trying to tie numbers out.

是的。我想說的是，其中嵌入的內容是在全押公司的基礎上，例如 0.55 美元到 0.60 美元的全押差額。我的意思是，我們現在看到了相當多的變動，但如果你想確定數字，這可能是合適的範圍。

Your next question comes from the line of Nitin Kumar with Mizuho.

你的下一個問題來自 Nitin Kumar 和 Mizuho 的線。

I kind of want to start on this new firm sales contract. I think, Jeremy, you mentioned that there's an impact of about $100 million to $200 million near term. Could you help us bridge the gap of what is driving that? I understand that the longer-term benefit comes from better pricing. What's the restructuring of the AMA costing you?

我有點想開始簽訂這份新的公司銷售合約。 Jeremy，我想您提到近期會產生約 1 億至 2 億美元的影響。您能幫助我們彌合推動這一趨勢的差距嗎？我知道長期利益來自於更好的定價。 AMA 的重組為您帶來了哪些成本？

Yes. So that AMA originally, if you remember, was $525 million a day. And so the cost of MVP during this, call it, 2- to 3-year period until these expansion projects are built out, effectively, what that's saying is that's probably $125 million to $150 million a year of near-term free cash flow that we opted to give up, so call it $300 million maybe in total. And if you use some high-level math and say the total annual free cash flow we gain when these projects come online is about $300 million, it's like a 10% free cash flow yield, is about $3 billion. So we kind of see it as, again, $3 billion over $300 million is about 10:1. So again, we think about it more from an investment perspective, it's a near-term investment for a pretty material long-term value uplift.

是的。如果你還記得的話，最初的 AMA 每天是 5.25 億美元。因此，在這些擴張項目有效建成之前的 2 到 3 年期間，MVP 的成本可能是每年 1.25 億到 1.5 億美元的近期自由現金流我們選擇放棄，所以總共可能是 3 億美元。如果你使用一些高級數學，並說當這些項目上線時我們獲得的年度自由現金流總額約為 3 億美元，相當於 10% 的自由現金流收益率，約為 30 億美元。因此，我們再次認為 30 億美元與 3 億美元的比例約為 10:1。所以，我們再次從投資的角度來考慮它，這是一項短期投資，可以帶來相當大的長期價值提升。

Got it. That makes sense. And then just maybe a quick question around service costs. You mentioned the low $2 billion type of CapEx number for next year. If you could maybe help us peel the onion a little bit around assumptions around deflation. You talked about pretty material capital savings from operating efficiencies on Tug Hill, $150 per foot. How much of that is baked in? Or what are your thoughts on the service cost environment right now?

知道了。這就說得通了。然後可能是關於服務成本的簡單問題。您提到了明年 20 億美元的資本支出。如果你能幫助我們圍繞通貨緊縮的假設稍微剝一下洋蔥。您談到了 Tug Hill 的營運效率帶來了相當大的資本節省，每英尺 150 美元。其中有多少是烘烤的？或者您對目前的服務成本環境有何看法？

So at a very high level, we're expecting, I'd say, single-digit service cost deflation. Biggest driver there is on the steel where we'll see a 20% reduction in steel costs. I'd say the bigger opportunity for us to lower our cost is going to come from continued operational excellence in the field. One of the examples that's sort of underpinning our budget in this upcoming year is assuming a 400 hour per month frac pace. And as we've seen with the teams, 500 hours is possible. So we're working to shore up what we can do to make the 500 number more of the average, not just the high watermark. And those will translate to probably more significant cost savings than what we're seeing on the service side.

因此，在一個非常高的水平上，我想說，我們預計服務成本將出現個位數的通貨緊縮。最大的推動因素是鋼鐵，我們將看到鋼鐵成本下降 20%。我想說，我們降低成本的更大機會將來自於該領域持續的卓越營運。支撐我們來年預算的一個例子是假設每月 400 小時的壓裂速度。正如我們在團隊中看到的那樣，500 小時是可能的。因此，我們正在努力加強我們可以採取的措施，使 500 的數字高於平均水平，而不僅僅是高水位線。這些將轉化為可能比我們在服務方面看到的更顯著的成本節省。

Your next question comes from the line of David Deckelbaum with TD Cowen.

你的下一個問題來自 David Deckelbaum 和 TD Cowen 的對話。

I wanted to ask just that you provided the '24 outlook. I assume that at this point, it sounds like that's the original budget of the $1.7 billion base for EQT and then $300 million-plus or so for Tug Hill. So it doesn't seem like you're incorporating any of the benefits that you're seeing so far of improvements, especially on the Tug Hill side.

