Expand Energy Corp (EXE) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day and welcome to the Expand Energy 2025 first quarter earnings teleconference. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the conference over to Chris Ayres, Vice President in Investor Relations and Special Projects. Please go ahead.

大家好，歡迎參加 Expand Energy 2025 第一季財報電話會議。此時，所有參與者都處於只聽模式。（操作員指示）現在，我想將會議交給投資者關係和特別項目副總裁克里斯·艾爾斯 (Chris Ayres)。請繼續。

Thank you, Jonathan. Good morning, everyone and thank you for joining our call today to discuss the Expand Energy's 2025 first quarter financial and operating results. Hopefully you've had a chance to review the press release and updated presentation we posted to our website yesterday.

謝謝你，喬納森。大家早安，感謝您今天參加我們的電話會議，討論 Expand Energy 2025 年第一季的財務和營運業績。希望您有機會閱讀我們昨天發佈到我們網站上的新聞稿和更新的簡報。

During this morning's call, we'll be making forward-looking statements which consist of statements that cannot be confirmed by reference to existing information, including statements regarding our beliefs, goals, expectations, forecasts, projections, and future performance and the assumptions underlying in such statements.

在今天早上的電話會議中，我們將做出前瞻性陳述，這些陳述包括無法透過現有資訊證實的陳述，包括有關我們的信念、目標、期望、預測、預期和未來表現的陳述以及此類陳述中所依據的假設。

Please note that there are also a number of factors that will cause actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements, including factors identified and discussed in our press release yesterday and in other SEC filings.

請注意，還有許多因素會導致實際結果與我們的前瞻性聲明有重大差異，包括我們昨天的新聞稿和其他 SEC 文件中確定和討論的因素。

Please recognize that except as required by law, we undertake no duty to update any forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on such statements. We may also refer to some non-GAAP financial measures which will help facilitate comparison across periods with peers for any non-GAAP measure there's a reconciliation that can be found on our website.

請注意，除法律要求外，我們不承擔更新任何前瞻性陳述的義務，您不應過度依賴此類陳述。我們也可能參考一些非公認會計準則 (non-GAAP) 財務指標，這將有助於與同業進行跨時期比較，對於任何非公認會計準則 (non-GAAP) 指標，可以在我們的網站上找到對帳表。

With me on the call today are Nick Dell’Osso, Mohit Singh, Josh Vietz, and Dan Turco. Nick will give a brief overview of our results, and then we'll open up the teleconference for Q&A. So with that, thank you again, and now turn the conference over to Nick.

今天與我一起參加電話會議的還有 Nick Dell'Osso、Mohit Singh、Josh Vietz 和 Dan Turco。尼克將簡要概述我們的結果，然後我們將開始電話會議進行問答。因此，再次感謝您，現在將會議交給尼克。

Good morning thank you all for joining our call today. Recent market volatility has reinforced the importance of our strategy. The steps we took over the last year to build scale in the best gas assets, lower our costs through merger synergies, strengthen our capital structure, and invest in our marketing business, have successfully reduced the impact of market volatility in our company.

早安，感謝大家今天參加我們的電話會議。最近的市場波動強化了我們策略的重要性。去年，我們採取措施擴大最佳天然氣資產的規模，透過合併綜效降低成本，加強資本結構，並投資行銷業務，成功降低了市場波動對公司的影響。

Overcoming market volatility requires a resilient financial foundation, a deep market connected portfolio, and low cost efficient operations, all hallmarks of our company and strategy. In addition, we plan for an allocated capital around a mid-cycle gas price of $350 to $4.

克服市場波動需要有韌性的財務基礎、深度市場互聯的投資組合以及低成本高效的運營，這些都是我們公司和策略的標誌。此外，我們計劃在中期汽油價格 350 美元至 4 美元左右分配資金。

While markets have been volatile, this pricing is still consistent with the forward strip and our view has not changed. While spot prices may be lower today, the macro fundamentals for natural gas remain very constructive, with growing LNG and data center demand setting up the market for a strong 2026 and steady rig count for lower 48 activity, implying a stable, not growing production.

儘管市場波動較大，但這項定價仍與遠期價格一致，我們的觀點並沒有改變。雖然目前現貨價格可能較低，但天然氣的宏觀基本面仍然非常有利，液化天然氣和資料中心需求的成長為 2026 年的強勁市場奠定了基礎，而 48 個鑽井平台數量保持穩定，這意味著產量穩定，而不是成長。

Against today's macro backdrop, we've continued to safely and efficiently execute our business. Our integration efforts remain on track, and we expect to achieve approximately $400 million in synergies in 2025 and $500 million by the year in 2026. Since closed, we've eliminated approximately $1 billion in gross debt, including approximately $440 million in the first quarter.

在當今的宏觀背景下，我們繼續安全且有效率地開展業務。我們的整合工作仍在進行中，我們預計到 2025 年將實現約 4 億美元的協同效應，到 2026 年將實現 5 億美元的協同效應。自交易完成後，我們已消除了約 10 億美元的總債務，其中包括第一季的約 4.4 億美元。

In March, we joined the S&P 500 index and we were recently upgraded to investment grade by Moody’s, which means we have now achieved investment grade ratings by all of the agencies. These important milestones further demonstrate the strength of our company and the value of combining Chesapeake and Southwestern to create Expand Energy.

今年 3 月，我們加入了標準普爾 500 指數，最近又被穆迪上調至投資等級，這意味著我們現在已經獲得所有機構的投資等級評級。這些重要的里程碑進一步證明了我們公司的實力以及切薩皮克和西南能源合併創建 Expand Energy 的價值。

While both companies have achieved these results individually, I'm confident we greatly accelerated the timing through our combination. I am proud of the way our team has come together and embraced the role we play in answering the call to deliver affordable, reliable, lower carbon energy to markets in need.

雖然兩家公司都各自取得了這些成果，但我相信透過合併，我們可以大大加快這一進程。我為我們的團隊團結一致、積極響應號召、為有需要的市場提供價格合理、可靠、低碳能源的方式感到自豪。

We also continue to benefit from the tailwind of our productive capacity strategy has provided our business. Building productive capacity allowed us to efficiently increase volumes as demand growth. To put our strategy in context over the first 12 months, volumes from our productive capacity wells will generate approximately $225 million more in free cash flow compared to if we had elected to turn the wells in line last year.

我們也持續受益於生產能力策略為我們的業務帶來的順風。生產能力的建設使我們能夠隨著需求的成長有效地增加產量。就我們的策略而言，在未來 12 個月內，與去年我們選擇讓油井恢復生產相比，我們的生產能力油井的產量將產生約 2.25 億美元的自由現金流。

We expect to exit 2025 at approximately 7.2 Bcfe per day, turning in line substantially all productive capacity built in 2024. As we look towards 2026, we are well positioned to deliver returns for our shareholders.

我們預計，2025 年產量將達到每天約 72 億立方英尺當量，基本上滿足 2024 年建成的所有生產能力。展望 2026 年，我們已準備好為股東帶來回報。

We expect to see a significant inflection in our free cash flow next year on top of the very strong year we're having in 2025, while growing our production to 7.5 Bcfe a day. This will allow us to return a significant amount of capital to shareholders.

我們預計，在 2025 年業績非常強勁的基礎上，明年我們的自由現金流將出現顯著變化，同時我們的日產量將增至 75 億立方英尺當量。這將使我們能夠向股東返還大量資本。

Sound capital allocation and prudent hedging will reduce risks and underpin our free cash flow. We look forward to continuing to update you on our progress. The operator will now turn the call over for questions.

合理的資本配置和審慎的對沖將降低風險並支撐我們的自由現金流。我們期待繼續向您通報我們的進展。接線員現在將把電話轉交給提問者。

Certainly. Neil Mehta from Goldman Sachs.

當然。高盛的 Neil Mehta。

Yeah, good morning, Nick, and team. I appreciate all the comments here today. I, I'd love your updated thoughts around hedging. You guys did layer in a lot of those hedges for 2026, just talk about, the way you're thinking about the plan going forward and why you elected to do that.

是的，早上好，尼克和團隊。我感謝今天這裡的所有評論。我，我很想了解您關於對沖的最新想法。你們確實為 2026 年制定了很多對沖措施，請談談你們對未來計畫的看法以及為什麼選擇這樣做。

Good morning, Neil. This is Mohit. I'll take that question. As you've seen us in the past, we will continue our disciplined approach towards hedging, and we view that as just our way of managing the commodity price, the risk that's embedded in there. It allows us to utilize--capitalize on the volatility that we see in the commodity prices and to increase the downside protection at attractive levels while retaining some of the upside participation.

早安，尼爾。這是 Mohit。我來回答這個問題。正如您過去所見，我們將繼續採取嚴謹的對沖方式，我們認為這只是我們管理商品價格及其所蘊含的風險的方式。它使我們能夠利用商品價格的波動性，並在有吸引力的水平上增加下行保護，同時保留一些上行參與。

One stat that I will mention to you is since the start of the year we have added about 740 Bcfe of new hedges of various tenors into Q1,2027 with the average floor price of $33.75 and an average ceiling of $5.10.

