Parex Resources Inc

TSX:PXT

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q1

[Operator]

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Parex Resources First Quarter 2022 Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the call over to Mike Kruchten, Senior Vice President of Capital Markets and Corporate Planning at Parex. Please go ahead, Mike.

[Michael Kruchten, executive]

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. On the call with me today are Imad Mohsen, Parex' President and Chief Executive Officer; Ken Pinsky, Chief Financial Officer; Eric Furlan, Chief Operating Officer; and Ryan Fowler, Senior Vice President of Exploration.

I would like to remind you that this conference call includes forward-looking statements and non-GAAP and other financial measures with the associated risks outlined in our news release and MD&A, which can be found on our website or at sedar.com. All amounts discussed today are in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise stated.

Traditionally, in lieu of a quarterly conference call, Parex invited shareholders to participate in our Annual General Meeting. However, given the virtual nature of that event and our exciting and material increases to both production guidance and return of capital, Parex wanted to hold a call to review our record quarter and provide some context how we are growing Parex in 2022, 2023 and the long term.

Please go ahead, Imad.

[Imad Mohsen, executive]

Thank you, Mike, and good morning, everyone. We believe that Parex is positioned to take advantage of the opportunity that lies ahead. We have set the company up to quickly deploy capital to meaningfully grow production and, therefore, funds flow in an environment where oil supply is constrained. The unique proposition that Parex has is that we can do this while we increase our return on capital, including building on our track record of industry-leading share buybacks and increasing our quarterly dividend by 100% over the last year. The dividend has been stress-tested and is robust even in low commodity price environment. Ken will discuss our first quarter results as well as our return on capital track record and framework before I'll make some remarks on our guidance and outlook as we focus on the execution of our plan to target record production by year-end 2022.

Please go ahead, Ken.

[Kenneth Pinsky, executive]

Thanks, Imad. Our first quarter results were very strong. We generated record funds flow from operations of USD 205 million, which is up 64% quarter-over-quarter and 22% from the prior quarter. Quarterly net income was USD 153 million, while production averaged approximately 51,700 boe per day, which is up 10% quarter-over-quarter or 4% from the prior quarter. We continue to have a strong balance sheet with no debt and working capital of USD 287 million, which we did reduce during the quarter through the acceleration of our planned 2022 share buyback, which is nearly 50% complete already, and the procurement of long-lead inventory items as we look to ramp up production this year and into 2023.

Our focus is building our track record of returning capital to shareholders and improving the long-term strength of our business. For the 2022 share buyback, we plan to repurchase the full 10% of our normal course issuer bid, or NCIB, which is expected to reduce our fully diluted shares to around 110 million at the end of the year, which compares to approximately 165 million fully diluted shares in 2017. This represents an over 30% reduction of our total shares outstanding over the past 5 years, while still growing our annual production from 35,000 barrels a day in 2017 to 55,000 barrels a day target for 2022.

On top of the share buybacks, we are now ratcheting up the quarterly dividend as we look to fulfill our long-term capital allocation framework, which is to return at least 1/3 of our total funds flow from operations to shareholders, which represents approximately 100% of free funds flow. We define free funds flow as funds flow from operations less our capital expenditures. Yesterday, we announced a substantial nearly 80% increase to our record dividend to CAD 0.25 per share per quarter. We believe this makes us competitive among dividend-paying companies and extremely competitive when you look at both the NCIB plus the dividend.

Now I'd like to turn things back to Imad for some final remarks.

[Imad Mohsen, executive]

Thank you, Ken. On our last conference call, I said that I was excited for what was to come for Parex in 2022 as well as its long-term prospects. I think with yesterday's release we are demonstrating that Parex is delivering on what we promised. My excitement and optimism for the company has never been higher as we build for the future. We are updating our full year capital expenditure guidance to $550 million midpoint, which is expected to generate an exit production rate of over 60,000 barrels a day. This sets us up to a fantastic 2023 year.

Given our prior decisions to secure rigs under long-term fixed rate contracts, increase to our staff capability and numbers and acquiring long-lead items like steel casings, turbines and compressors, Parex is extremely well positioned to execute on our ambitious plan. Our capital guidance increase is concentrated in the Llanos Basin, primarily on our own operated activities. $40 million to acquire long-lead inventory items we ordered earlier, which will enable us the efficient execution of our multiyear program that will proactively work to minimize the impacts of inflation and supply chain constraints facing the industry. Second, we have $30 million to increase short-cycle activity on low-risk projects, accelerating the production of our reserves in an environment where we think we can pay out wells in less than 90 days at current operating netbacks. Third, we're adding $55 million in that to optimize drilling sequence with the main emphasis of waterflood acceleration in Cabrestero and Block 34.