我只是想問一下您是否提供了 24 年的展望。我認為，在這一點上，聽起來這就是 EQT 17 億美元基礎的原始預算，然後是 Tug Hill 3 億多美元左右的預算。因此，您似乎沒有將迄今為止所看到的改進帶來的任何好處納入其中，尤其是在塔格山一側。

Well, I would say, again, the important caveat to that is from a true maintenance perspective from our business, if you don't count infrastructure spend, some of the opportunistic land spend and maybe a couple of other small items we have in there, I think that actual maintenance CapEx number would come in very much at the low end. So we're guiding more towards total CapEx, including some of that growth opportunistic capital, if that makes sense. So that, I think, should bridge the numbers that you're talking to.

好吧，我想再說一遍，重要的警告是從我們業務的真正維護角度來看，如果你不計算基礎設施支出、一些機會主義的土地支出以及我們在那裡可能有的其他一些小項目，我認為實際維護資本支出數字將非常低。因此，如果有意義的話，我們將更引導總資本支出，包括一些成長機會主義資本。因此，我認為，這應該能夠彌合您正在談論的數字。

Well, maybe like if you could expand on that a bit because I think that's helpful. As we think about improvements into the business from an efficiency standpoint into '25, could you sort of quantify some of like the maybe front-loaded opportunistic investments around infrastructure and lands that would be in '24? Does that extend through '25, '26? Is this a multiyear integration and investment process? Or is this more of an upfront '24 situation?

好吧，也許你可以稍微擴展一下，因為我認為這很有幫助。當我們從效率的角度考慮到 25 世紀的業務改進時，您能否量化一些可能在 24 世紀圍繞基礎設施和土地的前期機會主義投資？這會延續到'25、'26嗎？這是一個多年的整合和投資過程嗎？或者這更像是 24 年前的情況？

Look, I think it's just opportunistic. It's based on when we see opportunities come about. And obviously, they have to meet our pretty stringent criteria to justify investment. But again, if we're looking at the opportunity to pick up some additional land in 1 to 2 years ahead of the drill bit and make 5:1, 10:1 on that investment, we're going to do that every time. If we see the opportunity to invest in long-term infrastructure and get a 20%, 25% cash flow yield on that with virtually no risk, we're going to do that. And so look, I think next year, it could be in the $100 million to $200 million range of that additional growth capital. And I think what's true maintenance, if you want to think about that, is probably much closer to that $2 billion number.

聽著，我認為這只是機會主義。它基於我們何時看到機會出現。顯然，他們必須滿足我們相當嚴格的標準才能證明投資的合理性。但同樣，如果我們正在尋找機會在鑽頭開工前 1 到 2 年內獲得一些額外的土地，並以 5:1、10:1 的投資比例進行投資，我們每次都會這樣做。如果我們看到投資長期基礎設施的機會，並在幾乎沒有風險的情況下獲得 20%、25% 的現金流收益率，我們就會這麼做。因此，我認為明年，額外成長資本可能會達到 1 億至 2 億美元。我認為，如果你想一下，真正的維護費用可能更接近 20 億美元的數字。

Appreciate it. I guess sneaking in a housekeeping one. Is there a meaningful shift in your deferred tax assumptions for next year, cash tax as a percentage of overall burden?

欣賞它。我想偷偷溜進一個家事服務吧。您明年的遞延稅假設、現金稅佔整體負擔的百分比是否發生有意義的變化？

No. We don't see any material taxes paid in 2024. And then I think as you get into 2025, at least where strip is today, we're maybe looking at closer to like a 15% tax rate. And then by the time you get to 2026, we're a full cash taxpayer, kind of a low 20% cash tax rate.

不。我們沒有看到 2024 年繳納任何實質稅款。然後我認為，當進入 2025 年時，至少在今天的地帶，我們可能會考慮更接近 15% 的稅率。到 2026 年，我們將成為全額現金納稅人，現金稅率為 20%。

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Scialla with Stephens.

你的下一個問題來自 Michael Scialla 和 Stephens 的對話。

Wanted to see, you talked about the potential for the $150 per foot of savings with the operational efficiencies that you're into the Tug Hill assets, what needs to happen for that to become a reality? And I guess where are those relative costs based on the wells completed there so far?

想了解一下，您談到了 Tug Hill 資產的營運效率可以帶來每英尺 150 美元的節省潛力，需要做什麼才能成為現實？我猜想，根據迄今為止已完成的油井，這些相對成本在哪裡？

Well, the cost savings that we had, the $150, about half of that is operational efficiency, the other half is well design. So for that to materialize, we need to continue executing in the field and putting up some big numbers on drilling speeds and completion pace, obviously doing it as safely as possible to accomplish that.