我要向您提及的一個統計數據是，自今年年初以來，我們在 2027 年第一季度增加了約 7400 億立方英尺標準煤的各種期限的新對沖，平均底價為 33.75 美元，平均上限為 5.10 美元。

This has worked really well for us in the past and as another testament to the strength of the program. Last year we recognized $1.6 billion of hedge gains. In a soft price environment so we know the program works. So going forward, it remains unchanged, and you'll continue to see us be disciplined about layering in more hedges as we see prices strengthen both in the near term and at the back end of the curve.

這對我們來說在過去確實非常有效，並且再次證明了該計劃的實力。去年我們確認了 16 億美元的對沖收益。在價格疲軟的環境下，我們知道該計劃是有效的。因此，展望未來，這一情況將保持不變，隨著價格在短期和曲線後端走強，您將繼續看到我們嚴格進行更多對沖。

Yeah, thank you. And then the follow up is just on, your perspective on the gas commodity. We have had a pretty dramatic move in the front backs have been pretty well bid still, but in the front, do you think that's supply or demand, and then you may just talk about your perspective on balance of the year and how we move, how we progress from here.

是的，謝謝。接下來的問題是您對天然氣商品的看法。我們在前線已經有了相當戲劇性的舉動，後衛線的出價仍然相當不錯，但在前線，你認為這是供給還是需求，然後你可以談談你對今年平衡的看法，以及我們如何行動，我們如何從現在開始進步。

Yeah, absolutely. The front has been volatile; it's been interesting to watch. We've seen supply be a bit robust through the first part of the year, and that's, I think a function of the fact that we and some others had some deferred activity that we brought online into the cold winter that we had this year, creating some flush production. The incremental demand allows all of that deferred activity to flow at full rate. And so I think you had a pretty strong production start to the year.

是的，絕對是如此。前線局勢一直動盪不安；看起來很有趣。我們看到今年上半年的供應有點強勁，我認為這是因為我們和其他一些人有一些延期活動，我們在今年寒冷的冬天開始使用這些活動，從而創造了一些充足的產量。增量需求使得所有延期活動都能全速進行。所以我認為你們今年的開局生產表現相當強勁。

In addition to that it was very cold initially in January and in February and March were a bit more normal. April then has been pretty under historic demand levels. So I think you've seen a combination of supply be strong, demand be light.

除此之外，一月初天氣非常寒冷，二月和三月則稍微正常一些。四月的需求水準遠低於歷史水準。所以我認為你已經看到了供應強勁、需求疲軟的組合。

I want to, just remind you that the way we think about it is the near-term volatility is something that we plan to absorb within the way that we think about capital allocation. So we were, spent a lot of time on the last call. Talking about capital allocation utilizing a two to three year forward look of mid-cycle prices.

我想提醒您，我們的想法是，短期波動是我們計劃在考慮資本配置的方式中吸收的東西。因此，我們在最後一次通話上花費了大量時間。談論利用兩到三年的中期週期價格展望來進行資本配置。

Knowing that in the near-term cycles will drive prices higher and lower than that mid-cycle price. I think that's exactly what we've seen, and we feel really good about all of the fundamentals that drive our mid-cycle price expectations and our price expectations broadly for '25, '26, '27 that still support, exactly the same way we've set up our business.

了解近期週期將推動價格高於或低於中期週期價格。我認為這正是我們所看到的，我們對推動我們中期價格預期以及 25、26、27 年價格預期的所有基本面感到非常滿意，這些基本面仍然支持著我們，就像我們建立業務的方式一樣。

Makes a lot of sense. Thanks, Nick.

很有道理。謝謝，尼克。

Thank you. Douglas Leggate, Wolfe Research.

謝謝。道格拉斯·萊格特（Douglas Leggate），沃爾夫研究公司。

Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Nick, I wonder if I could follow up on that. I mean, just looking at the hedge range, I think you and I have talked in the past, and I'm sure others about the volatility, the increased volatility of this market, and you've got like a 50% spread on these hedges just as a matter of record.

謝謝。大家早安。尼克，我想知道我是否可以跟進這個問題。我的意思是，僅從對沖範圍來看，我想你和我過去已經談過，而且我相信其他人也談論過波動性，這個市場的波動性增加，而且根據記錄，這些對沖的利差約為 50%。

My question is, navigating that, you've talked about lowering your break even for the portfolio. Where is that today? Where do you think, it can get to during this period? And obviously, there's a lot goes into that, the synergies, the incremental delivery of those synergies, the marketing uplift in margins, and so on. I'm just wondering if you could talk to us about the trajectory for your break even as you pay down debt.

我的問題是，您談到了降低投資組合的損益平衡點。今天它在哪裡？您認為，在此期間它能到達哪裡？顯然，這其中涉及許多因素，包括協同效應、協同效應的逐步實現、利潤率的營銷提升等等。我只是想知道您是否可以和我們談談您在償還債務的同時如何實現收入突破的軌跡。

Yeah, that's a great question, Doug, and it's absolutely what we think about every day around here. Our break evens today as we, begin to realize the synergies of the merger have moved, a little bit below $3. We think they're going to continue to drive lower, and we're focused every day on driving them lower through the remainder of realizing the synergies of the transaction as well as further efficiencies that we're going to drive through our business.

是的，這是一個很好的問題，道格，這絕對是我們每天都在思考的問題。我們今天的損益平衡點是，我們開始意識到合併的綜效已經略微低於 3 美元。我們認為他們會繼續降低價格，我們每天都專注於透過實現交易的協同效應以及透過我們的業務進一步提高效率來降低價格。

Just to, just for clarity, Nick, is that the current spending level or is that maintenance capital spending level?

只是為了清楚起見，尼克，這是當前的支出水準還是維護資本支出水準？

They're pretty close to the same number, right? I mean, our current spending level is where we expect to hold production, so that they're the same thing.

它們非常接近相同的數字，對嗎？我的意思是，我們目前的支出水平是我們預計保持生產的水平，所以它們是同一件事。

Okay, great stuff. My follow-up is, it's a marketing question, I'm afraid. I know I tried this last quarter, but you recently had a trip out to Asia. I know you're looking at outlets, all over the place, I guess, for your gas as the biggest gas producer now in the US, but I'm curious if you're ready to offer any kind of insight as to what impact that can have on real realized prices for you guys, and to the extent you can share, what that LNG, potential supply bank look like for expand going forward into US LNG facilities.

好的，很棒的東西。我的後續問題是，恐怕這是一個行銷問題。我知道我上個季度嘗試過這個，但你最近去了亞洲旅行。我知道，作為美國目前最大的天然氣生產商，你們正在各地尋找天然氣銷售點，但我很好奇，您是否願意提供任何見解，說明這會對你們的實際價格產生什麼影響，以及在何種程度上，您可以分享一下，液化天然氣的潛在供應庫在未來擴展到美國液化天然氣設施時是什麼樣子的。

Hey, good morning, Doug. This is Dan. I'll take that question. So on the LNG side, as you'd expect, a company of our size now after the merger and scale, we've been in a lot of conversations about potentially entering the LNG business and the reference we've been out in Asia lately talking to numerous opportunities.

嘿，早上好，道格。這是丹。我來回答這個問題。因此，在液化天然氣方面，正如您所期望的那樣，在合併和擴大規模之後，我們這樣規模的公司已經進行了很多關於進入液化天然氣業務的討論，並且我們最近在亞洲討論了眾多機會。

I think where we're currently situated, and especially in the Haynesville, we're well positioned to grow that value chain, and we're in numerous conversations at the moment at various stages of the projects. And I'm not going to comment on anything that's commercially sensitive, but I think there is value there for us to either sell into those projects or even go further downstream to expand our value chain and look for more upside.

我認為，就我們目前所處的位置，特別是在海恩斯維爾，我們完全有能力發展這一價值鏈，而且我們目前正在就專案的各個階段進行多次對話。我不會對任何商業敏感問題發表評論，但我認為，我們可以向這些項目出售產品，甚至進一步向下游拓展我們的價值鏈，尋求更多的上行空間。

The key in this is to have the right risk reward balance as we get into that and make sure that intrinsically we're in the money and what we're doing and try to capture that extrinsic upside after. But again, early conversations in various stages at the moment that I don't want to comment beyond that.

其中的關鍵是，當我們進入這個領域時，要有正確的風險回報平衡，並確保從本質上我們有錢，並且我們正在做的事情，並試圖抓住之後的外在好處。但再次強調，目前早期對話處於不同階段，我不想發表更多評論。

Good to hear you on the call then thanks so much.

很高興在電話裡聽到您的聲音，非常感謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you. Zach Parham, JP Morgan.

謝謝。摩根大通的紮克·帕勒姆。

Hey, thanks for taking my question. I wanted to ask on the cash return program in this first six month period of the new framework, you're going to have some free cash flow that falls into Tranche 3. Can you give some detail on how you're thinking about cash return from that bucket? Do you plan to be active buying back the stock, or will you lean more towards a variable dividend or maybe a combination of both?

嘿，謝謝你回答我的問題。我想問一下新框架實施後的前六個月的現金回饋計劃，你們是否會有一些屬於第三部分的自由現金流。您能否詳細說明您如何考慮從該桶中獲得現金回報？您是否計劃積極回購股票，或者您是否更傾向於浮動股息或兩者兼而有之？

Yeah, thanks Zach. So you know we're really pleased with our return framework. We think it's set up well for this year.

