Vitesse Energy Inc (VTS) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Vitesse Energy full-year 2023 earnings call. (Operator Instructions) Please note this conference is being recorded.

您好，歡迎參加 Vitesse Energy 2023 年全年財報電話會議。（操作員說明）請注意，本次會議正在錄製中。

I will now turn the conference over to Ben Messier, Director, Investor Relations and Business Development. Thank you. You may begin.

我現在將會議交給投資者關係和業務發展總監 Ben Messier。謝謝。你可以開始了。

Good morning, and thank you for joining today. We will be discussing our financial and operating results for the full year of 2023, which we released yesterday. After market close. You can access our earnings release and presentation in the Investor Relations section of our website. We filed our Form 10-K with the SEC yesterday. I'm joined here this morning by Vitesse's Chairman and CEO, Bob Gerrity; our President, Brian Cree; and our CFO, Jimmy Henderson.

早安，感謝您今天加入。我們將討論昨天發布的 2023 年全年財務和營運業績。收市後。您可以在我們網站的投資者關係部分存取我們的收益發布和演示。我們昨天向 SEC 提交了 10-K 表格。今天上午，Vitesse 董事長兼執行長 Bob Gerrity 也加入了我的行列。我們的總裁布萊恩·克里；和我們的財務長吉米·亨德森。

Our agenda for today's call is as follows. Bob will provide opening remarks on the year after Bob Brian will give you an operations update, and then Jamie will review our 2023 financial results and 2024 guidance. After the conclusion of our prepared remarks, the executive team will be available to answer questions.

我們今天的電話會議議程如下。在鮑勃布萊恩 (Bob Brian) 向您提供營運更新後，鮑勃 (Bob) 將發表下一年的開場白，然後傑米 (Jamie) 將回顧我們 2023 年的財務業績和 2024 年的指導。在我們準備好的發言結束後，執行團隊將可以回答問題。

Before we begin, let's cover our Safe Harbor language. Please be advised that our remarks today, including the answers to your questions, may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These forward-looking statements are subject to the risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond our control that could cause actual results to be materially different from the expectations contemplated by these forward-looking statements. And Those risks include, among others, matters that we have described in our earnings release and periodic filings. We disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements, except as may be required by applicable securities laws.

在開始之前，讓我們先介紹一下我們的安全港語言。請注意，我們今天的言論，包括對您問題的回答，可能包含《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述受到風險和不確定性的影響，其中一些風險和不確定性超出了我們的控制範圍，可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述所設想的預期有重大差異。這些風險包括我們在收益報告和定期文件中描述的事項等。我們不承擔更新這些前瞻性聲明的義務，除非適用的證券法可能要求。

During our conference call, we may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted net income adjusted EBITDA, net debt, net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio, free cash flow in the PV-10 of our reserves. Reconciliations of these measures to the closest GAAP measures can be found in the earnings release that we issued yesterday.

在電話會議期間，我們可能會討論某些非 GAAP 財務指標，包括調整後淨利潤、調整後 EBITDA、淨債務、淨債務與調整後 EBITDA 比率、準備金 PV-10 中的自由現金流。這些指標與最接近的 GAAP 指標的調整可以在我們昨天發布的收益報告中找到。

Now I will turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Bob Gerrity.

現在我將把電話轉給我們的董事長兼執行長鮑勃·格里蒂。

Thanks, Ben, and good morning, everybody, and thanks for participating in today's call and thanks a lot for everybody's support. This year. 23 was a successful year, our 1st year of being up independent public publicly traded company. We paid a $2 per share dividend. And in addition, we were able to source some highly economic acquisitions that allow us to grow our production while maintaining a conservative balance sheet.

謝謝本，大家早安，謝謝您參加今天的電話會議，也非常感謝大家的支持。今年。 23 月是成功的一年，也是我們成為獨立上市公司的第一年。我們支付了每股 2 美元的股息。此外，我們也能夠進行一些高度經濟的收購，使我們能夠在保持保守的資產負債表的同時增加產量。

Vitesse is a long-duration asset that has high yielding inflation protected and leveraged technology.

Vitesse 是一種長期資產，具有高收益通膨保護和槓桿技術。

Looking forward to 2024, our strategy remains the same. We will continue to return capital to our shareholders to that end last week, our Board declared a 2024 first quarter cash dividend of $0.5 per share to be paid at the end of March. After our fixed dividend we allocate capital using our returns-based hierarchy and extensive internally created database. We are very selective with how we spend our money. Cash goes to the highest return projects. We do not have a capital BUDGET. Rather, we allocate capital to as many projects that meet our stringent return hurdles.

展望2024年，我們的策略維持不變。為此，我們將繼續向股東返還資本，上週，我們的董事會宣布將於 3 月底支付 2024 年第一季每股 0.5 美元的現金股利。在固定股息之後，我們使用基於回報的層次結構和廣泛的內部創建的資料庫來分配資本。我們對花錢的方式非常有選擇性。現金流向報酬率最高的項目。我們沒有資本預算。相反，我們將資金分配給盡可能多的滿足嚴格回報門檻的項目。

With that, I'll turn it over to the test as President, Brian Cree. Brian?

有了這個，我將把它交給總統布萊恩·克里進行測試。布萊恩？

Thanks, Bob, and good morning, everyone. As Bob mentioned, we increased our 2023 production to 11,889 barrels of oil equivalent per day with fourth quarter production of 13,652 BOE per day. The production from the acquisitions announced in October 23 came on sooner and slightly better than we had underwritten so far in 2024, our production was negatively impacted by the severe weather event in North Dakota in January. Despite this event and the acceleration of production into the fourth quarter of 23 from 24, we are maintaining our 24 production CapEx guidance, as Jimmy will discuss shortly. As a reminder, our production and CapEx can be lumpy from quarter to quarter. Our oil differential in the fourth quarter was wider than it has been historically as increasing oil production from Canada was transported through Bakken regional infrastructure. We expect oil differentials to improve when the Trans Mountain pipeline comes online in Canada currently expected in the second quarter of 2024. As of year end, we had 6.7 net wells that were either drilling or in the completing phase and another 9.9 net wells that had been permitted for development by our operators proved reserves at December 31st, 2023 were $40.6 million barrels of oil equivalent, which was 70% proved developed. These proved developed reserves increased 5% from year end 2022 total proved reserves decreased 7% from 2022 due to our removal of proved undeveloped drilling locations from our reserve report as a result of lower rig activity in North Dakota during 2023, partially offset by the addition of reserves associated with wells drilled in 23 from our unproven inventory. As a non-operator, our unproven locations are often drilled even though they are not included in proved reserves under the required SEC five-year development schedule. Total proved reserves had a PV-10 value of $682 million and decreased from 2022, primarily due to the reduction in SCC benchmark prices. As you see, oil prices used for 2023, reserves decreased by $15.93 a barrel compared to 2022. As you see, natural gas prices decreased by $3.72 an MMBTU and when combined with a decrease in NGL prices reduced our realized gas price used for reserves from $7.98 an Mcf in 22, down to $1.71 per Mcf in 2023 to help moderate these price movements. The test has oil hedges in place for all of 2024 and the first half of 2025. At the midpoint of our guidance, we have approximately 42% of our full year 2024 oil production hedged at approximately $79 per barrel and 285,000 barrels of our first half 2025 oil production hedged at above $74 per barrel.