嗯，我們節省的成本是 150 美元，其中大約一半是營運效率，另一半是好的設計。因此，為了實現這一目標，我們需要繼續在現場執行，並在鑽井速度和完井速度上取得一些大數據，顯然要盡可能安全地實現這一目標。

The other thing I'd say on the well design side of things, that's probably going to take a little bit more time to materialize because we will take a more methodical pace on the science. We don't just run out and make all the changes at once. So there'll be some monitoring time observed there. But when you step back and think about these type of operational synergies that we'll achieve, the $150 a foot could translate to about $50 million of total spend, which would translate to about, call it, $0.02 to $0.03 lower on our cost structure on top of the previously planned $0.15. So I hope that adds some more color to your question.

我想說的另一件事是，在良好的設計方面，這可能需要更多的時間才能實現，因為我們將在科學上採取更有條理的步伐。我們不會一次完成所有更改。所以那裡會觀察到一些監控時間。但是，當您退後一步思考我們將實現的此類營運協同效應時，每英尺 150 美元可能會轉化為總支出約 5000 萬美元，這意味著我們的成本結構會降低 0.02 至 0.03 美元在之前計劃的0.15 美元基礎上。所以我希望這能為你的問題增添一些色彩。

That's helpful. And I wanted to ask about the -- your agreements with the LNG. In terms of -- any comments there on the discussions you're having with potential end users of LNG? And would any agreement there be contingent on converting your HOAs to binding agreements? Sort of what's the processes play out there?

這很有幫助。我想問一下你們與液化天然氣公司的協議。就您與液化天然氣潛在最終用戶的討論而言，您有何評論？是否有任何協議取決於將您的 HOA 轉換為具有約束力的協議？那裡的流程是什麼樣的呢？

Yes. Great question. There's actually been a lot of interest, a lot of parties reaching out to us about this. So we've been really encouraged by that to date. In terms of sequencing, we do need to get those long-term agreements signed on the supply side before signing the ultimate SPA. But it's really a -- it's a parallel process and so we are working through that. In terms of timing, it's probably 6 to 12 months out before kind of the whole package of those is done. But look, we've been really encouraged by the progress to date.

是的。很好的問題。事實上，有很多人對此感興趣，許多團體向我們伸出援手。因此，迄今為止，我們對此感到非常鼓舞。從順序上來說，我們確實需要在簽署最終的SPA之前先在供應方簽署這些長期協議。但這確實是一個並行的過程，所以我們正在解決這個問題。就時間而言，可能需要 6 到 12 個月的時間才能完成所有這些工作。但看，迄今為止所取得的進展讓我們深受鼓舞。

Your next question comes from the line of Kevin MacCurdy with Pickering Energy Partners.

您的下一個問題來自 Pickering Energy Partners 的 Kevin MacCurdy。

The firm sales contracts you locked in starting in 2027 are very impressive. With those margins derisked, do you have any plans to grow into the volumes? And is that baked into your 2024 to 2028 free cash flow outlook?

您從 2027 年開始鎖定的固定銷售合約非常令人印象深刻。隨著這些利潤的風險降低，您是否有擴大銷售的計畫？這是否已納入您對 2024 年至 2028 年自由現金流的展望中？

We certainly have the option to. We just got these deals signed a couple of weeks ago, so we've not made any long-term plan adjustments. But that is an exciting option that's really paired with this from a value creation standpoint and something that we will evaluate in time if the price environment merits that level of activity.

我們當然可以選擇。我們幾週前剛剛簽署了這些協議，所以我們還沒有做出任何長期計劃調整。但這是一個令人興奮的選擇，從價值創造的角度來看，它確實與此相匹配，如果價格環境值得這種活動水平，我們將及時評估。

Got you. So it's not baked into that outlook at this time, the 60% free cash flow at BV?

明白你了。那麼，目前 BV 60% 的自由現金流並未納入此前景？

That's right.

這是正確的。

Great. And then you mentioned the $0.55 ff NYMEX for 2024. I just wanted to get a little bit more clarity on whether that included basis hedges and any BTU uplift.

偉大的。然後您提到 2024 年 NYMEX 折扣為 0.55 美元。我只是想更清楚地了解這是否包括基差對沖和任何 BTU 上調。

Yes, that's right. It's all in.

恩，那就對了。都進去了

Your next question comes from the line of Jean Ann Salisbury with Bernstein.

你的下一個問題來自讓安·索爾茲伯里和伯恩斯坦的對話。

I just -- on the 2 MPA of HOAs, do you have an ideal share of portfolio linked to global gas prices? And what's kind of your thinking that underpins that ideal share if you do?