是的，謝謝札克。所以你知道我們對我們的回報框架非常滿意。我們認為今年的安排很好。

We're just getting into the point at which we'll start to determine now how that Tranche 3 will be applied, and we'll be thinking about that over the coming weeks. I think it may have some more to add here.

我們正處於開始確定如何使用第三批資金的階段，我們將在接下來的幾週內考慮這個問題。我認為這裡可能還有一些內容需要補充。

Yeah, Zach, the things I will add is we view a strong balance sheet as a competitive advantage, and that's something that we will continue to focus on. We remain very pleased with the progress we have made so far in terms of paying down around $1 billion of gross debt, so that that's very close to the target we had set for ourselves of $1.1 billion by end of 2025.

是的，扎克，我想補充的是，我們認為強勁的資產負債表是一種競爭優勢，這是我們將繼續關注的事情。我們對迄今為止在償還約 10 億美元總債務方面取得的進展感到非常滿意，這非常接近我們為自己設定的到 2025 年底償還 11 億美元的目標。

The last thing I'll say to you is if you look at our historical track record, we've returned about $3.7 billion to our investors through a combination of base dividends, variable dividends and buybacks. So that should demonstrate our unwavering commitment to return cash back to the shareholders. And as Tranche 3 gets waterfall into at current prices, you should expect us to be active in the market if the stock is trading in the right levels.

我要告訴你們的最後一件事是，如果你們看看我們的歷史記錄，我們透過基本股息、浮動股息和回購等方式向投資者返還了約 37 億美元。這應該表明我們堅定不移地致力於向股東返還現金。隨著第三批股票以當前價格進入市場，如果股票交易處於正確的水平，您應該期望我們在市場上活躍起來。

Thanks, and then my follow up wanted to ask on Haynesville activity levels in the slides you show you're up to 4-frat crew there. That compares to the prior disclosure that it indicated you average three crews from the year or for the year. Can you talk about what's changed from an operational perspective? Have you pulled forward a little bit of activity just given some higher pricing? Just curious what's changed in the operational plans there.

謝謝，然後我想問幻燈片中海恩斯維爾的活動水平，您在那裡展示了 4 個兄弟會成員。相較之下，先前的揭露顯示，當年或全年平均有三名工作人員。能從營運角度談談發生了什麼變化嗎？由於價格上漲，你們是否提前開展了一些活動？只是好奇那裡的營運計畫有什麼變化。

Yeah, really, Zach, I would say we're, on track with the plan that we laid out back in February. We knew coming into the year carrying, a higher level of ducks than maybe we have historically that there'd be an opportunity to, work down that inventory. And so, really the expectation is across this quarter and maybe carry, a month or so into Q3 that you know will run a 4-frat crew and so you know that you know is going to average, between 3 and a 3.5, for the full year but again that's really in line with how we saw the setup, for the full year where we saw the earlier part of the year really focused on the deferred till activation and you know as we've worked through that that backlog of inventory we're really now turning our attention to the ducks.

是的，扎克，我想說我們正在按照二月制定的計劃進行。我們知道，今年鴨子的存欄量可能比歷史上更高，因此有機會減少鴨子的存欄量。因此，我們真正的預期是整個本季度，甚至可能持續到第三季度的一個月左右，屆時將有 4 名兄弟會成員，因此全年平均人數將在 3 到 3.5 之間，但這與我們全年的設置情況一致，我們看到今年早些時候我們真正關注的是延期付款激活，隨著我們處理完積壓庫存，我們現在真正將注意力轉向了鴨子。

Thanks, Zach. Thank you. Devin McDermott, Morgan Stanley. Your question, please?

謝謝，扎克。謝謝。摩根士丹利的戴文麥克德莫特。請問您的問題？

Hey, good morning, thanks for taking my questions. So you had a slide in the deck, I believe it's slide 8 just highlighting some of the trends you're seeing on well costs and the fact that there's no material impact from tariffs. I was wondering if you just talk through in a bit more detail some of the different buckets there, the trends you're seeing, and how the overall number that 0% to 2% deflation compares first year expectations going into this year.

嘿，早上好，感謝您回答我的問題。所以你在簡報中有一張投影片，我相信它是第 8 張投影片，只是強調了你看到的一些油井成本趨勢，以及關稅沒有造成實質影響的事實。我想知道您是否能更詳細地談談其中的一些不同情況、您所看到的趨勢，以及 0% 至 2% 通貨緊縮的總體數字與今年第一年的預期相比如何。

Yeah, good morning. It's Josh. Yeah, we, obviously seen some weakness coming into the year in terms of the of market and, just, in conjunction with the merger, creating more scale within the basins that we've operated in, we've been successful, at renegotiating some key contracts and, that's given a little bit of a tailwind and of course, that's something we were well aware of when we issued guidance in February.

是的，早安。我是喬希。是的，我們顯然看到今年市場出現了一些疲軟，但結合合併，在我們運營的盆地內創造了更大的規模，我們成功地重新談判了一些關鍵合同，這給了我們一點順風，當然，這是我們在二月份發布指導時很清楚的事情。

So you know that all is embedded in the plan. And so as we look forward and look out to the rest of the year and specifically around tariffs, there's clearly going to be a little bit of pressure, that shows up associated with tariffs and, in our business that is going to show up within our casing cost.

所以你知道一切都已包含在計劃中。因此，當我們展望今年剩餘時間，特別是圍繞關稅時，顯然會出現一些壓力，這與關稅有關，在我們的業務中，這將體現在我們的套管成本中。

Now I think a couple of things that are important to know, one is, roughly 80% of our casing is sourced domestically.

現在我認為有幾件重要的事情要了解，第一，我們的腸衣大約 80% 都產自國內。

So there is some level of insulation, but we know as imports, costs rise, that will likely, kind of bleed into some of the domestic cost as well. But another important point is the simple fact that, the majority of our casing is contracted through the third quarter, and so the exposure to those tariff related impacts are somewhat muted. And so really when you add all those things together that has led us to a spot to where we would expect costs from '24 to '25 to be flat to slightly down.

因此存在一定程度的隔離，但我們知道，隨著進口和成本的上升，這也可能影響部分國內成本。但另一個重要點是，我們的大部分套管合約都是在第三季簽訂的，因此受關稅相關影響的影響相對較小。所以，當你把所有這些因素加在一起時，我們就會得出一個結論：我們預計 24 年至 25 年的成本將持平或略有下降。

We'll continue to, work with our service providers. We have some really great relationships, that we manage, so you know that's going to be a focus for us going forward. And of course I think a spot that, maybe creates a little bit of a tailwind for us as well is just really, I think the outlook in the oiler basins specifically within the Permian. If we see any material pullback and activity there, I think you could expect some additional deflation, showing up across our business.

我們將繼續與我們的服務提供者合作。我們管理著一些非常好的關係，所以你知道這將是我們未來關注的重點。當然，我認為也許會為我們帶來一點順風的一點就是，我認為石油盆地的前景，特別是二疊紀盆地的前景。如果我們看到任何實質的回調和活動，我認為你可能會看到一些額外的通貨緊縮，出現在我們的整個業務中。

Got it. Okay, that's really helpful. And then, I wanted to step back, and Nick ask you a higher-level strategy question. One of your peers recently announced a bolt on transaction in Appalachia, and you know you highlighted the success of the Chesapeake, Southwestern merger, and some of your prepared remarks. It's very evident in the operating results over the last few quarters as well, I imagine that given the quality of the portfolio that you have, it's a fairly high bar for further deals or further M&A, but I wanted to get your high level views on further industry consolidation, the role you see expanded playing in that, and what kind of key financial or strategic metrics you would look at and evaluating any potential opportunities going forward.

知道了。好的，這確實很有幫助。然後，我想退一步，讓尼克問你一個更高層次的策略問題。您的一位同事最近宣布了一項在阿巴拉契亞的附加交易，您知道您強調了切薩皮克和西南合併的成功，以及您準備好的一些發言。這在過去幾個季度的經營業績中也非常明顯，我想，考慮到您擁有的投資組合的質量，對於進一步的交易或進一步的併購來說，這是一個相當高的門檻，但我想听聽您對進一步的行業整合的高層看法，您認為擴展在其中發揮的作用，以及您會關注和評估未來任何潛在機會的關鍵財務或戰略指標。

Yeah, hey Devin, so you're right, we just completed a really big merger. We have our hands full, realizing the remainder of the synergy is there. It's going great, but it takes a ton of work, and we're very focused on that, going forward, we'll continue to pay attention to things that are out there. That's part of our job. We're going to remain grounded on our non-negotiables when we think about additional deals.

是的，嘿，德文，你說得對，我們剛剛完成了一次非常大的合併。我們已經忙得不可開交，意識到剩下的綜效還在。一切進展順利，但需要大量的工作，我們非常關注這一點，展望未來，我們將繼續關注外面的情況。這是我們工作的一部分。當我們考慮其他交易時，我們將繼續堅持不可談判的原則。

And so, there's probably things that will look attractive to us at some point in the future. I can't predict when and I can't predict exactly what, but I can predict that they will meet our non-negotiables.

因此，未來某個時候，有些事物可能會對我們產生吸引力。我無法預測何時，也無法預測具體是什麼，但我可以預測他們會滿足我們的不可協商的條件。

Understood thank you.

明白了謝謝。

Thank you. Nitin Kumar, Mizuho.