As we promised, we are following through with our capital allocation framework. For 2022, we have anchored our spend around the return of at least 1/3 of our free flow from operations to shareholders, as Ken indicated, with at least 2/3 to be reinvested into the business. And thus, 2 primary things: Reinvestment is required for cash flow growth and for us to replenish and high-grade our development inventory for the long term as a conventional producer. That reinvestment also supports the future return on capital activities, something that is embedded in our DNA.

In summary, in 2022, we think we can deliver 17% absolute production growth, combined with the share buyback of 10% of our float, resulting in nearly 30% production growth on a per share basis. To underline our faith in our long-term business and deliver cash returns to shareholders, we have now doubled the dividend to a $1 per share yearly. I do like round numbers. This delivers a yield of over 4%. We think the story for Parex is quite compelling for our investors, being energy-specific investors or generally.

With that, I'd like to thank everyone for their combined support of Parex. I remind shareholders that our Annual General Meeting is being held after this call, beginning 9:30 a.m. Mountain Time. I would like to also thank our employees listening in for their continuous hard work and execution, and that is a team effort.

This concludes our formal remarks. I would now like to turn the call back to the operator to start the Q&A session for the investment community. Thank you all.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Adam Gill with Paradigm Capital.

[Adam Gill, analyst]

Two questions for me. First off, as you've increased your capital, how do you plan to approach and start drilling on some of the lands that were won in the 2021 bid round? And the second question was, as you think about additional returns to shareholders going forward, what's the preference between increasing the base dividend or doing another special dividend?

[Ryan Fowler, executive]

This is Ryan, Senior VP, Exploration. To answer your question about how we're going to explore the new blocks we acquired in 2021, the process of exploration in Colombia starts with access to the land and the acquisition of the environmental licenses required to drill. And typically, that takes a year and sometimes more. We have a few of the blocks of the 18 that we think we might have access by the end of this year. And so we're hopeful that we'll be drilling our first wells into that program in the Llanos Basin in 2022. But for the most part, that program in terms of drilling will start in 2023.

[Kenneth Pinsky, executive]

Thanks, Ryan. It's Ken. With respect to the return on capital, we've got the regular dividend at $0.25 per quarter, Adam. We'll keep that in place for 2022. We don't expect any changes to that. And we'll do the full 10% share buyback as an expectation. To manage working capital, we would look to special dividends at the end of the year, if that's what we need to do.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Our next question is from Oriana Covault with Balanz.

[Oriana Covault, analyst]

This is Oriana with Balanz. Congratulations on the good quarter results. I had a couple of questions. So maybe if we could go -- first, are there any thoughts you can share about the Vasconia differentials? We were under the impression they should have been wider during the quarter, and I kind of saw that in your press release that this wasn't the case. So if you could share any insights, that would be very helpful.

[Michael Kruchten, executive]

Yes. Thank you. It's Mike Kruchten speaking. As for Vasconia, like many of these differentials or basin markers, they can vary quite widely throughout the time period. We have seen them go from about $3 to $4 up to about $6 throughout the quarter, but it seems to settle back down into that $4 mark recently, so -- which is fairly consistent where we were really over the last 12 months.

[Oriana Covault, analyst]

And maybe just following up on quality and commercial discounts. Could you -- what explains this? Perhaps I missed it, but what explains this quality premium you received during the quarter? I saw it in some of the pages in the earnings release.

[Kenneth Pinsky, executive]

Well, we typically get -- Vasconia trades around WTI, and our crude typically has about $1 discount of that. It also depends upon the refinery's demand for that quality of crude since its low sulfur. So really, we don't look at it as a premium that we can measure. We're a price taker. And sometimes it's a premium, sometimes it's a discount, but it's around that kind of -- Vasconia will trade around WTI. And then we have our transportation costs against that. So we typically look at a Brent minus $13 to $14 at the wellhead, and we give that information in our MD&A. And that's including transportation.

[Oriana Covault, analyst]

Perfect. That's very clear. Maybe one last one. You mentioned in the MD&A the sustainability solar farm project. So just -- if you could share some information about this. Is that embedded in your budget for 2022? How much will it cost? Estimates of savings that it could generate, that would be helpful, too.

[Michael Kruchten, executive]

Sure. We're very happy to have the solar project commissioned this year. What it does for us is reduce our greenhouse gas intensity as it helps displace some of the heavier fuels such as diesel that we were using previously to power our facility. So we'll be generating the power, and it'll go straight to our operating energy that we require for the facility. As for cost, it's really a flow-through agreement where we pay the power cost to the provider.

[Operator]

Thank you. There are no further questions registered at this time. I would like to turn the meeting back over to you, Mr. Kruchten.

[Michael Kruchten, executive]

Thank you, operator. On behalf of Parex, thank you for joining us this morning. Have a good day.

[Operator]

Thank you, everyone. The conference has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.