我只是 - 在 HOA 的 2 MPA 上，您是否擁有與全球天然氣價格相關的理想投資組合份額？如果你這樣做的話，你的想法是什麼？

Yes. I think if you step back and said -- and looked at this purely from a market diversification perspective, somewhere around 10% exposed to international markets feels balanced. But this will ultimately depend on what type of netbacks that we're able to achieve by connecting to that market, and that will sort of turn the knob on where we sit with that. But right now, as it stands, this 2 million tons per annum for us is us putting our toes in the water.

是的。我認為，如果你退一步說——純粹從市場多元化的角度來看這個問題，大約 10% 的國際市場敞口感覺是平衡的。但這最終取決於我們能夠透過連接到該市場來實現什麼類型的淨回饋，這將在某種程度上改變我們的立場。但目前，就目前情況而言，每年 200 萬噸對我們來說只是嘗試。

I mean, it's a significant amount of auditing the gas and provide a ton of energy security for customers around the world, but it's less than 5% of our total volume. So we're going to take a measured approach in accessing this market.

我的意思是，這需要大量的天然氣審核工作，並為世界各地的客戶提供大量的能源安全，但這還不到我們總量的 5%。因此，我們將採取謹慎的方法來進入這個市場。

Your next question comes from the line of Paul Diamond with Citi.

您的下一個問題來自花旗銀行的保羅‧戴蒙德 (Paul Diamond)。

Just a quick one. You guys talked about the kind of that theoretical max is 500 days versus the average of about 400 currently. I just wanted to see if you guys could put a little bit of clarity around, I guess, how you see bridging that gap? Like how close can you get to the 600 and over what time frame?

只是快一點。你們談到了理論上最長的期限是 500 天，而目前的平均期限約為 400 天。我只是想看看你們是否可以澄清一點，我想，你們如何看待彌合這一差距？例如您距離 600 英里有多近以及需要多長時間？

Yes. So the theoretical max is around 600 hours per month, and we set plans for 400 and hope to repeat the 500 hours per month. Listen, the biggest thing is going to be the logistical support for these frac operations. And that's all about getting as much water and sand to location as possible. We've spent a lot of time on the sand side. There could be some infrastructure investment opportunities for us on that pace to bring transload facilities closer to the actual frac sites.

是的。因此，理論上限約為每月 600 小時，我們計劃為 400 小時，並希望每月重複 500 小時。聽著，最重要的是對這些壓裂作業的後勤支援。這就是將盡可能多的水和沙子運送到指定地點。我們在沙灘上度過了很多時間。以這樣的速度，我們可能會有一些基礎設施投資機會，讓轉運設施更接近實際的壓裂地點。

Those opportunities are relatively small, $8 million to $10 million upfront cost, but they can pay dividends over time. And then obviously, we understand the benefits and economics behind water infrastructure. One of the biggest benefits with EQT and one of the benefits of our having a deep inventory in this area is we're going to be able to make these investments because we have so much inventory that's going to benefit from these investments. And that certainly is a key differentiator to think about -- when you think about these opportunities present within EQT versus others.

這些機會相對較小，前期成本為 800 萬至 1000 萬美元，但隨著時間的推移，它們可以帶來紅利。顯然，我們了解水利基礎設施背後的效益和經濟效益。 EQT 的最大好處之一以及我們在這一領域擁有大量庫存的好處之一是我們將能夠進行這些投資，因為我們擁有大量庫存，可以從這些投資中受益。當您考慮 EQT 與其他​​公司提供的這些機會時，這無疑是一個需要考慮的關鍵區別因素。

Understood. And just one quick follow-up. You guys talked about the incorporation of MVP and coal retirements producing about 4 Bcf of incremental demand out of Appalachia. Just wanted if you could give a bit of clarity around the timing of that. Is that over the next 1 year, 5 years? Just how do you see that kind of developing?

明白了。只需一個快速跟進。你們談到了 MVP 和煤炭退役的結合，為阿巴拉契亞地區帶來了約 4 Bcf 的增量需求。只是想知道您是否可以澄清一下時間表。是未來1年、5年嗎？您如何看待這種發展？

Yes. So I mean, half of that is obviously MVP at 2 Bcf a day. And the rest of it, we kind of look at it over the next 5 years kind of chipping away. It's not obviously an annual growth number, but we see over that time frame that demand showing up kind of through those different changes in the market.