謝謝。瑞穗的尼廷‧庫馬爾 (Nitin Kumar)。

Hey, good morning, guys. I think I wanted to maybe touch on there's been some, discussion, from the President about the constitution pipeline, as one of the larger producers in the Northeast, Marcellus, you are positioned to be, benefiting from that.

嘿，大家早安。我想談談總統關於憲法管道的一些討論，作為東北地區較大的生產商之一，馬塞勒斯，您將從中受益。

So, could you maybe talk a little bit about, what do you think the chances are of that pipeline being built, what might the timeline or the commitment required look like. And then maybe just generally like are you seeing other opportunities for expanded demand for gas within the Appalachia?

那麼，您能否稍微談談，您認為建造這條管道的可能性有多大，時間表或所需的承諾是什麼樣的。那麼，也許只是一般而言，您是否看到了阿巴拉契亞地區擴大天然氣需求的其他機會？

Hey, this is Dan. I'll take that question. As you said, it's good to see infrastructure being discussed, to build out, whether it be pipelines, compression, storage, power of these data centres, and more broadly, I'd add that it's good to see active discussions around the affinity and regular process in certain jurisdictions to try to streamline some of that.

嘿，我是丹。我來回答這個問題。正如你所說，很高興看到人們討論基礎設施建設，無論是管道、壓縮、儲存、這些資料中心的電力，更廣泛地說，我想補充一點，很高興看到人們在某些司法管轄區就親和力和常規流程進行積極討論，試圖簡化其中的一些流程。

And Appalachia has this clear need for takeaway, and we're supportive of these discussions, and I know Williams is currently working hard at the specifics and we're going to take a hard look at it when we have more details, but as it stands, yeah, it's still early days, but it could be beneficial to our portfolio, but we'll look at the cost benefit of getting in that pipeline.

阿巴拉契亞顯然需要外賣，我們支持這些討論，我知道威廉斯目前正在努力製定具體細節，當我們獲得更多細節時，我們會認真研究它，但就目前情況而言，是的，現在還為時過早，但它可能對我們的投資組合有利，但我們會考慮進入該渠道的成本效益。

And you mentioned the power demand and we've seen a lot of that and again we're in active discussions in Appalachia with many power demand. Producers and data centres as well, various stages. Again, I won't get into any specific commercial discussions there, but in general, good to see the build out and the discussions happening and we're going to look hard at these opportunities.

您提到了電力需求，我們已經看到了很多這樣的需求，而且我們正在阿巴拉契亞地區積極討論許多電力需求。生產商和資料中心也是如此，各個階段。再說一次，我不會參與任何具體的商業討論，但總的來說，很高興看到項目的建設和討論的進行，我們將認真考慮這些機會。

Great, thanks for the call then. And then, my follow up is just on the cadence of, spending, first quarter came in, just a little bit below your expectation, but good to see that momentum, you talk about deflation here you maintain your full year, target, so maybe this one might be for Zach, but you know what is the, cadence of the deferred hills, the ducks, and then at what point do you expect to start seeing the spending on the productive capacity for 2026.

太好了，謝謝你的來電。然後，我的後續問題是支出的節奏，第一季略低於你的預期，但很高興看到這種勢頭，你在這裡談論通貨緊縮，你維持全年目標，所以也許這個可能是給扎克的，但你知道延期山丘、鴨子的節奏是什麼，然後你預計什麼時候開始看到 2026 年生產能力的支出。

Yeah, and so, first of all, I mean, I think it was a really good quarter for us operationally, there was a ton of activity for us, bringing on, just under 90 wells in the quarter . I would also just know that, from a drilling execution standpoint, we continued to perform at a really high level.

是的，首先，我認為對我們來說，這是一個非常好的季度，我們的業務活動非常多，本季我們鑽探了近 90 口油井。。我還知道，從鑽井執行的角度來看，我們的表現仍然保持著很高的水準。

We had record quarters from a footage per day perspective in both the Haynesville and in Northeast Appalachia, while drilling the longest lateral ever in our southwest asset at, over 25,000 ft. So really pleased with the way the operations are going, in the Q1 number, there's definitely an impact of seasonality operations within there. We tend to do a little bit less plant maintenance work.

我們在海恩斯維爾和阿巴拉契亞東北部都創下了日產量記錄，同時在我們西南資產中鑽出了有史以來最長的水平井，超過 25,000 英尺。因此，我對營運的進展非常滿意，從第一季的數據來看，季節性營運肯定產生了影響。我們傾向於少做一些工廠維護工作。

Our work overspend is always going to be a little bit less, which is impacting us both in terms of the production expense and capital side as well. So you'll start to see some of that expense and capital, rolling into the second quarter. And then, as I mentioned earlier in a prior question, we're also, adding a 4-frat crew in Haynesville, for a short period of time, which again is allowing us to, start to draw down the documentary that we built up last year.

我們的工作超支總是會少一點，這對我們的生產費用和資本方面都有影響。因此，您將開始看到部分費用和資本進入第二季。然後，正如我之前在之前的問題中提到的那樣，我們還將在短時間內在海恩斯維爾增加一個由 4 名兄弟會成員組成的團隊，這再次使我們能夠開始完成我們去年建立的紀錄片。

As we look forward into the second half of the year, that's really where you start to see the productive capacity CapEx. So you know we've talked about the incremental $300 million there. And that will really be kicked off with the addition of 8 rigs in the July time frame with expectations we'll be adding rigs in both Northeast Appalachia and Southwest Appalachia in kind of the fall time frame. And so that will get us on plane to exit, the year at around 7.2 Bcfe a day and spending, roughly $3 billion a year in total for 2025.

當我們展望下半年時，您就會真正開始看到生產能力資本支出。所以你知道我們已經討論了那裡的 3 億美元增量。這項計畫將在 7 月增加 8 座鑽井平台，並預計在秋季在東北阿巴拉契亞和西南阿巴拉契亞增加鑽井平台。這樣，我們就能按計畫在 2025 年實現每天 72 億立方英尺當量的排放，每年的總支出約為 30 億美元。

Great, thanks for the colour guys.

太棒了，感謝你們的顏色。

Thank you. John Freeman from Raymond James.

謝謝。雷蒙德詹姆斯公司的約翰弗里曼。

Thanks, good morning, just a question of the, if the Haynesville gets ramped, over the next few years, is there any, sort of additional either infrastructure or just sort of non-DMC, spending that we should be aware of or is that sort of percentage of total capital in the Haynesville for non-DNCs stay at a similar sort of rate?

謝謝，早安，我的一個問題是，如果 Haynesville 在未來幾年內得到發展，是否有任何額外的基礎設施或非 DMC 支出是我們應該注意的，或者 Haynesville 非 DNC 的總資本百分比是否保持在類似的水平？

There's nothing planned right now for non-DNC infrastructure in the Haynesville, John, we had an opportunity a couple of years ago to participate in the NG 3 pipe. That capital has really all been spent now. The pipes should come online at the end of this year. It's a great project. We're really happy to be in that.

目前，海恩斯維爾還沒有針對非 DNC 基礎設施的計劃，約翰，幾年前我們有機會參與 NG 3 管道建設。現在這些資本確實已經全部花掉了。這些管道預計將於今年底投入使用。這是一個偉大的項目。我們非常高興能夠參與其中。

There's nothing else that's in front of us today, but you know I think we loved that opportunity, and if something else like that came along that offered us great access to an attractive market, we could choose to do something like that again, but there's nothing in front of us today that represents that.

今天我們面前沒有其他事情，但你知道，我認為我們喜歡這個機會，如果出現其他類似的機會，讓我們有機會進入一個有吸引力的市場，我們可以選擇再次做這樣的事情，但今天我們面前沒有任何東西可以代表這一點。

Got it. And then just, the follow up for me, on, you've obviously done a really good job of making progress on the, on a synergy capture and just sort of looking at the slide that y'all got, in your deck in slide 6. Is it fair to say that it looks like everything that y'all kind of needed to achieve on a run rate basis is kind of there with the company owned sand mine, the lower financing cost, the completion design, all that stuff that was in that. Additional synergy bucket is sort of basically in place and now it's just a matter of just continuing that run rate to achieve the $500 by year in '26 or is there something else that I'm missing that's yet to be in place?

知道了。然後，對我來說，接下來的事情是，你顯然在協同效應捕捉方面取得了很好的進展，請看一下你們在投影片 6 中的簡報。可以公平地說，看起來你們在運作率基礎上需要實現的一切似乎都已經存在，包括公司擁有的沙礦、較低的融資成本、完成設計以及其中的所有東西。額外的協同效應桶基本上已經到位，現在的問題只是繼續保持這種運行率，以在 26 年實現每年 500 美元的目標，還是還有其他我遺漏的尚未到位的東西？

Now, really, John, I'd say we're on track. We feel, really good about, how the integration has gone, the teams are, performing at a really high level. We've had another really great quarter of drilling in the Haynesville which, has just given us, even more confidence in our ability to deliver, the synergy there. So yeah, I would say at this point we're on track, for the $400 million synergy deliver delivered by a year in 2025 and $500 million by the end of next year.