謝謝鮑勃，大家早安。正如 Bob 所提到的，我們將 2023 年產量提高至每天 11,889 桶油當量，第四季度產量為每天 13,652 桶油當量。10 月 23 日宣布的收購的產量比我們迄今為止承保的 2024 年產量更快、略好，我們的產量受到 1 月份北達科他州惡劣天氣事件的負面影響。儘管發生了這一事件，並且第四季度的生產從 24 日加速到 23 日，但我們仍維持 24 日的生產資本支出指導，吉米將很快討論這一點。提醒一下，我們的生產和資本支出可能每季都不穩定。我們第四季的石油差異比歷史上更大，因為加拿大增加的石油產量是透過巴肯地區基礎設施運輸的。我們預計，當跨山管道在加拿大上線（目前預計 2024 年第二季）時，石油差異將會改善。截至年底，我們有6.7 口淨井正在鑽探或處於完井階段，另有9.9 口淨井已由我們的運營商批准開發，截至2023 年12 月31 日探明儲量為4060 萬桶油當量，這是70%已證實已開發。這些探明已開發儲量較2022 年底增加了5%，總探明儲量較2022 年下降了7%，原因是2023 年北達科他州鑽機活動減少，導致我們從儲量報告中刪除了探明未開發鑽井地點，但部分被新增探明儲量所抵銷與我們未探明庫存中 23 個鑽探井相關的儲量。作為非運營商，我們未經探明的地點經常被鑽探，即使它們不包含在 SEC 五年開發計劃要求的探明儲量中。總探明儲量的 PV-10 價值為 6.82 億美元，較 2022 年下降，主要是由於 SCC 基準價格的下降。如您所見，2023 年使用的油價、儲備量與 2022 年相比每桶減少了 15.93 美元。如您所見，天然氣價格下降了3.72 美元/MMBTU，再加上NGL 價格下降，我們用於儲備的天然氣價格從22 年的7.98 美元/Mcf 降至2023 年的1.71 美元/Mcf，以幫助緩和這些價格波動。該測試已在 2024 年全年和 2025 年上半年實施石油對沖。在我們指導的中點，我們 2024 年全年石油產量的約 42% 以每桶約 79 美元的價格進行對沖，2025 年上半年石油產量的 285,000 桶以每桶 74 美元以上的價格進行對沖。

Thanks for your time. And now I'll turn it over to our CFO, Jimmy Henderson, to review our financial highlights.

謝謝你的時間。現在我將把它交給我們的財務長吉米·亨德森，以審查我們的財務亮點。

Thanks, Brian, and good morning, everyone. Now to a quick review of our financial results for the year and our financial status, I want to highlight a few items from the fourth quarter and for 2023. Now assume that you can refer to our earnings release and 10 K, which were filed last night for any further details, our production levels increased to 13,652 for the quarter with 72% oil time, bringing our annual production to 11,089 BOE per day with about 68% of that being oil. Both amounts were above our updated guidance as production came on better and faster than we expected.

謝謝布萊恩，大家早安。現在，為了快速回顧我們今年的財務表現和財務狀況，我想重點介紹第四季度和 2023 年的一些項目。現在假設您可以參考我們昨晚提交的財報和10 K 來了解更多詳細信息，我們本季度的產量增加到13,652 桶油當量，石油時間為72%，使我們的年產量達到每天11,089 桶油當量，大約其中68%是石油。這兩個數字都高於我們最新的指導，因為生產進展比我們預期的更好更快。

As Brian just mentioned for the year, adjusted EBITDA was $157 million and adjusted net income was $53.6 million. Gaap net income was a loss of $19.7 million you can see that reconciliation in our press release that we just filed last night.

正如布萊恩剛剛提到的，今年調整後的 EBITDA 為 1.57 億美元，調整後的淨利潤為 5360 萬美元。按照公認會計準則 (GAAP) 計算的淨收入虧損 1,970 萬美元，您可以在我們昨晚剛提交的新聞稿中看到這一對帳結果。

Cash CapEx and acquisition costs for the year was $120.5 million which is right at the midpoint of our latest revised guidance. We funded this investment with operating cash flows and withdrawals on our credit facility and debt at the end of the year stood at $81 million, resulting in a overall leverage ratio right at 0.5 times. Our elected commitments were increased in January to $210 million as we added a fifth lender to our bank syndicate.

今年的現金資本支出和收購成本為 1.205 億美元，正好處於我們最新修訂指南的中點。我們透過經營現金流和信貸額度提款以及年底的債務為這項投資提供了 8,100 萬美元的資金，總體槓桿率為 0.5 倍。隨著我們的銀團增加了第五家貸款機構，我們在 1 月的選舉承諾增加至 2.1 億美元。

With respect to our 2024 guidance, we are reaffirming our preliminary 2024 outlook. Our expected production for for 2020 for ranges from 12,500 to 13,500 BOE per day, with the 67% to 71% oil cut. We expect our total cash CapEx to range from $90 million to $100 million during the year. And note that our oil and natural gas production as well as our CapEx can vary from quarter to quarter based on whether new wells come online and from other operational matters that may arise.

關於我們 2024 年的指導，我們重申了我們對 2024 年的初步展望。我們預計 2020 年產量為每天 12,500 至 13,500 桶油當量，其中石油減產 67% 至 71%。我們預計今年的現金資本支出總額將在 9,000 萬美元至 1 億美元之間。請注意，我們的石油和天然氣產量以及資本支出可能會因新井是否上線以及可能出現的其他營運問題而有所不同。

As Brian mentioned, our production was affected by extreme winter conditions in January of 24. Thanks to the great work of our operators, we quickly recovered and our total year expectations now remain unchanged. Kudos to the men and women on the ground. They're working to keep that production online. Those efforts are truly appreciated.

正如 Brian 所提到的，我們的生產在 1 月 24 日受到了極端冬季條件的影響。由於我們操作員的出色工作，我們很快就恢復過來，目前我們的全年預期保持不變。向地面上的男人和女人致敬。他們正在努力保持生產在線。這些努力確實值得讚賞。

I also want to touch on the S. three, which we filed on February first. We filed those the shelf as a bit of corporate housekeeping, as we became as three eligible after trading on the New York Stock Exchange for one year, it provides us much more flexibility if needed to find an attractive acquisition. But it was not put in place to fund anything imminent or any planned transaction. We will see we still plan to stick with our strategy of maintaining a simple capital structure with minimal leverage even if we consummate a large, more transformative acquisition.

我還想談談我們在二月一日提交的 S.3。我們將這些擱置作為公司內部管理的一部分，因為我們在紐約證券交易所交易一年後成為三名符合資格的人，如果需要尋找有吸引力的收購，它為我們提供了更大的靈活性。但它並不是為任何即將發生的或任何計劃中的交易提供資金的。我們將看到，即使我們完成了一項規模更大、更具變革性的收購，我們仍然計劃堅持以最小槓桿維持簡單資本結構的策略。

With that, let me turn the call over to the operator for Q&A.