是的。所以我的意思是，其中一半顯然是每天 2 Bcf 的 MVP。剩下的部分，我們會在未來 5 年內逐步逐步消除。這顯然不是一個年度成長數字，但我們看到在這段時間內，需求透過市場的不同變化而顯現出來。

Your next question comes from the line of Noel Parks with Tuohy Brothers.

您的下一個問題來自 Noel Parks 和 Tuohy Brothers 的線路。

One question I had was as you have put together some of these longer-term forecasts and projections, and when you making the infrastructure piece there, some of the trends look really compelling. As you look at different pricing scenarios, do you picture -- and this, of course, would be a high class problem. Do you picture a gas price high enough where a plausible feeder kind of gets reintroduced of the industry overdrilling again? I mean, I know is that sustained $6, $7 or something like that?

我的一個問題是，當你將一些長期預測和預測放在一起時，當你在那裡製作基礎設施部分時，一些趨勢看起來非常引人注目。當您考慮不同的定價方案時，您是否會想像 - 當然，這將是一個高級問題。您是否想像天然氣價格夠高，從而再次引入產業過度鑽探的合理支線？我的意思是，我知道持續的金額是 6 美元、7 美元還是類似的金額？

Yes. I mean, I think our biggest thing that is going to be the biggest driving force maybe on how people think about the dollars they spend towards drilling is really getting away from the half-cycle wellhead returns and looking more at a holistic cost of returns and gas price needed to actually not just generate free cash flow and cover your cost of supply, but actually create, deliver value back towards shareholders. And that right-now scenario is showing us that even with current strip is below the price level needed to generate the cost of returns that investors are demanding right now.

是的。我的意思是，我認為我們最重要的事情將成為最大的推動力，也許人們如何看待他們在鑽井上花費的美元，真正擺脫半週期井口回報，更多地關注回報的整體成本和天然氣價格實際上不僅需要產生自由現金流並覆蓋供應成本，而且還需要真正為股東創造和交付價值。目前的情況向我們表明，即使目前的帶鋼價格仍低於產生投資者目前要求的回報成本所需的價格水平。

So if you look at it from that perspective, I think you'd be a little bit more cautious over activity levels. But we think the -- what's happened in this industry over the past few years in this sustainable shale era is operators, I think, are being much more holistic when they're making their investment decisions, and that's going to lead to better -- a more durable industry that's better to serve customers over the long term and also keep investors happy and satisfied with the returns that they're making.

因此，如果您從這個角度來看，我認為您會對活動水平更加謹慎。但我們認為，在這個可持續的頁岩時代，過去幾年這個行業發生的事情是，我認為，運營商在做出投資決策時變得更加全面，這將帶來更好的結果——一個更持久的產業，可以更好地長期服務客戶，也讓投資人對他們所獲得的回報感到高興和滿意。

I'd say another interesting caveat to that, that's really important to remember. I think a lot of people like to talk in terms of averages when talking about future gas prices or commodity prices. In our view, I think what's going to change a bit in the character of the gas market going forward is in a world where there's less coal to switch to, you have renewable intermittency, you have your days of demand cover dwindling for gas. So you're going to see a lot more volatility. And so instead of a clear price signal, so to speak, of $5 or $6, as you suggested, which would give you confidence to drill and grow, I think you might see a year where gas is really high and another year where gas is really low. That will average out to an attractive price to the middle, but it does create a lot of volatility.

我想說另一個有趣的警告，記住這一點非常重要。我認為很多人在談論未來的天然氣價格或大宗商品價格時喜歡用平均值來談論。在我們看來，未來天然氣市場的特徵將會發生一些變化，因為可供改用的煤炭越來越少，再生能源間歇性，天然氣需求天數不斷減少。所以你會看到更多的波動。因此，我認為您可能會看到某一年天然氣價格非常高，而另一年天然氣價格卻很高，而不是像您建議的那樣，明確的價格信號為5 美元或6 美元，這會給您鑽探和增長的信心。真的很低。這對中間人來說將是一個有吸引力的價格，但它確實會產生很大的波動性。

And I think from a planning perspective for companies that are just pure upstream producers, it creates a lot more pause before saying, we want to go invest an extra $1 billion in drilling in a given year. And I think that if you want to look at a case study of that, you can see what happened in the past 12 months where that really seemed to be all the rage in 2022 where prices were high single digits. And all it took were a couple of events and prices fell as low as $2. Now you're seeing the Haynesville start to really decline.

