Parex Resources Inc

TSX:PXT

Earnings Call Transcript 2019-Q4

[Operator]

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Parex Resources fourth quarter earnings call and webcast. Yesterday, Parex released its audited financial and operating results for the quarter and year-end December 31, 2019. Like all Parex disclosure documents, the complete financial statements and related MD&A are available on the company's website at www.parexresources.com and on SEDAR. Before turning the meeting over to Mr. Dave Taylor, President and CEO of Parex Resources Inc., I would like to mention that this call is being recorded, so it will be available for playback on the company's website. Parex would like to remind everyone that remarks made during this session are subject to forward-looking statements, which involve significant risk factors and assumptions and have been fully described in the company's continuous disclosure reports. The information discussed is made as of today's date and time, and Parex assumes no obligation to update or revise this information to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by law. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to pass on the meeting to Parex' President and CEO. Please go ahead, Mr. Taylor.

[David R. Taylor, President, CEO & Director]

Thank you, operator, and thanks to everyone on the line for joining myself and senior leadership team for our Q4 conference call, and thanks for your support of Parex. Before we start today's Q&A session, I would like to provide a brief overview to our shareholders on our financial results for the year ended 2019. I will then discuss 2020 guidance sensitivities that we provided in yesterday's press release. I'd like to begin by stating that we are very happy with the underlying fundamental strength of our business in Colombia. Our core Southern Casanare oil fields continue to deliver in both reserves and production and are generating significant free cash flow. Our recent La Belleza discovery on the VIM-1 block has been very encouraging with initial test grades of over 4,600 BOEs per day. In 2019, the company delivered record funds flow from operations of USD 571 million against CapEx of USD 208 million. This includes annual free cash flow of $362 million, year-over-year oil production growth of 19% per share. Increasing our underlying value as measured by our independently audited reserves, the highlights of which include improved year-over-year volume increases of 14%, proven plus probable, year-over-year, volume increase of 7% and FD&A costs on proved reserves basis of $7.50 a BOE, including FDC with a recycle ratio of 3.9x. We also repurchased over 14.7 million shares, returning [$224 million ]to shareholders. We added new inventory to our portfolio with the awards of 5 blocks at the ANH Bid Round, including 2 blocks, VSM-25 and 36, which provide an entry into a new basin in the Upper Magdalena. We maintained a debt-free balance sheet with year-end working capital of $344 million, which provides multiple options for us to create value in our business in 2020. In our Q4 news release, we provided a price sensitivity table to our original $60 Brent 2020 guidance. Overall, we are positioning our business to generate free cash flow in all Brent oil price scenarios. We're able to achieve this because of our efficient and low-cost Colombian operations, which generate a positive operating netback in the low $20 per barrel Brent price range. The highlights of our guidance sensitivities during periods of Brent oil prices in the $30 to $35 range, our full year production will be above the Q4 2019 average of 54,211 BOEs a day. We have a flexible capital program that will be adjusted to be less than forecast funds flow from operations. Our initial view is that the base 2020 CapEx program will be in the range of $150 million to $160 million. The ability to scale capital higher, depending on oil prices and cost reductions by maintaining key projects front end work programs and utilizing our unique position as being debt-free, cash-rich to accelerate our share buyback program from 55,000 shares per day to up to 100,000 shares per day. At the current share price and Brent oil price, this provides us an opportunity to purchase high-quality, proven-plus probable barrels of less than $6 a BOE, which generate a recycle ratio greater than 2x. Parex is exceptional in our industry as the company continues to generate free cash flow, maintain a best-in-class balance sheet and return capital to shareholders. We exited 2019 debt-free with over $395 million in cash. This balance sheet strength provides significant optionality to invest in high-quality resource growth opportunities. And with this brief introduction, I'd like to turn the line back to the operator to start the Q&A session.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] And the first question is from a participant.

[Al Stanton, MD & Oil & Gas Equity Analyst]

Right. I'm guessing -- it's Al Stanton with RBC. So I'll carry on. Guys, can you hear me?

[David R. Taylor, President, CEO & Director]

Al Stanton? Yes.

[Al Stanton, MD & Oil & Gas Equity Analyst]

I think what you've done today is very good in terms of providing the guidance from the disclosure. When do you enact the update or free in terms of how long does the oil price have to be at $36 or $40 before you instigate your plan? Because some of your peers have been criticized for trucking too fast. So how do you know when to pull the trigger?

[Kenneth G. Pinsky, CFO & Corporate Secretary]

Al, it's Ken. We've instituted the plan on the weekend. So we're managing our capital. Remember, though, we're not -- we're deferring some things. We still have our development program at Capachos going. We still have a full program at Block 34 going. We still are doing a prep work on our exploration blocks that we had planned to drill sometime in '20. Some of those would be in the 2021 anyway. So we're still doing that. We're deferring our Aguas Blancas program. We're deferring our Middle Mag program right now, but we're still doing some front end work. And our La Belleza appraisal well add front end work on facilities is still ongoing. So for some of the programs, we have deferred, and we'll look at those later on. And for others, it's business as usual. But you have to manage these things, looking at what you see today, which is a $35 Brent oil price.

[Al Stanton, MD & Oil & Gas Equity Analyst]

And what does it mean for deals? You highlighted at the end of last year that you're looking at opportunities? Does this create new opportunities? Or does this make you slightly fearful?

[David R. Taylor, President, CEO & Director]

Well, I think we're going to wait and see what happens with opportunities coming to the table. I can see both sides of things. We were in a situation not that long ago where we were trying to possibly sell an asset into a down market, and it didn't work out very well. And I'm thinking lot of companies that may have been considering bringing assets to the table may not want to do that. On the other hand, there may be situations where they're being forced to. So it'll be an interesting, I'd say, next 30 to 60 days to see what happens on that front.

[Operator]

There are no further questions registered at this time. I would now like to turn the meeting back over to Mr. Taylor.

[David R. Taylor, President, CEO & Director]

Thank you. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in Parex and your continued support of the company. For further information, we invite you to visit our website or call us. Thanks again, and have a good day. Operator?

[Operator]

That concludes this morning's conference call and webcast. If you would like to replay the call, please visit the events page of the company's website under newsroom.com. Thank you, and goodbye.