接下來，讓我將電話轉給接線生進行問答。

I think thanks, everybody.

我想謝謝大家。

(Operator Instructions) Michael Schwartz, Jefferies.

（操作員說明）Michael Schwartz，Jefferies。

Yes, Bob, Brian, Ben and Jimmy. And on your strategy in 2023. I wanted to ask about M&A opportunities you're currently seeing in the market. How does 2024 the opportunity set in 2024 compared to 2023. Are these primarily self source deals? And are there larger packages out there that are you're seeing in the market?

是的，鮑伯、布萊恩、班和吉米。以及您的 2023 年策略。我想問一下您目前在市場上看到的併購機會。與 2023 年相比，2024 年的機會如何？這些主要是自源交易嗎？您在市場上看到更大的包裝嗎？

Thanks, Michael. The I just want to remind everybody that we have a very full field team at Vitesse, including accounts finance, people, engineers, land department and management. And we spend a tremendous amount of our time, both sourcing deals, self sourcing deals and analyzing deals. So the fact that we have not done a deal of transformative size should not be indicative of what we're going to do in 24 as a public company. We are seeing a lot more deal flow bespoke deal flow than we did as a private company. But again, we are extremely picky, selective and analytic so we do not with the deal flow that we have from an A. and D. perspective, our organic drilling and our near term bought deals. We don't have to do a deal. So we're looking to do that transformative deal in a very greedy fashion. So on I would I'd say that we because we haven't done a deal, it's not because we're not looking and not because there's not a lot of opportunities. But again, it would we self-source almost everything we do and we're happy with what we're seeing.

謝謝，麥可。我只是想提醒大家，我們在 Vitesse 擁有非常完整的現場團隊，包括財務、人員、工程師、土地部門和管理層。我們花了大量的時間來尋找交易、自行尋找交易和分析交易。因此，我們尚未完成規模具有變革性的交易這一事實不應表明我們作為一家上市公司將在 24 年內做什麼。我們看到比我們作為一家私人公司更多的交易流定制交易流。但同樣，我們非常挑剔、有選擇性和分析性，因此我們不會從 A. 和 D. 的角度來看我們的交易流、我們的有機鑽探和我們的近期購買交易。我們不必達成協議。因此，我們希望以一種非常貪婪的方式完成這項變革性的交易。所以我想說，我們是因為我們還沒有達成協議，不是因為我們沒有在尋找，也不是因為沒有太多機會。但同樣，我們所做的幾乎所有事情都是自行採購的，並且我們對所看到的感到滿意。

That's that's great to hear. And I just had one more follow up on the same point. And the second question. So how does the court entered plus deal and the consolidation that's happening in the Bakken and impact M&A opportunities there. Do you think it increases the opportunities for you guys or decreases? Just trying to get a sense of how you assess the impact.

很高興聽到這個消息。我剛剛就同一點又進行了一次跟進。第二個問題。那麼，法院如何達成附加交易以及巴肯正在發生的整合並影響那裡的併購機會。您認為這會增加還是減少你們的機會？只是想了解您如何評估影響。

Brian, would you handle it?

布萊恩，你能處理嗎？

Yes, Michael, obviously, we're always a big fan of any of the consolidation, new new operators coming into the basin. And that situation specifically, corn has done some great things with three miles driven opportunities. So we really we really look forward to that type of consolidation and the enhancement of and everyone kind of using the best of all technologies from an M&A perspective, I mean, our hope there would be that at some of that non-op may get to monetized. If they look to do that, we'll be right there to trying to pick any of that up.

是的，邁克爾，顯然，我們始終是任何合併的忠實粉絲，新的運營商進入盆地。具體來說，玉米在三英里行駛的機會中做了一些很棒的事情。因此，我們真的非常期待這種類型的整合和增強，並且每個人都從併購的角度使用最好的技術，我的意思是，我們希望在某些非操作方面可能會達到貨幣化。如果他們想要這樣做，我們就會在那裡嘗試解決其中的任何問題。

That makes a lot of sense and not great to hear. So I'll add one more point. I wanted to ask about differentials. You mentioned TMX and buck in 4Q diffs were quite wide and TMX has the potential to narrow that. Al, could you walk us through a little bit more on your outlook about where you think this could go in the Bakken and over kind of what timeframe? And is that kind of structural and will be sustained? Or is that a temporary change that will be mitigated and change going forward?

這很有道理，但聽起來並不好。所以我還要補充一點。我想問一下差異化的問題。您提到 TMX 和降血壓在 4Q 中的差異相當大，而 TMX 有潛力縮小差異。Al，您能否向我們詳細介紹一下您對巴肯的看法以及您認為這會在什麼時間範圍內進行的情況？這種結構性的情況是否會持續下去？或者這是一個暫時的變化，未來會得到緩解並發生變化？

Jimmy Choo or Michael?

Jimmy Choo 還是麥可？

Yes, I think yes, obviously right now we're impacted by the delay in the Trans Mountain expansion coming online and the pretty large pipeline that Canadian government's building up there, and we'll take a lot of oil further to the west and not down into the infrastructure than services North Dakota. So we do think that once that pipeline comes online, which I think is still expected in the second quarter here coming up very soon, then we should see a tightening of the gaps that we realize in North Dakota as those volumes on exit are our marketing area, I think that you can call that a systemic change sort of returning back to what we've seen in the near distant future. I think the differentials that we saw earlier in the year three 50 ish is probably what we should expect going forward. Once that all works, its way out. So we're optimistic about that returning to come to fruition as we go through the remainder of the back half 24.

是的，我想是的，顯然現在我們受到了跨山擴建項目延遲上線以及加拿大政府在那裡修建的相當大的管道的影響，我們將把大量石油輸送到更遠的西部，而不是深入基礎設施而不是北達科他州的服務。因此，我們確實認為，一旦該管道上線（我認為預計第二季度很快就會上線），那麼我們應該會看到我們在北達科他州意識到的差距正在縮小，因為退出時的數量是我們的行銷我認為你可以稱之為系統性變化，有點回到我們在不久的將來所看到的情況。我認為我們在今年早些時候看到的 3 50 左右的差異可能是我們應該期待的未來。一旦一切順利，那就出路了。因此，我們對 24 小時後半段剩餘時間的恢復結果持樂觀態度。

Perfect. That's all very helpful. And thank you for your time today. Really appreciate it.

完美的。這一切都非常有幫助。感謝您今天抽出時間。真的很感激。

Chris Baker, Evercore ISI.

克里斯貝克，Evercore ISI。

Yes, good morning. I guess first question, just wanted to touch on something you mentioned in the prepared remarks around Bakken weather. Can you maybe just frame up how many days and then maybe kind of to the extent possible connect that to where first quarter volumes could shake out. I understand the guide for the full year is unchanged and it's sort of a temporary impact. But just curious in terms of the trajectory near term? Any help there?