我認為，從純粹上游生產商的規劃角度來看，在說我們希望在某一年額外投資 10 億美元進行鑽探之前，這會造成更多的停頓。我認為，如果你想看一個案例研究，你可以看到過去 12 個月發生的事情，在 2022 年，這種情況似乎真的很流行，價格高達個位數。只需要發生幾次事件，價格就跌至 2 美元。現在你會看到海恩斯維爾開始真正衰退。

So I think when you look ahead, I think that's an important differentiation. But I think the net effect is you're going to see some aircrafts emerge of oversupply and undersupply. And that really underpins our focus on cost structure because we don't want to be one of those producers that has to decline and has to ramp back up. We'd love to be able to really produce durable cash flow and return for investors through the cycle.

所以我認為當你展望未來時，我認為這是一個重要的區別。但我認為最終的影響是你會看到一些飛機出現供應過剩和供應不足的情況。這確實支撐了我們對成本結構的關注，因為我們不想成為那些必須下降並必須回升的生產商之一。我們希望能夠在整個週期中真正為投資者產生持久的現金流和回報。

And again, if you're worried about prices one year falling to $2 like we just saw this year and you have to hedge that but then you missed prices going back up materially higher, over the long run, you're not going to generate nearly as much value. So again, that outlook is really informing how we scope the business, whether it's through just organic cost cutting, it's our hedging strategy, our balance sheet, how we think about future M&A. But that characteristic, I think, is an important caveat and it will be a lot different in the next 5 years compared to the prior 5 years.

再說一次，如果你擔心一年的價格會像我們今年剛剛看到的那樣跌至2 美元，你必須對沖這一點，但隨後你錯過了價格大幅回升的機會，從長遠來看，你將不會產生幾乎同樣的價值。再說一次，這種前景確實告訴我們如何確定業務範圍，無論是透過有機成本削減，還是我們的對沖策略、我們的資產負債表，以及我們如何看待未來的併購。但我認為，這項特徵是一個重要的警告，與前 5 年相比，未來 5 年將會有很大不同。

Great. Thanks a lot for bringing the volatility angle into it. And I also want to touch on the issue of coal replacement. And I was just wondering, are you -- as you see utilities doing their longer-term planning, do you see any signs of the impact from some of the advanced technology out there, for example, for gas turbines, greater efficiency, lower emissions and so forth? Is that in the equation as you see some of these core replacements on the horizon?

偉大的。非常感謝您將波動性角度納入其中。我還想談談煤炭替代問題。我只是想知道，當您看到公用事業公司進行長期規劃時，您是否看到一些先進技術產生影響的跡象，例如燃氣渦輪機、更高的效率、更低的排放等等？當您看到即將出現的一些核心替代品時，這是否在等式中？

Well, I think what you are seeing is energy security coming back into the headlines in the American grid. And when you look at all, a lot of the power generation capacity that's been added. Over the last 5 years, a lot of it has come from intermittent, albeit lower carbon energy solutions like wind and solar. And people are now stepping back and saying, do we have the reliability that we need? And you see this across all ISOs across the country where your peak demand number is coming very close to your reliable electricity generation.

嗯，我認為你所看到的是能源安全重新成為美國電網的頭條新聞。當你仔細觀察時，你會發現大量的發電能力被增加了。在過去的五年裡，其中很大一部分來自間歇性但低碳的能源解決方案，如風能和太陽能。人們現在退一步問，我們有我們需要的可靠性嗎？您可以在全國所有 ISO 中看到這一點，其中您的尖峰需求數量非常接近您的可靠發電量。

While you may have coverage from intermittent sources above that, you realize that when that peak demand hits and you're pushing -- your red lining your reliable electricity power generation, you're on your knees praying for the wind to blow and the sun to shine. And I think people are looking at this now and looking for more energy security and realizing that low carbon energy solutions like natural gas are going to be the solution that the world needs.

雖然您可能會收到上述間歇性來源的報道，但您意識到，當高峰需求到來時，您正在推動——您的紅線，您的可靠發電，您跪下祈禱風吹和太陽閃耀。我認為人們現在正在關注這一點，尋求更多的能源安全，並意識到天然氣等低碳能源解決方案將成為世界所需的解決方案。

Your final question comes from the line of Bert Donnes with Truist.

你的最後一個問題來自 Bert Donnes 和 Truist 的對話。

Toby, I think you brought this up a few times, the idea of downside protection when it comes to hedging and even your LNG strategy that I think provides a floor. It seems like you're more careful in protecting the downside risk versus some of your peers. So maybe that backs off a little bit once you hit your leverage target. But do you think this is just the nature of you guys being the biggest guy in the room or are you looking longer term? Or maybe you just currently have a different investor base that are asking different things of you? But just any thoughts there.