現在，約翰，我想說我們真的已經步入正軌。我們對整合的進展感到非常滿意，團隊的表現也達到了很高的水準。我們在海恩斯維爾的鑽探工作又取得了一個非常好的季度，這讓我們對我們在那裡實現協同效應的能力更加有信心。所以是的，我想說，目前我們正走在正確的軌道上，到 2025 年將實現 4 億美元的協同效應，到明年年底將實現 5 億美元的協同效應。

Thanks, appreciate it.

謝謝，感激不盡。

Thank you. Kalei Akamine, Bank of America. Your question, please?

謝謝。卡雷‧阿卡明 (Kalei Akamine)，美國銀行。請問您的問題？

Hey, good morning, guys. I want to ask you about the Haynesville guidance. Can you kind of give us a sense where Haynesville gas production is in real time, i.e., what is it today or perhaps at the end of March? If the message is that you're getting to 295 BC out today and 2Q and holding flat. I guess the nuance there is that the Haynesville's largest producer isn't growing very much for the rest of the year, and that's constructed for a second out 25 balances, but you also mentioned that the NG 3 pipe is coming on at the end of the year and you have capacity on it, so I'm kind of wondering how that gets filled.

嘿，大家早安。我想向您詢問有關 Haynesville 指導的問題。您能否告訴我們海恩斯維爾天然氣產量的即時情況，例如今天或三月底的產量是多少？如果訊息是，您今天將達到 295 BC 並且 2Q 保持不變。我想這其中的細微差別在於，海恩斯維爾最大的生產商在今年剩餘時間內不會有太大的增長，而且這是為 25 個餘額中的第二個而建造的，但您也提到 NG 3 管道將在年底投入使用，並且您已經具備了產能，所以我有點想知道它是如何得到滿足的。

Yeah, hey Kalei, so good question. That's exactly right that we're going to reach that level of production. During the second quarter and then it'll flatten out for the rest of the year without any incremental growth until we get into 2026. That said, we are planning to redirect of volumes into the NG 3 pipe. We have a lot of production around the basin. A lot of it flows through IT today, intermittent transport today, or interruptible transport today, and so we have a lot of flexibility in where we deliver our volumes, and we actually look forward to optimizing that flexibility through the work of Dan's team going forward to increase realize prices.

是的，嘿，Kalei，這個問題問得真好。我們確實要達到那個生產水準。在第二季度，它將在今年剩餘時間內趨於平穩，不會出現任何增量增長，直到進入 2026 年。也就是說，我們計劃將容量重定向到 NG 3 管道。我們在盆地周圍有大量的產量。如今，許多貨物都透過 IT、間歇性運輸或可中斷運輸進行運輸，因此，我們在貨物交付地點方面擁有很大的靈活性，我們實際上期待透過 Dan 團隊未來的工作來優化這種靈活性，以提高實際價格。

You got it. I appreciate that. Next, I'd like to go to operating expenses versus our estimate. That's where the beat was in this quarter. We were kind of expecting a certain cadence for unit cost that starts high and trends lower as you grow volumes, but in one queue you're already at the low end. So kind of wondering how that trends from here.

你明白了。我很感激。接下來，我想談談營運費用與我們的估計。這就是本季的亮點。我們原本期望單位成本會有一定的節奏，一開始很高，然後隨著產量的成長而趨於降低，但在一個隊列中你已經處於低端了。所以有點想知道接下來的趨勢如何。

Yeah, this is Josh. We do expect spend to on an absolute basis to increase as we get into, the later spring and summer months, and, as I mentioned earlier, we just really peel back some of our planned maintenance activities and work over expenses in the first quarter. And so, as production, will pick up, into the second quarter relative to Q1.

是的，這是喬希。我們確實預計，隨著進入春末和夏季，支出絕對值會增加，正如我之前提到的，我們實際上只是在第一季取消了一些計劃中的維護活動和費用。因此，相對於第一季度，第二季度的產量將會回升。

It's just a simple fact that our absolute spend is moving up in concert with that. There's clearly some things that, we see that are going well, within our production expense, but it's still really early in the year and you know we want to, kind of get another quarter under our belt and but at this point we feel pretty good about the guide that we've offered.

這只是一個簡單的事實，我們的絕對支出正在增加。顯然，我們看到在生產費用範圍內有些事情進展順利，但現在還處於年初階段，你知道我們想要再取得一個季度的成績，但目前我們對我們提供的指導感到非常滿意。

Thanks for taking my questions guys.

謝謝你們回答我的問題。

The queue and Phillip Jungwirth, BMO. Your question, please.

隊列和 BMO 的 Phillip Jungwirth。請問您的問題。

Thanks. Good morning. When you think about your $350 to $4 mid-cycle view, just with the lower crude price, I was wondering how associated gas plays into your outlook and generally what type of what level of oil production that assume for the from the lower 48 and if we undershoot that over the next couple years, how would you think about upside in terms of incremental call in the Haynesville?

謝謝。早安.當您考慮 350 美元至 4 美元的中期週期觀點時，僅考慮較低的原油價格，我想知道伴生氣將如何影響您的前景，以及通常假設來自下 48 個州的石油產量處於何種水平，如果我們在未來幾年內低於這一水平，您如何看待 Haynesville 增量調用方面的上行空間？

Associated gas is a pretty complicated model, as you guys know, because you have from the Permian you have had growing volumes, but then you also have an increasing GOR.

大家知道，伴生氣是個非常複雜的模型，因為從二疊紀開始，伴生氣的產量不斷增加，但氣油比 (GOR) 也在增加。

Our approach to modelling Permian gas over the last couple of years has been really simple model the pipeline capacity that's coming online and it will be filled, and that's held true, and I think that's still going to be true for a bit. We're going to continue to see increasing GOR. We saw how quickly Matterhorn filled even though it didn't appear that there were a lot of ducks in the basin leading into that.

過去幾年，我們對二疊紀天然氣進行建模的方法非常簡單，即對即將上線並會被填滿的管道容量進行建模，這是正確的，而且我認為這在一段時間內仍然會是正確的。我們將繼續看到 GOR 的增加。我們看到馬特洪峰被水淹沒得有多快，儘管通往馬特洪峰的盆地裡似乎沒有很多鴨子。

And so I think there's just the basin continues to prove that associated gas is available when pipeline capacity is available. That said, if we see a material pullback and rig count in the Permian, then that'll change, and that could be, a really interesting development for the dynamics of lower 48 supply, but we're just going to have to watch that. There's a lot of predictions out there right now of cuts to rigs in the Permian. We've seen anything from 20 to 50. But we haven't seen a lot of specific plans just yet, so we're going to be watching that really closely.

因此，我認為只要管道容量足夠，盆地就能繼續證明伴生氣的可用性。也就是說，如果我們看到二疊紀盆地的鑽機數量和產量出現實質回落，那麼情況就會發生變化，這對於美國本土 48 個主要產區供應的動態來說可能是一個非常有趣的發展，但我們只需要關注這一點。目前有很多關於二疊紀鑽井數量削減的預測。我們見過 20 到 50 的。但我們還沒有看到很多具體的計劃，所以我們將密切關注。

Great thanks. And you had really strong realizations across the board, but did want to ask about the Haynesville specifically and just your medium term outlook there for differentials, or net backs, just with several new pipes starting up in the play including your NG3 pipe in LNG ramping, supply being slow to respond and maybe with that in the update on the gas marketing and trading efforts that you've established over the last year.

非常感謝。並且您對整個板塊都有非常強烈的認識，但確實想具體詢問一下 Haynesville 的情況，以及您對那裡的差異或淨回值的中期展望，只是在幾條新管道投入使用，包括您的 NG3 管道在 LNG 產量增加的情況下，供應反應緩慢，也許與您在過去一年中建立的營銷和交易工作的更新天然氣。

Yeah, I think really what you're touching on there, Phil, is just the dynamics of the overall market, the bigger fundamental trends, which is that demand is growing and growing pretty rapidly, particularly along the Gulf Coast as all this LNG capacity comes online, and we love the fact that we have 2.5 Bcfe a day of capacity that's going to be available to deliver gas to Gillis. We also like the fact that we still maintain quite a bit of capacity to Perryville.

是的，菲爾，我認為你真正談到的只是整個市場的動態，更大的基本趨勢，即需求在增長，而且增長相當迅速，特別是墨西哥灣沿岸，因為所有這些液化天然氣產能都上線了，我們很高興我們每天有 25 億立方英尺當量的產能可以向吉利斯輸送天然氣。我們也很高興看到我們仍然保留了相當多的前往佩里維爾的運力。

And so the opportunities there to think about how we most effectively supply the markets that need the gas is pretty interesting, and I think there's going to be a lot that plays out there with Haynesville starting off here in a position where it doesn't look like it's growing rapidly into this demand growth. I think it does set up for a pretty constructive environment for our business.

因此，思考如何最有效地向需要天然氣的市場供應天然氣的機會非常有趣，我認為，在海恩斯維爾起步階段，天然氣需求似乎不會迅速增長，因此，這裡將有很多事情可以做。我認為這確實為我們的業務創造了一個非常有建設性的環境。

Great thanks guys.

非常感謝大家。

Thank you. Scott Hanold, RBC.

謝謝。斯科特·漢諾德（RBC）。

Yeah, thanks all. Hey, look, you all have a plan to start spending the $300 million of growth capital in the second half of the year. Can you give me a sense, given the volatility and just sort of the broad macro environment, how do you think about the optionality of doing that or not? If the gas market does break down, would you go ahead and spend that and build. That productive capacity or would you defer the spending to next year? I guess the third option is, do you spend it this year and just build a deferred kind of till backlog just, what, which one of those options would you, kind of evaluate doing if the macro remains uncertain and prices come down a bit.