是的，早安。我想第一個問題只是想談談您在有關巴肯天氣的準備好的評論中提到的內容。您能否簡單地計算出需要多少天，然後盡可能地將其與第一季銷售可能出現的情況聯繫起來。據我所知，全年指南沒有變化，這只是暫時的影響。但只是對近期的發展軌跡感到好奇？有什麼幫助嗎？

Yes, sure. I mean, I think there were a lot of articles that came out obviously, from from our standpoint as a non-operated working interest owner, we're not out in the field, but we do get some dailies and certainly the weather impact was on seven to 10 days up there pretty substantial. We saw some reports where well more than 50% of production was off-line. So we've made our estimates for a for that month of January, and there's a significantly lower lower than what we saw in December from a guidance standpoint, I think we still believe the first quarter will be in the range of the lower end of our guidance plus or minus on, which is why when we look at everything as a whole, we decided to keep our guidance.

是的，當然。我的意思是，我認為顯然有很多文章發表，從我們作為非經營性工作權益所有者的角度來看，我們並沒有在現場，但我們確實得到了一些日報，當然天氣的影響是那裡的七到十天相當充實。我們看到一些報告顯示，超過 50% 的生產處於離線狀態。因此，我們對1 月的預測進行了預測，從指導的角度來看，該預測明顯低於12 月的預測，我認為我們仍然相信第一季將處於2019 年1 月下限的範圍內。我們的指導意見會增加或減少，這就是為什麼當我們從整體上看待一切時，我們決定保留我們的指導意見。

That's helpful, thanks. And then just maybe sticking on the 2024 guide, any sort of relevant operator trends? And then maybe, you know, in terms of the activity backlog, if you could connect the dots in terms of, you know, where you guys stand today versus what's baked into the guide would be helpful, just a broader context.

這很有幫助，謝謝。然後也許只是堅持 2024 年指南，有任何相關的運營商趨勢嗎？然後，你知道，就活動積壓而言，如果你能將你們今天的立場與指南中的內容聯繫起來，這將是有幫助的，只是一個更廣泛的背景。

Yes, you know, we talk about what our pipeline is. And at the at the end of the year, our pipeline was was just under 17 net wells. Typically let that pipeline is anywhere from 15 to 20 net wells at the end of any quarter, just kind of depending on where we are with with our acquisitions and how many wells are still in the dock status and whatnot. So it feels like it's we're right, right in line kind of with our typical expectations over the past few years. And that feels like like when we combined that Bob mentioned the M&A activity and that includes our near term development acquisitions, that pipeline is still strong you know, from our standpoint, we look at a lot of transactions, potential transactions, a lot of deals. We bid on almost everything, but we don't have a very high hit rate but when we combine kind of where our pipeline is right now with what we see on the organic side, feels like, you know, that's kind of why we again continued with our with our guidance into it 2024 unchanged.

是的，你知道，我們談論我們的管道是什麼。截至年底，我們的管道淨井數略低於 17 口。通常，在任何季度末，該管道的淨井數為 15 至 20 口，這取決於我們的收購情況以及仍有多少口井處於碼頭狀態等。所以感覺我們是對的，符合我們過去幾年的典型預期。感覺就像當我們結合鮑勃提到的併購活動，包括我們近期的開發收購時，管道仍然很強大，從我們的角度來看，我們會考慮很多交易，潛在的交易，很多交易。我們幾乎對所有東西都進行了投標，但我們的命中率不是很高，但是當我們將我們現在的管道狀況與我們在有機方面看到的情況結合起來時，感覺就像，你知道，這就是我們再次進行的原因繼續我們的 2024 年指導不變。

Great. Thank you.

偉大的。謝謝。

Jeff Grampp, Alliance Global Partners.

傑夫·格蘭普，聯盟全球合作夥伴。

Yes, I guess, Jeff, I'm I'm curious on the on the production numbers in Q4, you guys kind of almost and the whole a whole year's worth of production increase in one quarter. And you mentioned timing and well performance being the big factors there. I'm curious to dig into that a bit more and more curious on the performance side, is that would you characterize that as perhaps just some inherent conservatism that you guys tend to put in your model? Or is there anything maybe tangibly different that you saw from operators that might help explain the better performance?

是的，我想，傑夫，我對第四季的產量數字很好奇，你們幾乎在一個季度就增加了全年的產量。您提到時機和性能是其中的重要因素。我很想在性能方面越來越好奇地深入研究這一點，您是否會將其描述為您傾向於將其放入模型中的一些固有的保守主義？或者您從操作員那裡看到的任何可能明顯不同的東西可能有助於解釋更好的性能？

You know, Jeff, this is Brian. I'll take a first crack at that and let Bob or Jimmy weigh in also. But one of the things we really touched on when we did those acquisitions at the end of the third quarter and talked about them in the fourth quarter was that we were looking for we this was an opportunity to bring on some wells earlier than you would normally do in our near term development acquisition strategy because typically when we do that, we're buying more wells that are just in the process of being drilled where during that third and fourth quarter, we were able to acquire things that were coming on sooner. And the unfortunate part for the fourth quarter is just a lot of those wells came on kind of as we had expected, maybe a little earlier than we expect. And I'm not sure that the performance itself was was that much better than we had underwrite it. It was underwritten. It was a little better than what we had underwritten, but it was really the timing of those wells coming on sooner which again, from our standpoint, it's all about velocity of capital. We want to make sure that when we acquire things, you don't love to see those get turned down as fast as possible.

你知道，傑夫，這是布萊恩。我會先嘗試一下，然後讓鮑伯或吉米也參與其中。但是，當我們在第三季末進行這些收購並在第四季度討論這些收購時，我們真正觸及的一件事是，我們正在尋找比平常更早開發一些油井的機會。在我們的近期開發收購策略中這樣做，因為通常當我們這樣做時，我們會購買更多正在鑽探的油井，在第三和第四季度，我們能夠收購即將發生的事情。第四季不幸的是，許多油井的投產都符合我們的預期，甚至可能比我們預期的還要早一點。我不確定性能本身是否比我們承保的要好得多。它是承保的。這比我們承保的要好一些，但這實際上是這些油井開工時間較早的問題，從我們的角度來看，這又與資本週轉率有關。我們希望確保當我們購買東西時，您不希望看到它們被盡快拒絕。

And that was kind of more of the impact in the fourth quarter? Well, it just came on sooner than we had expected.

這對第四季的影響更大嗎？好吧，它來得比我們預期的還要早。

Yes, Jeff, it is. This is Bob it's a whole concept of when we see a deal that really it's economic we will. But it's not like we have a fixed budget every quarter. So we don't tried to smooth our production. And in the third quarter last year, we found some some really nice wells. And so it's going to be lumpy, Jeff, it's hard to extrapolate that. But on when we see them that are attractive.

是的，傑夫，確實如此。這是鮑勃，當我們看到一筆真正經濟的交易時，我們就會這樣做。但我們並不是每季都有固定的預算。所以我們並沒有試著讓我們的生產順利進行。去年第三季度，我們發現了一些非常好的井。所以它會很不穩定，傑夫，很難推斷這一點。但當我們看到它們有吸引力時。

We got it and absolutely understood there. Appreciate that. And maybe to tie into that last point, Bob, with respect to acquisitions and maybe more of the ground game world. I think in 23 you guys did about $35 million in acquisitions. And exactly as you said, I know you don't set goals per se for capital deployed in the context of what you're seeing out there in your funnel today, how would you kind of handicap or assess what 24 may look like relative to 2013, it was 23 a gangbuster year were $35 million. Was that a slower year? How do you how would you kind of bookend from activity levels as you look in your crystal ball for 24?