托比，我想你已經多次提到這個問題，在對沖方面的下行保護的想法，甚至我認為你的液化天然氣策略提供了一個底線。與一些同行相比，您似乎在保護下行風險方面更加謹慎。因此，一旦您達到槓桿目標，情況可能會有所下降。但你認為這只是你們作為房間裡最大的人的本質，還是你們的目光長遠？或者您目前有不同的投資者基礎，對您提出了不同的要求？但只是有任何想法。

Well, I think it's just prudent as an investor to think about protecting against the downside while also providing exposure to what we think is going to be a really exciting natural gas market. So I think one thing that's going to be the alternative is -- and we can play that with -- by hedging and caring about the floors and also caring about the ceilings we're putting in our business, we can do that with some of the supply deals, we structure delivering floors that cover our cost of capital, allow us to generate the returns that our investors are demanding while also providing ceilings that prevent customers from experiencing price blowouts.

嗯，我認為作為投資者，謹慎的做法是考慮防範下行風險，同時也提供我們認為將是一個非常令人興奮的天然氣市場的機會。因此，我認為另一種選擇是——我們可以利用這一點——透過對沖和關心地板，同時關心我們在業務中設置的天花板，我們可以用一些在供應交易中，我們建立了覆蓋我們資本成本的交付底線，使我們能夠產生投資者所要求的回報，同時也提供上限，以防止客戶經歷價格井噴。

And at the end of the day, the integrated energy producer like EQT that has control over the cost to pull the gas out of the ground, the contracts to move it through the pipeline and get it through the tailpipe of our LNG facility, we can offer pricing that ensures us to be able to generate returns but also gives the world what it really needs, which is guardrails on pricing. And that is -- that will give them the energy security that ultimately is so desperately needed right now.

歸根結底，像 EQT 這樣的綜合能源生產商可以控制從地下開採天然氣的成本，透過合約將其通過管道輸送並通過我們的液化天然氣設施的尾管，我們可以提供的定價既能確保我們能夠產生回報，又能滿足世界真正需要的東西，這就是定價的護欄。也就是說，這將為他們提供目前迫切需要的能源安全。

So again, we think customers that are looking to play the spot market with this volatility, it's going to get pretty exciting. And I think we can take away some of the volatility and still generates pretty great returns and create some really great win-win scenarios for customers.

因此，我們再次認為，希望在這種波動性下參與現貨市場的客戶將會變得非常令人興奮。我認為我們可以消除一些波動性，仍然能產生相當可觀的回報，並為客戶創造一些真正偉大的雙贏場景。

Yes. And let me add to that, Bert. I mean, look, I think we've moved from a world in the last couple of years, we're playing defense and very programmatically hedging to a position being fully back to investment grade now with the low cost structure, one of the lowest amongst peers where we can much more opportunistically say, where do we see risk on the curve? Where do we see opportunity?

是的。讓我補充一下，伯特。我的意思是，看，我認為我們已經從過去幾年的世界中轉移出來，我們正在採取防禦措施，並非常有計劃地對沖到現在完全回到投資級別的位置，成本結構是最低的結構之一在同行中，我們可以更機會主義地說，我們在哪裡看到曲線上的風險？我們在哪裡看到機會？

And again, that's why we keep trying to reemphasize how we're taking a more tactical approach to hedging at the moment. So again, we've increasingly leaned into more hedges in the next 12, really 9 to 12 months because whether the biggest driver's winter during that time period, so whether that is a warm winter, a cold winter, a normal winter, prices could be up $0.50 to $1 or down $0.50 to $1. We don't see it materially moving probably beyond that, but that changes a lot as you get later into 2024 and into 2025, where relative to where the strip is right now and the other fundamental factors playing into it, the declines in production we expect to see start to really materialize in the Haynesville, in particular, combined with the LNG, the pickup in LNG demand, which by the end of 2025, we're modeling at about a 5 Bcf a day increase, and you have another probably 1 Bcf a day increase on top of that in the form of exports to Mexico.

再次強調，這就是為什麼我們不斷試圖重新強調我們目前如何採取更具戰術性的方法來對沖。因此，在接下來的12 個月，實際上是9 到12 個月，我們越來越傾向於採取更多的對沖措施，因為無論是該時期內最大的驅動因素是冬季，無論是溫暖的冬季、寒冷的冬季還是正常的冬季，價格都可能會上漲。上漲 0.50 美元至 1 美元或下跌 0.50 美元至 1 美元。我們認為，情況可能不會超出這一範圍，但隨著 2024 年晚些時候和 2025 年的到來，情況會發生很大變化，相對於目前的地帶和其他基本因素，我們認為產量下降預計海恩斯維爾將開始真正實現這一目標，特別是與液化天然氣相結合，液化天然氣需求的回升，到2025 年底，我們建模的液化天然氣需求每天增加約5 Bcf，並且您可能還有另一個需求除此之外，出口至墨西哥的量每天增加1 Bcf。

Another structural demand from things like industrial. That market looks increasingly tight with a backdrop of low DUC inventory and actually under-investment. And so when we see opportunities like that emerge, we want to provide investors exposure to that. But look, at the end of the day, if I were to say, you don't have a dynamic like that at play, I think our focus in hedging will be protecting just the fixed cost structure of the business and taking out some of the volatility associated with that.