是的，謝謝大家。嘿，看，你們都有一個計劃，從今年下半年開始花掉 3 億美元的成長資本。您能否告訴我，考慮到波動性和廣泛的宏觀環境，您如何看待是否這樣做的可選性？如果天然氣市場確實崩潰，你會繼續花錢興建嗎？生產能力還是您會將支出延後到明年？我想第三個選擇是，你今年是否花掉它並建立一個延期的收銀積壓，如果宏觀仍然不確定並且價格略有下降，你會評估哪一個選擇。

Yeah, it's a great question, Scott, and I'll go back to again the framework that we put out last quarter, which is to really think about how the longer term mid-cycle pricing works. The decision to spend money is really around that. The decision to produce gas is different.

是的，史考特，這是一個很好的問題，我將再次回顧我們上個季度提出的框架，即真正思考長期中期定價是如何運作的。花錢的決定其實就是圍繞著這一點做出的。生產天然氣的決定是不同的。

The decision to produce gas is much more around the immediate market conditions that we see at any given time. So this is really what you're describing is really a repeated conditions that we saw last year, which would be a weak near-term gas market with decent long-term fundamentals. In that case, I think we continue to spend capital and potentially pull back on production if it's if there's a weak price.

生產天然氣的決定更取決於我們在任何特定時間看到的直接市場狀況。所以，您所描述的實際上是我們去年看到的重複情況，即短期內天然氣市場疲軟，但長期基本面良好。在這種情況下，我認為如果價格疲軟，我們將繼續投入資金並可能減少產量。

We can pull back on production by curtailing flowing volumes today or deferring a turning lines and we did both last year, so I think you know we have a track record of being very responsive and not oversupplying a market that doesn't need gas.

我們可以透過減少今天的流量或推遲轉彎線來減少產量，去年我們做了這兩件事，所以我想你知道我們有著非常敏感的記錄，並且不會對不需要天然氣的市場供應過剩。

That said, if the longer term trends change, the fundamentals change in some way, then you change your capital program. And so we really think about those things, as very separate decisions and that flexibility that we've built into our business, built into our decision making and that we manage risk around through hedging and through how we allocate our capital we think is a real positive evolution for the way we run our business and a strategic advantage that we can manage given our strong balance sheet, our approach to hedging, our ability to deliver gas out of several different areas of the country through a lot of different pipes so we have the flexibility to grow production when we choose to and to pull back and manage that pullback across a lot of areas without incurring owner fees.

也就是說，如果長期趨勢發生變化，基本面發生某種變化，那麼你就需要改變你的資本計畫。因此，我們確實將這些事情視為非常獨立的決策，並將靈活性融入我們的業務中，融入我們的決策中，並透過對沖和我們如何分配我們的資本來管理風險，我們認為這對我們的業務運作方式來說是一個真正的積極發展，也是我們可以管理的戰略優勢，因為我們擁有強大的資產負債表、我們的對沖方法、我們能夠通過許多不同的管道從全國不同地區輸送天然氣的能力，因此我們可以靈活地在選擇時增加產量，並在許多地區進行撤退和管理這種撤退，而無需支付所有者費用。

That's really good. I like the way that that's played out. My follow up question is going to go back to one of the earlier questions on, Tranche 3 as you move into that then, I understand obviously, you're not going to give us exact colour on how you're going to, return that cash, but can you give me a sense of with your discussion with investors, how do they view the variable dividend and we've seen a lot of the sector kind of back away from variables in in Favor of buybacks you know. Can you give us your general view on the value in the variables and do you think your investors or just broadly investors would welcome that?

那真的很好。我喜歡這種表現方式。我的後續問題將回到之前關於第三部分的問題之一，我顯然明白，您不會告訴我們您將如何返還這筆現金的具體細節，但您能否通過與投資者的討論，告訴我他們如何看待浮動股息，我們已經看到很多行業都放棄了浮動股息，轉而支持回購。您能否告訴我們您對變數價值的整體看法，您認為您的投資者或廣大投資者會歡迎這一點嗎？

Hey Scott, this is Chris Ayres. I'll take this one. So we see a pretty solid response to both buybacks and variable dividends. The benefit of the variable dividend is it de-risks the investor's investment, and that's unilateral across the board in terms of receptivity of that embedded TSR through a cycle.

嘿，史考特，我是克里斯艾爾斯。我要這個。因此，我們看到對回購和浮動股利的反應相當穩健。可變股息的好處是它降低了投資者的投資風險，並且就整個週期內嵌入式 TSR 的接受度而言，這是全面的。

And if you look at our history as a company with the variable dividends that we've paid out, That's made up of a solid portion of our TSR regardless of how the equity price traded down or up with the gas price.

如果你回顧我們公司的歷史，看看我們支付的可變股息，你會發現無論股價如何隨著汽油價格上漲或下跌，這都是我們 TSR 的重要組成部分。

Now, going forward, we would expect it to be a combination of both, as Nick talked about with the variable dividends and buybacks. We see benefit in being able to have that through cycle repurchasing power that buybacks bring for our business and being able to drive that per share accretion and so we do see across our investor base though a belief in the support that a variable dividend provides for our TSR and part of the reason why we'll look to combine both variable dividends and buybacks through a cycle.

現在，展望未來，我們預計這將是兩者的結合，正如尼克談到的可變股息和回購。我們看到，透過回購，我們能夠擁有透過週期回購的力量，從而為我們的業務帶來好處，並能夠推動每股收益的成長，因此，我們確實看到整個投資者群體相信可變股息能夠為我們的 TSR 提供​​支持，這也是我們希望透過一個週期將可變股息和回購結合起來的原因之一。

Thank you for that.

謝謝你。

Thank you. Matthew Portillo from TPH.

謝謝。TPH 的 Matthew Portillo。

Good morning, all. Just one question on my end. I was curious if you might be able to talk a little bit about the Utica, just your acreage prospectivity. I think you guys have about 5 wells planned to till there this year and kind of what you're looking for from a resource unlock perspective.

大家早安。我只想問一個問題。我很好奇您是否可以談談尤蒂卡，以及您的土地利用前景。我認為你們今年計劃在那裡挖大約 5 口井，從資源解鎖的角度來看，這正是你們所期待的。

Yeah, good morning, Matt. We remain active in Utica. We see the prospectivity, of it, as well as, really thinking about extending the limits of the Marcellus as well as you move, further west into Ohio. And so, we have pretty active leasing programs there to, help shore up additional inventory, and that will continue to be a focus for us and the teams moving forward.

是的，早上好，馬特。我們仍然活躍在尤蒂卡。我們看到了它的前景，並且真的在考慮擴大馬塞勒斯的邊界，並進一步向西延伸到俄亥俄州。因此，我們在那裡有非常活躍的租賃計劃，以幫助鞏固額外的庫存，這將繼續成為我們和團隊未來的重點。

Perfect, thank you.

非常好，謝謝。

Thank you. Geoff Jay, Daniel Energy Partners

謝謝。傑夫·傑伊（Geoff Jay），丹尼爾能源合作夥伴

Hi, I guess I was thinking about and I really appreciate the colour on the tariff, impact on spend, but I guess my question is if you know if these tariffs persist as, they kind of they stand today, would you expect a step change in costs in 2026 as you're contracted, materials roll over?

你好，我想我正在考慮，我真的很欣賞關稅對支出的影響，但我想我的問題是，如果你知道這些關稅是否持續存在，就像今天這樣，你是否預計 2026 年成本會隨著合約的簽訂、材料展期而發生階梯變化？

Well, if you want to think about the single sector of OCTG, I think there is the potential for those costs to reset into 2026. But just as a reminder, there's just so many other market dynamics that have the potential to impact costs, largely, activity that we see occurring across the lower 48 and specifically in the Permian. In addition to that, we continue to invest in our business and things like a company operated sand mine, water infrastructure, that we have in our back pocket to offset any potential cost increase in the future.

好吧，如果你想考慮油井管這個單一領域，我認為這些成本有可能在 2026 年重置。但需要提醒的是，還有許多其他市場動態有可能影響成本，主要是我們看到的美國本土 48 州，特別是二疊紀盆地的活動。除此之外，我們還將繼續投資於我們的業務以及公司營運的沙礦、水利基礎設施等，以抵消未來任何潛在的成本增加。

Hey Jeff, this is Nick. One way I think about this is that certain raw materials like steel are going to be pressured up if the tariff situation continues, but we're also seeing that that's driving oil prices lower. That's going to drive activity lower across the industry. So you have certain raw materials going up and then service costs coming down, just kind of summarizing what Josh said, but those two are obviously connected to each other and work opposite of each other.

嘿，傑夫，我是尼克。我對此的看法是，如果關稅狀況持續下去，鋼鐵等某些原料的價格將會上漲，但我們也看到，這也導致油價下跌。這將導致整個行業的活動減少。因此，某些原材​​料價格上漲，而服務成本下降，這只是對喬希所說的進行總結，但這兩者顯然是相互聯繫且相互對立的。

Yeah that makes sense. All right thank you.

是的，這很有道理。好的，謝謝。

Thank you. Michael Scialla, Stephens.