我們明白了並且完全理解了。感謝。鮑勃，也許要與最後一點聯繫起來，關於收購，也許還有更多的地面遊戲世界。我想你們在 23 年裡進行了大約 3500 萬美元的收購。正如您所說，我知道您並沒有根據您今天在漏斗中看到的情況為部署的資本設定目標本身，您將如何限製或評估 24 相對於 24 的情況2013 年是第23 年，銷售額達到3500 萬美元。那是較慢的一年嗎？當您在水晶球中尋找 24 小時時，您會如何根據活動水平進行記帳？

Yes, fair question. Hard to give you a quantitative answer for that. We've been doing this for 12 years and I will tell you that this is the best opportunity set we've ever seen. So that doesn't mean we're going to do everything, but we're we've got a lot to choose from. So this is a healthy year. So we'll you know, again, I can't give you a number, but Brian, you got any more color on.

是的，公平的問題。很難給你一個定量的答案。我們已經這樣做了 12 年，我會告訴你，這是我們見過的最好的機會。因此，這並不意味著我們會做所有事情，但我們有很多選擇。所以今年是健康的一年。所以我們會讓你知道，我不能給你一個數字，但是布萊恩，你有更多的顏色。

Everything I would really say is as they look, I mean we are our guidance is for $90 million to $110 million of CapEx in 2014. Part of that is a carryover from the acquisition, right? We did last year. And so I think you can kind of back into our organic, which is we always talk about being kind of in that $40 million to $50 million range plus or minus of the organic. And so you can kind of do the math to what we're expecting. It's certainly not at the $35 million level that we had last year is not what's baked into our guidance.

我真正要說的一切都是他們看起來的樣子，我的意思是我們的指導是 2014 年資本支出為 9000 萬至 1.1 億美元。其中一部分是收購的結轉，對嗎？我們去年就這麼做了。所以我認為你可以回到我們的有機，我們總是談論在 4000 萬到 5000 萬美元的範圍內加上或減去有機。所以你可以對我們的期望進行數學計算。這肯定不是我們去年的 3500 萬美元水平，這也不是我們的指導方針中所包含的內容。

Got it. That's really helpful. Thank you, guys.

知道了。這真的很有幫助。感謝你們。

Donovan Schafer, Northland Capital Markets.

多諾萬‧謝弗 (Donovan Schafer)，北國資本市場。

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. So the first one I wanted to ask about kind of coming back to the differentials and the Trans Mountain pipeline. Yes, of course, that's a crude oil pipeline and that's what's kind of causing the wider differentials there. And some of that's because I think I believe it's Canadian oil sands production is yes, it's a type of production activity that takes time to ramp up. And so they've kind of missed time that and started ramping it up to get things rolling. And then the pipeline got delayed. But and one other benefit of that is it increases the natural gas consumption because they use a lot of natural gas. They burn a lot of natural gas to generate the heat and stuff they need for the for extracting the oil from oil sands. So I'm just curious, are you starting to see I don't think we've seen anything in the pricing. But have you seen anything indicators showing that kind of natural gas burn uptick or increasing in the Alberta area on any kind of earlier indications, anything positive there? And if that could be that if that can rise to a level of materiality or if that's just to I mean, obviously, production is very much skewed towards oil. Could that become significant in any way and any early indications.

大家好。感謝您提出問題。所以我想問的第一個問題是關於差速器和跨山管道的問題。是的，當然，這是一條原油管道，這就是造成那裡更大差異的原因。其中一些是因為我認為我相信加拿大的油砂產量是的，這是一種需要時間才能提高的生產活動。所以他們有點錯過了這個時間，並開始加強讓事情順利進行。然後管道就延誤了。但是，這樣做的另一個好處是它增加了天然氣消耗，因為他們使用大量天然氣。他們燃燒大量天然氣來產生從油砂中提取石油所需的熱量和物質。所以我只是好奇，你是否開始看到我認為我們在定價中沒有看到任何東西。但是，您是否看到任何跡象表明阿爾伯塔地區的天然氣燃燒量增加或根據任何早期跡象而增加，有什麼積極的跡象嗎？如果這可能是，如果這可以上升到實質水平，或者如果這只是我的意思，那麼顯然，生產非常偏向石油。這是否會以任何方式和任何早期跡象變得重要？

Hey, Jonathan, this is Jeremy. I'll take a shot at that and thank you for providing that color on Komag's and how it affects North Dakota. I don't think I could have said it better myself. As far as the natural gas, you know, we're not really baking something into. Certainly we're more impacted because of the way the gas flows from North Dakota and this stream mix with NGLs were much more impacted by it. Market centers are in the Gulf Coast. And so we're definitely more impacted by Henry Hub and Mount Bellevue for the NGLs. So we're continuing to model that on sort of depressed scenario for our gas sales for the time being, we'd love to see more and more of a call on gas going north, but there's not as much infrastructure going that way out of North Dakota as there is with pipelines with with One Oak, et cetera, going down to the cell. But we'd love to see that from that change and see gas being and exported from North Dakota, more so into Canada to facilitate production up there, but we are not breaking that out at this point. Keep you apprised if we see things change fundamentally on that.

嘿，喬納森，這是傑里米。我會嘗試一下，並感謝您提供 Komag 的顏色以及它如何影響北達科他州。我不認為我自己能說得更好。至於天然氣，你知道，我們並沒有真正烘烤任何東西。當然，我們受到的影響更大，因為來自北達科他州的天然氣流動方式以及與液化天然氣混合的氣流受到更大的影響。市場中心位於墨西哥灣沿岸。因此，對於 NGL 來說，亨利中心和貝爾維尤山對我們的影響肯定更大。因此，我們將繼續根據目前天然氣銷售的低迷情況進行建模，我們希望看到越來越多的天然氣向北輸送，但沒有那麼多基礎設施朝北輸送。北達科他州有管道，有One Oak 等，一直延伸到細胞。但我們希望看到這一變化，並看到天然氣從北達科他州出口，尤其是出口到加拿大，以促進那裡的生產，但我們目前還沒有透露這一點。如果我們看到事情發生根本性的變化，請隨時通知您。

Okay. That is helpful. And then I did I wanted to follow-up in the press release and you included an interesting data point, which was this 1.5 million BOEs in TDT reserves are added and this iteration of the reserve or that were coming from wells that had not been booked at all as pubs in the prior year. And as I understand, I think the idea here is we're trying to get around Lake as a non-operator with an operator that gets a little dirt here will drill here and we'll drill there and they can kind of stick to the plan and meet the SEC five year requirement of converting about 20% of pods in a given year. And you guys it's more of a, you know, a statistical game or something where you can sort of say, well, here's we can guesstimate numbers and come up with something where we'll hit 20% conversion rate by that. That is the issue once you get the exact right well locations and you can't do that. So this is kind of the flip side of that, right? Where it's like.