另一種結構性需求來自工業等領域。在 DUC 庫存較低且實際投資不足的背景下，該市場看起來越來越緊張。因此，當我們看到這樣的機會出現時，我們希望為投資者提供接觸機會。但是，歸根結底，如果我說，你沒有這樣的動態在發揮作用，我認為我們對沖的重點將是保護業務的固定成本結構，並剔除一些與此相關的波動性。

And again, in a world of high volatility, as I explained a few minutes ago, that we'd expect to see in the future, there'll be really great years and also some years that could be pretty tough like we saw earlier this year. And so we'd like to really take that volatility out. And if you think about the essence of what a lot of investors, high-quality investors, in particular, are looking for an energy right now, is durable cash flow and yield and its price exposure, right? And so what we're trying to do through our hedging program is really try to scope that exposure for those investors and provide that long-term runway where they can have that in the next 5 to 10 years. We're not trying to run a business that is just the highest volatility option on gas price. We're trying to run it like a real business.

再說一遍，在一個高度波動的世界中，正如我幾分鐘前所解釋的那樣，我們預計未來會看到，將會有非常偉大的年份，也有一些年份可能會非常艱難，就像我們早些時候看到的那樣年。因此，我們希望真正消除這種波動性。如果你想一想，許多投資者，尤其是高品質投資者現在正在尋找的能源的本質是持久的現金流和收益率及其價格風險，對嗎？因此，我們試圖透過我們的對沖計劃真正嘗試為這些投資者確定風險敞口的範圍，並為他們在未來 5 到 10 年內提供長期的跑道。我們並不是試圖經營天然氣價格波動性最高的業務。我們正在努力像真正的企業一樣經營它。

Those are a lot of great points. And then maybe shifting gears a little bit. It looks like you're drilling slightly shorter laterals in 4Q versus 3Q, but you're still completing or turning in line maybe some longer laterals. So could you talk if there's a strategy shift there or if that's just a quarterly blip and you're still targeting longer laterals?

這些都是很多重點。然後也許會稍微改一下。看起來您在 4Q 中鑽的支管比 3Q 中的支管稍短，但您仍在完成或在線轉彎，可能是一些較長的支管。那麼，您能否談談是否存在戰略轉變，或者這只是一個季度的曇花一現，而您仍然以更長的橫向業務為目標？

Yes. We're still targeting longer laterals. There will be variances quarter-to-quarter and that's sort of what you may be seeing here. But the strategy has not changed. The strategy to continue to leverage common development and unlock the scale of our asset base is still being top of mind and applied every day.

是的。我們的目標仍然是更長的支線。每個季度都會有差異，這就是您可能在這裡看到的情況。但策略沒有改變。繼續推動共同發展、釋放資產規模的策略仍然是首要考慮和日常實踐。

Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to Toby Rice for closing remarks.

女士們、先生們，目前沒有其他問題了。現在我將把電話轉給 Toby Rice 致閉幕詞。

Thanks, Eric. This quarter marks another quarter where we've demonstrated some pretty meaningful steps to make the energy we produce at EQT cheaper, more reliable and cleaner for the world and also create value for shareholders. What was really great to see this quarter is really talking about how the differentiating aspects of our business, our low-cost structure, our scale, our deep inventory and environmental attributes are actually creating value and creating opportunities for our business that we are optimistic will present some really attractive investment opportunities for us in the future, and we look forward to keeping you guys updated along the way.

謝謝，埃里克。本季標誌著我們又一個季度展示了一些非常有意義的步驟，使我們在 EQT 生產的能源對世界來說更便宜、更可靠和更清潔，並為股東創造價值。本季真正令人高興的是，我們正在談論我們業務的差異化方面、我們的低成本結構、我們的規模、我們的深度庫存和環境屬性實際上正在為我們的業務創造價值和創造機會，我們對此持樂觀態度。未來將為我們帶來一些真正有吸引力的投資機會，我們期待為大家提供最新資訊。

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝大家的加入。您現在可以斷開連線。