謝謝。邁克爾·西亞拉，史蒂芬斯。

Morning everybody. Nick, you mentioned you expect free cash flow and collection next year, which is interesting given how capital efficient 2025 is with the return of the deferred tills and the ducks. Can you talk about the drivers for that inflection next year? Is it primarily due to just the way the strip prices or how much of that depends on further efficiency gains?

大家早安。尼克，你提到你預計明年會有自由現金流和收款，這很有趣，因為隨著延期收銀機和鴨子的回歸，2025 年的資本效率如何。您能談談明年出現這種轉變的驅動因素嗎？這主要是因為條帶定價的方式，還是在多大程度上取決於進一步的效率提升？

Yeah, no, the efficiency gains will come from the final realization of our synergies, so there definitely is some, and we're excited about that but the biggest driver is that we'll be getting up to the production levels of 7.5 Bcfe a day that we're targeting, and that's a pretty good gearing factor as you go into a higher priced environment. And of course we're hedging that higher priced environment every day. You saw how much we hedged in the first quarter when prices were robust, and we'll continue to look for those opportunities.

是的，效率的提高將來自於我們協同效應的最終實現，所以肯定會有一些提高，我們對此感到興奮，但最大的驅動力是我們將達到我們設定的每天 7.5 Bcfe 的生產水平，當你進入更高價格的環境時，這是一個相當不錯的槓桿因素。當然，我們每天都在對沖高價環境。您看到了我們在第一季價格強勁時進行了多少對沖，我們將繼續尋找這些機會。

Got it. And you you've talked about the tariffs from a cost perspective. I'm wondering if you could talk more broadly just from high level how you think about that potentially impacting LNG markets and is that having any impact on your discussions on your gas marketing efforts.

知道了。您從成本角度討論了關稅問題。我想知道您是否可以從更高層面更廣泛地談談您認為這可能會對液化天然氣市場產生什麼影響，以及這是否會對您關於天然氣行銷工作的討論產生任何影響。

Hey Mike, this is Dan. On the LNG front, if you're talking about online capacity today, we don't really see any issue coming from the tariffs. I mean, China had implemented tariffs, I think, in February, and you see reoptimization of cargos around the world just to place all those cargos in the market, and we've seen no slowdown in the construction of facilities currently online, and we've seen no slowdown in the conversations we've had with potential new LNG capacity online.

嘿，麥克，我是丹。在液化天然氣方面，如果您談論今天的線上容量，我們實際上沒有看到關稅帶來的任何問題。我的意思是，我認為中國在二月就實施了關稅，你會看到世界各地的貨物重新優化只是為了將所有這些貨物投放到市場上，而且我們並沒有看到目前在線設施建設放緩，我們也沒有看到有關潛在新液化天然氣產能在線的對話放緩。

So really in the near midterm we don't really see a challenge. Yeah, there may be, as Nick said on the upstream side, there might be a cost challenge coming to some of these projects, but really no slowdown we've seen.

因此，在近期的中期選舉中我們實際上並沒有看到任何挑戰。是的，正如尼克在上游所說的那樣，其中一些項目可能會面臨成本挑戰，但實際上我們並沒有看到任何放緩。

Appreciate it thank you.

非常感謝。

Thank you. Leo Mariani, ROTH.

謝謝。裡奧·馬裡亞尼（Leo Mariani），羅斯（ROTH）。

Yeah, I wanted to follow up a little bit, on sort of price synergies. So you guys talked a lot about this, when the Chesapeake Southwestern merger was announced. You certainly, mentioned that you're engaged in a lot of discussions. You hit your investment grade ratings. Clearly production, is up. I know you can't comment on specific projects, but maybe just talk about your kind of level of confidence on getting some of these gas price related synergies today, versus when you announced, the Chesapeake Southwestern merger.

是的，我想稍微跟進一下價格綜效。所以當切薩皮克西南公司宣布合併時，你們就此進行了許多討論。您確實提到您參與了很多討論。您達到了投資等級評級。顯然，產量正在上升。我知道您無法對具體項目發表評論，但也許您可以談談您對今天獲得一些與天然氣價格相關的協同效應的信心程度，與您宣布與切薩皮克西南公司合併時相比。

Hey, I'll take that question as well. I'm quite excited about this opportunity that we had to create something unique for this company in terms of optimizing our portfolio. It's early days with this new [MSC] organization, but the team has actually done quite a bit so far. I mean, bringing the two portfolios together in 90 days was a pretty impressive feat.

嘿，我也要回答這個問題。我對這個機會感到非常興奮，我們必須在優化投資組合方面為這家公司創造一些獨特的東西。這個新的 [MSC] 組織還處於早期階段，但到目前為止，團隊實際上已經做了很多工作。我的意思是，在 90 天內將兩個投資組合整合在一起是一項非常了不起的成就。

They've already had some early wins by connecting the portfolio across the FT and getting some optimization value. And so going forward we're going to try to do more of this at scale, right. Just continue to optimize our portfolios up there and Nick talked about in the Haynesville where we have the NG 3 pipeline coming on. It gives us a lot of daily optionality. I'm really excited about what we can do, and we've had some recent hires come on board to increase our capacity to do so and also our capabilities. So going forward, I'm quite confident about our ability to make more money and more margin through this new organization we're creating.

他們已經透過連接 FT 上的投資組合併獲得了一些優化價值，並取得了一些早期的勝利。因此，我們今後將嘗試更大規模地進行此類工作，對吧。繼續優化我們的投資組合，尼克談到了海恩斯維爾，那裡有 NG 3 管道即將開通。它為我們的日常生活提供了許多選擇。我對我們能做的事情感到非常興奮，我們最近也聘用了一些新員工來增強我們的能力和實力。因此，展望未來，我對我們透過正在創建的這個新組織賺取更多利潤和更多利潤的能力充滿信心。

Okay, I appreciate that. And then just on the operational side, obviously you guys had really good success, here, in the first quarter, certainly got kind of more than kind of a quarter of the pills done here in the quarter. Sounds like you're bringing on, another frat crew as well, in the Haynesville and 2Q. So it feels like the ops are a little bit ahead of schedule. Just wanted to kind of take your temperature on, the op side here. So to the extent that you continue to execute well operationally, could we see a few more tills, than you've got it to here in 2025, or would you guys likely maybe choose to kind of save some CapEx, towards the back end of the year, for quote unquote budget exhaustion?

好的，我很感激。然後就營運方面而言，顯然你們在第一季取得了非常好的成功，在本季度，你們的藥片銷量肯定超過了四分之一。聽起來你也在 Haynesville 和 2Q 招募另一個兄弟會成員。因此感覺行動有點提前了。我只是想了解你的體溫，手術那邊的狀況。那麼，如果你們繼續在營運上表現良好，我們是否可以看到比 2025 年更多的收銀機，或者你們可能選擇在年底節省一些資本支出，以應對所謂的預算耗盡？

Yeah, well, first of all, we have had a good start to the year and really pleased, with the overall operational performance, but right now we really are, remain focused on, creating, as efficient a business as we can and as we talked about on the last call, it's really about getting our business, up to that 7.5 Bcfe a day mark. And if we're able to achieve that, through less activity, i.e., less drilling rigs because we're drilling faster, that's likely the path, that we would end up taking. So we feel good about the plan that we've laid out and, remain on track to deliver that guidance.

是的，首先，我們今年有一個良好的開端，對整體營運表現非常滿意，但現在我們真正要集中精力的是盡可能高效地開展業務，正如我們在上次電話會議上談到的那樣，我們的重點是讓我們的業務達到每天 75 億立方英尺標準煤的目標。如果我們能夠透過減少活動（即由於鑽井速度加快而減少鑽井平台）來實現這一目標，這很可能就是我們最終採取的路徑。因此，我們對制定的計劃感到滿意，並將繼續按計劃實施該指導。

Okay thanks.

好的，謝謝。

Thank you. Betty Jiang from Barclays.

謝謝。巴克萊銀行的 Betty Jiang。

Good morning. I just have one clarification question on the return framework, how to think about determining the available cash flow for cash return for the rest of the year. Your target provided last quarter was $500 million broken into 2,250 million Tranches per each fiscal half year with the $468 million that was done in one queue. Do you see that meeting your first half requirement or that's effectively completing most of your requirement for the year?

早安.我只想澄清一個關於回報框架的問題，即如何考慮確定今年剩餘時間內可用於現金回報的現金流。您上個季度提供的目標是 5 億美元，分成每財政半年 22.5 億美元批次，其中 4.68 億美元一次性完成。您認為這是否滿足了您上半年的要求，或者這是否有效地完成了您今年的大部分要求？

Yeah Betty, this is Mohit. So the way if you go back to when we unveiled the program, we set it up as two evaluation periods. The first evaluation period is the first half of the year, so you really need to look at the first quarter and the second quarter together, and that's the way we've been viewing it. And as Nick previously signalled at current commodity prices, we see enough free cash flow to be able to service Tranche 1, which is the base dividend, and then. We made good progress on Tranche 2, which is a net debt reduction, so we do expect some cash flow to go free cash flow to go into Tranche 3, which is where we will have some discretion on how much to put towards variable versus buyback, the 75% that's allocated to it. So, hopefully that helps, but, the way you should think about it is in terms of the evaluation periods.