好的。這很有幫助。然後我想在新聞稿中跟進，您添加了一個有趣的數據點，即 TDT 儲量中添加了 150 萬個 BOE，並且儲量的迭代或來自尚未預訂的油井完全是前一年的酒吧。據我了解，我認為這裡的想法是，我們試圖以非運營商的身份繞過湖，而這裡有一點污垢的運營商會在這裡鑽探，我們會在那裡鑽探，他們可以堅持下去計劃並滿足SEC 五年內轉換約20% 的Pod 的要求。你們知道，這更像是一個統計遊戲，或者你可以說，好吧，我們可以猜測數字，然後想出一些可以達到 20% 轉換率的方法。一旦你獲得了正確的井位，而你卻無法做到這一點，這就是問題所在。所以這是事情的另一面，對吧？好像在哪裡。

Okay. Here's something that will be where we picked the wrong exact locations, but we are right in the broader scheme of things. And here's this 1.5 million BOEs or an increase. So one, I guess if I'm the right idea there. And then two would be in your experience, is it kind of a consistent like this 1.5 million? And is there some consistency even in rough terms from year to year, like So if we're talking about a five year rule, my understanding is you take like the 1.5 and then you can multiply that by five to get 7.5 million BOEs. And then you kind of add that back until like the 40 you and I know I know I don't get in trouble with SEC stuff like I know, of course, technically the SEC folks wouldn't approve of that. So from the standpoint of like just trying to roughly approximate what could be more similar to how things look for an operator, am I kind of at least like on the right track there?

好的。在這裡，我們選擇了錯誤的確切位置，但從更廣泛的角度來看，我們是正確的。這是 150 萬個 BOE 或增量。所以，我想我的想法是否正確。然後根據你的經驗，有兩個，是不是像 150 萬這樣一致？即使從粗略的角度來看，每年是否也存在一定的一致性，例如，如果我們談論五年規則，我的理解是，您可以採用 1.5，然後將其乘以 5，得到 750 萬個 BOE。然後你再加回來，直到 40 歲，你和我知道我知道我不會像我知道的那樣在 SEC 的事情上遇到麻煩，當然，從技術上講，SEC 的人不會批准這一點。因此，從像只是試圖粗略地近似什麼可能更類似於操作員的方式來看，我至少在正確的軌道上嗎？

So Jonathan, this is Brian. You did a great job of describing the impact of the pie of the pipeline. You did just a fabulous job right there of describing what happens for a non-operated working interest owner when they're trying to figure out what's going to get drilled over the next five years. Obviously, from our standpoint, we've got we take all the information that we've got permits, AFEs information from the operators and we tried to project out what we believe will get drilled over the next five years, a lot of our focus because of the amount of undeveloped acreage that we own and the wide range of our working interest ownership. And we've got we've got some stuff that is 10, 15% working interest. We've got a lot of other wells that may be far less than 1%. We're going to spend more of our time trying to figure out which wells are drilled in the higher working interest wells. And so in any given year, there's going to be a subset of properties drilled that are at lower working interest so that we just didn't expect to get drilled. And so you're you nailed it. I mean you hit it exactly out of the park with your explanation there. We're doing the best we can to figure out what's going to get drilled over five years, but every year, there's going to be a group of properties that are drilled completed and turned online that we did not have in our proved reserves at the end of a given year now whether that averages 1.5 or more or less, I think it's in the range. I haven't done the calculation to be able to tell you whether you use the 1.5 and you can multiply that by five. But what I would tell you is that there's no doubt that every year there are there are definitely properties drilled that we did not have in our in our proved reserves at the end of the year.

喬納森，這是布萊恩。您很好地描述了管道蛋糕的影響。你做得非常出色，描述了非經營性工作權益所有者在試圖弄清楚未來五年將進行鑽探的情況時會發生什麼。顯然，從我們的角度來看，我們已經獲取了所有已獲得許可的信息、來自運營商的 AFE 信息，並試圖預測出我們認為在未來五年內將進行鑽探的內容，這是我們的重點因為我們擁有大量的未開發土地以及我們的工作權益所有權的廣泛範圍。我們已經得到了一些 10%、15% 的工作利息。我們還有很多其他油井，其比例可能遠低於 1%。我們將花費更多的時間來弄清楚哪些井是在較高工作興趣的井中鑽探的。因此，在任何一年中，都會有一部分已鑽探的資產的工作興趣較低，因此我們只是沒想到會被鑽探。所以你成功了。我的意思是，你的解釋完全出乎意料。我們正在盡最大努力弄清楚五年內將鑽探什麼，但每年都會有一組鑽探完畢並投入使用的資產，而這些資產是我們在探明儲量中所沒有的。到了年底，無論平均值是1.5 還是更多或更少，我認為都在這個範圍內。我還沒有進行計算，無法告訴您是否使用 1.5，您可以將其乘以 5。但我要告訴你的是，毫無疑問，每年年底一定都會有我們探明儲量中沒有的資產被鑽探。

Okay. Very helpful. And then just the last question and I'll take the rest offline after this is just true DD&A expense in the quarter, it was a significant uptick in absolute terms. And of course, I know a lot of that. I'd say probably even just the majority of that comes from increase the 24% quarter over quarter increase in production rate. But it does look like there was a bit of an uptick on in terms of DD&A per BOE. I think it went from end of 18, $18 high 10s to kind of low 20s. So is that just a matter of the acquisitions or was there anything else where like the reserve on existing wells there is a maybe tightening up of reserve base or something? Yes, if you if you say the remaining number of barrels is reduced in some way because of the type curve adjustment or something, then you're going to have to that will kind of accelerate that some of that DD&A recognition. So just curious if you can talk to what was the driver of the increase on a per-BOE basis?

好的。很有幫助。然後是最後一個問題，在這只是本季度真正的 DD&A 費用之後，我將把其餘問題下線，從絕對值來看，這是一個顯著的上升。當然，我知道很多。我想說，其中大部分可能來自於生產力季度環比成長 24%。但看起來每個 BOE 的 DD&A 確實有所上升。我認為它從 18 年底的 18 美元高點 10 美元跌至低點 20 美元。那麼這只是收購問題還是還有其他問題，例如現有油井的儲備可能會收緊儲備基礎或其他什麼？是的，如果你說剩餘的桶數由於類型曲線調整或其他原因而以某種方式減少，那麼你將不得不加速某些 DD&A 的認可。那麼，您是否可以談談每個京東方的成長驅動因素是什麼？

Yes, David, this is Jamie. I'll give it a shot here that on the I'd say the increase was a combination of the acquisitions and in getting the arm on CapEx for those into the calculation and kind of a timing difference on the is I think the reserves will continue to increase as we go forward on those particular wells. But we put all the CapEx and as for various here in the fourth quarter, in addition to the change in the reserves that you were discussing earlier beyond the reduction in our total proved reserves is also part of that calculation. So will that factor and we true up the within the fourth quarter to that year end reserve calculation. So kind of a combination of both of those equally impactful.

是的，大衛，這是傑米。我會在這裡嘗試一下，我想說的是，增加是收購和資本支出的結合，以便將這些納入計算，並且我認為儲備金將繼續存在時間差異隨著我們在這些特定井上的進展，會增加。但我們將所有資本支出和各種資本支出都放在第四季度，除了您之前討論的儲備金變化之外，我們探明總儲備金的減少也是該計算的一部分。這個因素也會如此，我們會在第四季到年底的準備金計算中進行調整。兩者的結合同樣具有影響力。

And I would just add to that one thing you got to think about there is from the standpoint of making acquisitions when oil and gas prices are higher like they have been the last couple of years and when you're making those acquisitions at very attractive rates of return because of what you're paying to acquire those assets at those higher oil and gas prices, you are seeing a higher depreciable base being added into your overall reserve base. So when you when you take that into consideration, plus the fact that we pulled off a lot of proved undeveloped reserves that we just talked about. And then the final component of that is from our standpoint, we don't exclude any of our and capital costs. Any of that any of the costs on our balance sheet. They're not outside of that depreciable base. So we don't have any unproven assets on our balance sheet, everything on our balance sheet, including all the costs associated with all of our undeveloped resource is included in our depreciable base. And so the combination of all those things can cause that DD&A rate to fluctuate.

我想補充一點，你必須考慮的一件事是，當石油和天然氣價格像過去幾年一樣較高時，從進行收購的角度來看，當你以非常有吸引力的價格進行這些收購時由於您以較高的石油和天然氣價格購買這些資產所付出的回報，您將看到更高的折舊基礎被添加到您的整體儲備基礎中。因此，當您考慮到這一點，再加上我們剛剛談到的許多已探明的未開發儲量這一事實。最後一個組成部分是從我們的角度來看，我們不排除任何我們的資本成本。我們資產負債表上的任何成本。它們並不在可折舊基礎之外。因此，我們的資產負債表上沒有任何未經證實的資產，資產負債表上的所有內容，包括與我們所有未開發資源相關的所有成本，都包含在我們的折舊基礎中。因此，所有這些因素的結合可能會導致 DD&A 率波動。

Okay. Very helpful. I appreciate it. Thank you. Guys as interest my questions upfront, Foodstar.

好的。很有幫助。我很感激。謝謝。大家對我的問題有興趣，Foodstar。

John White, ROTH Capital Partners.

約翰懷特，羅仕資本合夥人。

Good morning, gentlemen. My question, my questions were on M&A and CapEx. And they've all been answered. Congratulations on the strong results and good luck for 2024.

早安，先生們。我的問題是關於併購和資本支出的。他們都得到了答案。恭喜您取得的優異成績，祝您 2024 年好運。

Thanks, John. Thanks for your support.

謝謝，約翰。感謝您的支持。

(Operator Instructions) Jeff Robertson, Water Tower Research.

（操作員說明）Jeff Robertson，水塔研究中心。

Thanks, Bob. We started off the call referring to invest as a technology company. Can you when you think about the M&A landscape and Illumina system that the test uses. Can you just talk about how that how you can leverage that in the M&A market as you may see assets move from tens where they're not where there's not a lot of drilling activity, two hands where there is drilling activity or it could be.

謝謝，鮑伯。我們在電話會議一開始就提到了投資一家科技公司。當您想到測試使用的併購場景和 Illumina 系統時，您能想到嗎？您能否談談如何在併購市場中利用這一點，因為您可能會看到資產從沒有大量鑽探活動的數十個資產轉移到有鑽探活動或可能存在的兩個資產。

Yes. Thanks a lot, Jeff, and thanks for Brett referencing the Luminous art, our database we take great pride in it and it develops, you know, generationally every month. So we have over 7,500. We have it fits in over 7,500 Bakken wells, and we scrape every piece of information about those wells. So when technology changes in frac technology, we see it immediately. And the data team is part of our deal team. So when we have our weekly AFE acquisition meetings, data participates and said, well, not a whole lot of second Marathon in this area is completing wells in a different fashion and they're getting really good early results. So we'll lean into a situation like that.

是的。非常感謝，傑夫，也感謝布雷特引用發光藝術，我們的資料庫我們對此感到非常自豪，你知道，它每個月都在一代代地發展。所以我們有超過 7,500 個。我們將其安裝在 7,500 多個巴肯井中，並且我們收集了有關這些井的每一條資訊。因此，當壓裂技術發生變化時，我們會立即看到。數據團隊是我們交易團隊的一部分。因此，當我們每週召開 AFE 採集會議時，數據參與並表示，這個領域的第二場馬拉鬆比賽並不是以不同的方式完井，而且他們取得了非常好的早期成果。所以我們會傾向於這樣的情況。

So on. So it's looked at technology here, changes incrementally every month. And we just want to be a little bit ahead of that and see if we can take some informational advantage.

很快。因此，這裡關注的是技術，每個月都會發生漸進式變化。我們只是想領先一點，看看我們是否可以利用一些資訊優勢。

Are you seeing from the data you will collect? Are you seeing rates of return in general improving markedly in the Bakken? Or is it just maybe operator specific where some operators have figured out an answer in the area that they work in and they've boost their returns?

您從將收集的數據中看到了嗎？您是否發現巴肯的整體報酬率顯著提高？或者這只是運營商的具體情況，一些運營商已經在他們工作的領域找到了答案，並且提高了回報？

Yes. So the big trend is the three mile laterals and we were skeptical initially. I think I'm on record of saying we're just don't know about the results yet, but we're believers in it now and we're thrilled to have core takeover enter plus how technically and operationally to take a clean out. The plugs from three miles away is just an amazing technological advance. So on, we are really big believers in the three mile laterals. We think that those economics are our kind of under loved at this point and where we believe that the basin will move more towards the three mile laterals. So we see Bakken wells getting better and better pretty much every month just as an anecdote on XTO had a three-mile lateral that was just completed. And in their first 30 days of production, they had over 108,000 barrels of oil alone. So, you know, again, the first?

是的。因此，大趨勢是三英里橫向行駛，我們最初對此表示懷疑。我想我已經說過，我們只是還不知道結果，但我們現在相信它，我們很高興核心收購進入以及如何在技術和操作上進行清理。三英里外的插頭是一項驚人的技術進步。如此看來，我們確實是三英里支線的忠實信徒。我們認為這些經濟學在這一點上是我們不那麼喜歡的，我們相信盆地將更多地向三英里的橫向移動。因此，我們看到 Bakken 油井幾乎每個月都變得越來越好，就像 XTO 上剛完成的三英里支線的軼事一樣。光是在生產的前 30 天，他們就生產了超過 108,000 桶石油。那麼，你知道，第一個嗎？

Well, I was in the cellulose. You well produced 85,000 barrels in the 1st year, and that was a great well at the time economically. So, you know, it's we love the Bakken. We think that technologically it will continue to improve, and we're very happy with the load of undeveloped locations we currently have.