是的，貝蒂，這是莫希特。因此，如果您回顧我們推出該計劃時的情況，我們將其設定為兩個評估期。第一個評估期是上半年，所以你真的需要把第一季和第二季放在一起來看，這就是我們一直以來的看法。正如尼克之前在當前商品價格下所暗示的那樣，我們看到足夠的自由現金流來服務第一部分，即基本股息，然後。我們在第二部分（即淨債務減少）上取得了良好進展，因此我們確實預計部分現金流將轉化為自由現金流，進入第三部分，我們將在這一部分中自行決定將多少資金用於浮動利率債券和回購債券，其中 75% 的資金分配給了第三部分。所以，希望這會有所幫助，但是，您應該從評估期的角度來考慮它。

Yeah, but as to the pace, Betty, I would just note that we had a piece of debt that matured in January, and so that drove the pace there for the first part of the year.

是的，但是至於速度，貝蒂，我只想指出，我們有一筆債務在一月到期，因此這推動了今年上半年的速度。

Got it. The second half will still get re-evaluated separately.

知道了。下半場仍將單獨重新評估。

That's right.

這是正確的。

Okay great thank you.

好的，非常感謝。

Thank you. Paul Diamond from Citi.

謝謝。花旗銀行的保羅戴蒙德 (Paul Diamond)。

Thank you. Good morning, thanks for taking my call. Just a quick one talking about the kind of the synergy outlook. So you've done a pretty good job of both the OpEx and capital side of kind of progressing towards that $400 million per annum by year end. Seems to be a bit more chunky. I wanted to get an idea if we should think about that more, kind of like step changes along the way, or should it be more thought of as the year going forward.

謝謝。早上好，感謝您接聽我的電話。我只是想簡單談談綜效的前景。因此，你們在營運支出和資本方面都做得相當不錯，到年底將實現每年 4 億美元的目標。看起來更加粗壯一些。我想知道我們是否應該更多地考慮這一點，有點像一路上的逐步變化，或者應該更多地將其視為未來的一年。

Yeah, Paul, it's Nick, the way I think about that is we're really pleased with what we've accomplished so far. If you think about like the drilling and completion synergies, we're seeing the full element of synergies achieved with the individual wells that we're drilling today.

是的，保羅，我是尼克，我的想法是，我們對迄今為止所取得的成就感到非常滿意。如果您考慮鑽井和完井協同效應，我們會發現我們今天鑽探的各個井都實現了全部協同效應。

But in order for us to achieve the aggregate dollar amount of synergies projected for the year, we have to drill all the wells in the program for the year. So I would say we are, complete in terms of our ability to capture the synergies, and now we just have to execute our plan to complete capturing them.

但為了實現預計的年度協同效應總額，我們必須鑽完年度計畫中的所有油井。因此我想說，我們在捕捉協同效應的能力方面已經很完美了，現在我們只需要執行我們的計劃來完成捕捉它們。

Does that answer your question?

這回答了你的問題嗎？

No, it makes perfect sense. I appreciate the time. I'll leave it there.

不，這完全有道理。我很感激你抽出時間。我就把它留在那裡。

Thank you. Kevin MacCurdy, Pickering Energy Partners.

謝謝。麥柯迪（Kevin MacCurdy），皮克林能源合夥公司（Pickering Energy Partners）。

Hey, good morning. I have another question on the marketing side. Slide 13 of your deck, details your marketing contracts and, talks about a Bcfe a day of going to Gillis and in 425. Do you have any colour or expectations for how that market at Gillis is shaping up and how that could impact your margins?

嘿，早安。我還有一個關於行銷方面的問題。您的簡報的第 13 張幻燈片詳細介紹了您的行銷合同，並談到了每天去吉利斯和 425 的 Bcfe。您對吉利斯 (Gillis) 的市場發展情況以及這將如何影響您的利潤率有什麼看法或預期嗎？

Hey Kevin, thanks for the question. This is Dan. Yeah, we're excited about that capacity coming online that Nick talked about because it's down to Gillis and really we're excited because the growth, the real growth we're seeing down there with the growth in LNG under construction, right.

嘿，凱文，謝謝你的提問。這是丹。是的，我們對尼克談到的上線產能感到興奮，因為這取決於吉利斯，我們真的很高興，因為我們看到的增長，真正的增長，隨著在建液化天然氣的增長，對吧。

You have Black men's ramping up right in our backyard. You have Golden Pass that we hope to come online in 2026. And then you have just recent announcements from Woodside on Louisiana LNG that's going to bring more demand to that market over time.

黑人男子正在我們的後院崛起。您擁有黃金通行證，我們希望它能在 2026 年上線。伍德賽德最近宣布，路易斯安那州液化天然氣計畫將隨著時間的推移為該市場帶來更多需求。

So we're expecting that market to be quite a premium market and basis to increase there and not only there but across the Haynesville as there's going to be a po across in total Haynesville to bring gas to that area of demand.

因此，我們預計該市場將是一個相當優質的市場，並且基礎將不斷增長，不僅在那裡，而且在整個海恩斯維爾，因為將有一個貫穿整個海恩斯維爾的管道將天然氣輸送到該需求地區。

Great, so sounds like positive for margins, and then maybe for a second question to ask a different way on the CapEx trajectory, you came in low in the first quarter, the guidance points to step up in 2Q, any colour, that you can share on the expectations for the back half of the year as it compares to Q1 and Q2 for CapEx.

太好了，這聽起來對利潤率來說是利好的，然後也許第二個問題是換一種方式詢問資本支出軌跡，第一季度的資本支出較低，指引指向第二季度上升，無論哪種情況，您都可以分享一下對下半年的預期，與第一季度和第二季度的資本支出相比。

Yeah, we would expect the trajectory, through the third and fourth quarter to be relatively in line with where our Q2 CapEx.

是的，我們預期第三季和第四季的軌跡將與我們第二季的資本支出基本一致。

Great, thank you.

太好了，謝謝。

Thank you. Charles Meade, Johnson Rice.

謝謝。查爾斯·米德、約翰遜·賴斯。

Good morning, Nick, to you and your team there. You guys have really had a murderer's row Q&A line up this morning. So I'm impressed and thanks for taking the time. I just have one short question on tills. I think it'll be a short question.

早安，尼克，向你和你的團隊問好。你們今天早上確實安排了謀殺犯問答。我對此印象深刻，感謝您抽出時間。我只想問一個關於收銀機的簡短問題。我認為這將是一個簡短的問題。

Have you guys seen anything that surprised you, either positive or negatively as you brought on these deferred tills that--we're kind of sitting bottled up for, whether two, three, four months and, is there any kind of difference in that answer variation between what you've seen in the Haynesville, Southwest app or Northeast app?

當您引入這些延期付款時，您是否看到任何令您感到驚訝的事情，無論是積極的還是消極的 - 我們都坐在那裡等待，無論是兩個月，三個月還是四個月，您在 Haynesville，西南應用程序或東北應用程序中看到的答案變化有什麼不同嗎？

Yeah, thanks for the question, Charles. Really been incredibly pleased, with what we've seen to date. I mean, first of all, if you just think about the amount of activity that we've been managing, in fact, if you were to go back to the fourth quarter, we've now brought on 130 wells over the last two quarters.

是的，謝謝你的提問，查爾斯。對於我們迄今為止所看到的一切，我們真的感到非常高興。我的意思是，首先，如果你想想我們一直在管理的活動量，事實上，如果你回顧第四季度，我們在過去兩個季度已經開採了 130 口油井。

So the teams have just done a phenomenal job, managing a lot of activity in a short amount of time. The well performance that we see, it looks undisturbed from, anything that we would expect if you were to bring these wells online with normal cadence. We're always going to expect to see some level of variability depending on the types of wells we bring online, so upper versus lower or the various parts of the Haynesville where productivity can vary as you move from, north to south. But again, just really pleased with, the overall execution of our productive capacity strategy.

因此，這些團隊完成了一項非凡的工作，在短時間內管理了大量活動。我們看到的油井性能看起來沒有受到任何干擾，如果以正常節奏將這些油井投入使用，我們就會期待出現這樣的情況。我們總是希望看到一定程度的變化，這取決於我們投入使用的油井類型，因此從北到南，海恩斯維爾的上游與下游或各個地區的生產力可能會有所不同。但再次強調，我們對生產能力策略的整體執行感到非常滿意。

That's great detail. Thanks Josh.

非常詳細。謝謝喬希。

Thank you. This does include the question-and-answer session of today's program. I'd like to hand the program back to Nick Dell'Osso for any further remarks.

謝謝。這確實包括今天節目的問答環節。我想將程式交還給 Nick Dell'Osso，以便他可以做出進一步的評論。

Thanks everybody for your time today. Look forward to seeing everybody out on the road as we get out and meet with Investors. As usual, you can reach out to our team with any other questions, and we'll look forward to seeing you guys around the first week of August for next quarter's results. Thanks.

感謝大家今天的寶貴時間。我們期待在路上見到大家並與投資者會面。像往常一樣，如果您有任何其他問題，可以聯繫我們的團隊，我們期待在 8 月的第一周左右與您見面，以了解下一季度的業績。謝謝。

Thank you, ladies, and gentlemen, for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.

女士們、先生們，感謝各位參加今天的會議。該計劃確實就此結束。您現在可以斷開連線。再會。