嗯，我在纖維素裡。第一年就生產了 85,000 桶，這在當時是一口經濟上很好的井。所以，你知道，我們喜歡巴肯。我們認為，從技術上講，它將繼續改進，我們對目前擁有的未開發地點的負載感到非常滿意。

And just on a philosophical note, the dividend at $2 a share annually is right around a 9% yield on the current stock price. Can you just talk about how you think about the fixed dividend levels and managing the business overall, as you look at acquisition opportunities and cash flow reinvestment and and ultimately the potential for anything for a dividend increase at some point or maybe what would be a catalyst for that?

僅從哲學角度來看，每年每股 2 美元的股息相當於當前股價的 9% 左右。您能否談談您如何看待固定股息水準和整體業務管理，同時考慮收購機會和現金流再投資，以及最終在某個時候增加股息的潛力，或者可能會成為催化劑為了那個原因？

So we are a dividend-paying company. We have the $2 fixed dividend, and that's a healthy dividend. I believe that that 9% yield is very attractive and the calculus that goes into our setting, the dividend is really complex what what the price of oil is, what our debt level is, how far out in the future, we can hedge what our opportunity set is and what our abilities to make acquisitions that are accretive. So it's a fixed dividend. It's a $2, and I'll let you know, Jeff, we do this calculation every week so on it's something that we are keenly aware of and focused on.

所以我們是一家支付股息的公司。我們有 2 美元的固定股息，這是一筆健康的股息。我相信 9% 的收益率非常有吸引力，而且在我們的環境中，股息的計算非常複雜，石油價格是多少，我們的債務水平是多少，未來多久，我們可以對沖我們的機會集以及我們進行增值收購的能力。所以這是固定股息。這是 2 美元，我會讓你知道，傑夫，我們每週都會進行這樣的計算，所以這是我們敏銳地意識到並關注的事情。

So well, I know there's very few securities with exposure to oil that have a dividend that is higher than a test.

好吧，我知道很少有與石油相關的證券的股息高於測試。

So it's not that not that the dividend rate is low right now. But I think it's interesting for your thoughts on how you think about it overall in the context of managing the business?

所以這並不是說目前股息率低。但我認為您對在管理業務的背景下如何整體考慮這一問題的想法很有趣？

So it's a dividend. The dividend is our life, Jeff. So we have that. Thanks for your questions.

所以這是股息。紅利就是我們的生命，傑夫。所以我們就有了。感謝您的提問。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Noel Parks, Tuohy Brothers.

諾埃爾·帕克斯、圖伊兄弟。

Hi, good morning. I just had a couple of questions. I was some and I apologize if you touched on this already, but could you just talk about the state of service cost inflation in the basket? And it's interesting over this earning season, we're hearing different things kind of a different base? And so any thoughts there would be great.

早安.我只是有幾個問題。我是一些人，如果你已經談到這個問題，我很抱歉，但是你能談談一籃子服務成本通膨的狀況嗎？在這個獲利季節，有趣的是，我們聽到了不同的事情，有點不同的基礎？所以任何想法都會很棒。

It's Brian. I'll take the first crack at that. I think our view is that from what we have seen over the course of 23 and now into 24 as costs are just moderating. I mean, costs were higher at the beginning of 2023. I think they moderated over the course of 2023. And we haven't really seen a lot of significant changes one way or the other. Obviously, service costs are going to be impacted by the amount of drilling activity. Rig count is up just slightly in the Bakken from where it was for a good chunk of 2023. That hasn't translated for us yet into into higher service costs. I know that there have been some some comments about service costs coming down. Obviously, we'd love to see that. But at this point in time, we don't really have a view on where that is. We're just continuing to watch the AFEs and the actual costs as they come in and they seem pretty consistent over the last six to nine months.

是布萊恩。我會先做這件事。我認為我們的觀點是，從過去 23 年和現在到 24 年的情況來看，成本剛剛放緩。我的意思是，2023 年初的成本更高。我認為他們在 2023 年期間進行了主持。我們還沒有真正看到很多重大的變化。顯然，服務成本將受到鑽井活動量的影響。巴肯的鑽孔機數量較 2023 年大部分時間略有增加。這對我們來說還沒有轉化為更高的服務成本。我知道有一些關於服務成本下降的評論。顯然，我們很樂意看到這一點。但目前，我們還沒有真正了解它在哪裡。我們只是繼續關注 AFE 和實際成本，它們在過去六到九個月內似乎相當一致。

Great, thanks. And it's interesting talking in this quarter or in fourth quarter about just having some some wells come on line sooner than you expected sort of advancing, and that's also been something. And that has been a somewhat common refrain and sort of more used to things getting pushed off into into the on the upcoming year.

萬分感謝。在本季度或第四季度談論一些油井比您預期的提前上線是很有趣的，這也是一件事情。這是一種常見的說法，人們更習慣把事情延後到明年。

Just as companies tried to be mindful of capital discipline and just watch their spending. So I was just wondering on is for low, though, wells that you saw that that helped your volumes with those largely just at the operator's discretion, the timing of those or on or is there any other else?

正如公司試圖注意資本紀律並注意他們的支出一樣。所以我只是想知道，你看到的低井對你的產量有幫助，這些很大程度上只是由操作員自行決定，這些井的時間或還有其他嗎？

Got anything else going on there, Tom, that you're aware of again, it's something that we track by operator all the time because from our modeling standpoint, when a well is spud, trying to determine when it's going to come on data first production is something that plays a key role in any of our modeling. And our operators are different. I mean, we saw we saw some wells come on in the fourth quarter from one of our favorite operators that it was a spud date to date of first production just a little over two months is just we hadn't seen that before. You know, still the averages I would still say is six, seven, eight months from from spud to date of first production. Some of those wells that we acquired in the third quarter were further along and and those operators. And luckily, they were very high working interest wells and they the operators were able to get turned on faster even than we had expected in underwriting.

湯姆，還有其他事情發生，你又知道了，這是我們操作員一直跟踪的事情，因為從我們的建模角度來看，當一口井開工時，試圖確定何時首先會出現數據製作在我們的任何建模中都起著關鍵作用。而我們的運營商則不同。我的意思是，我們看到我們在第四季度看到我們最喜歡的運營商之一的一些油井開工，這是一個開礦日期，距離首次生產只有兩個多月了，只是我們以前沒有見過。你知道，我還是會說，從開工到第一次生產的平均時間是六、七、八個月。我們在第三季收購的一些油井與這些業者的關係更加密切。幸運的是，這些井的工作興趣非常高，營運商能夠比我們在承保中預期的更快地投入使用。

It's interesting. Thanks a lot.

這真有趣。多謝。

Thank you. And there are no further questions at this time. I'll hand the floor back to Bob Gerrity for closing remarks.

謝謝。目前沒有其他問題。我將把發言權交還給鮑伯·格里蒂（Bob Gerrity）作結束語。

Great. Thank you again, thanks for participating and for the wonderful questions of MSC. A will be available to us for any follow-up calls, and you can always reach out to us again, thank you very much for your support.

偉大的。再次感謝大家，感謝您的參與以及 MSC 提出的精彩問題。A將隨時為我們提供任何後續電話，您可以隨時再次聯繫我們，非常感謝您的支持。

Thank you. A participant.

謝謝。一個參與者。