Vermilion Energy Inc

TSX:VET

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q1

[Operator]

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Vermilion Energy’s Virtual 2023 Annual General Meeting. Following the formal portion of the meeting, our presentation will be given by Dion Hatcher, Vermilion’s President and Chief Executive Officer. As a reminder, this event is being broadcast live on the Internet and is being recorded. The archived event will be posted on Vermilion’s website under the heading, Invest with Us, and subheading events and Presentations. To participate in the discussion or ask a question during the formal portion of the meeting or ask the question during our presentation, select the Messaging tab, type your comment and click the Send button.

I would now like to turn the conference call over to Robert Michaleski, Vermilion’s Chair of the Board. Please go ahead, Mr. Michaleski.

[Robert Michaleski, Chair]

Thank you. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. As permitted by Vermilion’s bylaw number 1, our meeting will be held today as a virtual-only shareholder meeting with participation electronically as explained in the proxy statement and information circular for this meeting dated March 15, 2023. By holding this virtual meeting, we’re able to welcome a broader base of shareholders to participate regardless of geographic location. I would like to begin by welcoming you to Vermilion’s Virtual 2003 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. We will complete the formal part of this meeting first. And afterwards, Dion Hatcher, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the company, will provide you with an overview of our business and an update on our strategy moving forward.

First, I would like to review the rules for discussion and debate to facilitate an orderly virtual meeting. The formal meeting will deal with the items of business outlined in the proxy circular. Once we have completed that work, we will move to the informal part of the meeting. During the formal meeting, each shareholder or proxy holder wishing to address a motion may do so when I have indicated the motion is open for discussion. To participate in the discussion, select the Messaging tab, type your comment and click the Send button. Each shareholder may take up to 5 minutes to contribute to the discussion, but I reserve the right to terminate discussion on a matter. All discussion must be courteous and respectful of other participants in the meeting. All questions for management will be dealt with in the informal part of the meeting after the formal meeting is completed. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

So I’d like to call meeting to order. Ladies and gentlemen, the meeting will now come to order. As Chair of the Board of Directors of Vermilion Energy Inc., it is my responsibility and privilege to Chair this Annual General Meeting of the Shareholders of Vermillion. Jamie Gagner of Lawson Lundell LLP will act as Secretary of the meeting; and Jacquie Fisher of Odyssey Trust Company will act as a scrutineer. I would like to welcome to the meeting all others participating in the online meeting. At this point, I would like to introduce the other independent directors of Vermilion electronically attending the meeting today: James Kleckner Jr.; Carin Knickel; Stephen Larke; Timothy Marchant; William Roby; Manjit Sharma; Myron Stadnyk; and Judy Steele.

I would like now to introduce the principal members of the executive leadership team participating electronically in the meeting. Dion Hatcher, President and Chief Executive Officer; Lars Glemser, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Bryce Kremnica, Vice President, North America; Darcy Kerwin, Vice President, International and Health Safety & Environment; and Jenson Tan, Vice President-Business Development.

The notice of this meeting along with the information circular and formal proxy were mailed on April 3, 2023 to all shareholders as of the record date for this meeting being the close of business on March 15, 2023. As part of our ongoing stewardship of the environment and as a cost saving measure for the fifth consecutive year, beneficial shareholders received a voting instruction form and access notification, which included a link to the meeting materials consisting of the proxy statement and information circular and the 2022 Annual Report. This procedure for the electronic delivery of meeting materials is known as Notice and Access. And as mentioned is an environmentally friendly alternative that’s now used by a number of companies. As in past years, registered shareholders and those beneficial shareholders that previously requested to receive paper copies, continue to receive a printed copy of the meeting materials and the former proxy.

I would ask the copies of all such documents be filed with the minutes of this meeting.

A quorum for the transaction of business at today’s meeting is at least two people present, being a registered holder or duly appointed proxy holder and representing an aggregate not less than 25% of the total outstanding shares. According to Vermilion’s bylaw, a person participating in today’s meeting through the virtual meeting platform for today’s meeting is deemed to be present at the meeting.

I am advised by the scrutineer that there is a quorum present. The scrutineer’s report is available for inspection, and I ask the secretary to file it with minutes of this meeting.

I hereby declare this Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Vermilion Energy Inc. to be properly convened and regularly constituted to conduct business.

Now there are various matters of business to be dealt with today. A description of each matter is provided in the information circular, a copy of which is available on our website under the heading Invest with Us and subheading Annual General Meeting.

In the interest of time, I do not propose to make a detailed presentation on each item.

For the purpose of moving the meeting along, shareholders who are representatives of Vermilion, Lars Glemser, Bryce Kremnica, Darcy Kerwin and Jenson Tan have been asked to move and second the motions to be brought before this meeting.

I would like to take a moment to comment on the voting procedures to be used at today’s meeting. Voting for all matters will proceed by way of electronic ballot through the virtual meeting platform. The polls are now open and will remain open until the end of the formal part of the meeting. If you have not voted your shares, please vote now. If you wish to wait until the end of the formal session, there will be additional time allocated for voting as well. If you have previously voted,

If you wish to wait until the end of the formal session, there’ll be additional time allotted for voting as well. If you have previously voted, you do not need to vote again. By voting again, you will revoke your votes made prior to the voting cutoff and only the live votes will be counted. The exact results of the ballot voting on the items of business at today’s meeting will be announced tomorrow, Thursday, May 4, in our press release and in the report of voting results and will be filed on sedar.com under Vermilion’s profile.

The first item business is fixing the number of directors of Vermilion Energy Inc. to be elected at ten. We have a motion to fix the number of directors to be elected at ten.

[Lars Glemser, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer]

My name is Lars Glemser and I am a representative of Vermilion and a shareholder. I move that the number of directors of Vermilion Energy, Inc. to be elected to be fixed at 10.

[Robert Michaleski, Chair]

May I have the motion seconded?

[Bryce Kremnica, Vice President, North America]

My name is Bryce Kremnica, and I am a representative of Vermilion and a shareholder. I second the motion.

[Robert Michaleski, Chair]

Is there any discussion?

I’ve advised there is no further discussion requested on this item. The next item of business is the election of the directors of Vermilion for the ensuing year or until their successors are elected or appointed. As we have done in previous years, we will be nominating and approving individual directors and not a slate of directors.

The Board of Directors has adopted a policy stipulating that if a director nominee receives a greater number of votes withheld from the election of that director, then votes for the election, the nominee will offer to resign. The Governance and Human Resources Committee will then review the matter and recommend to the Board whether to accept the resignation and the Board’s decision to accept or reject the resignation will be publicly announced within 90 days of the meeting.

It is expected that resignations will be accepted, except in situations where exceptional circumstances would warrant that the applicable director continued to serve as a Board member. The number of directors to be elected at the meeting has been fixed at 10. Information with respect to each of the nominees was set forth in the information circular for this meeting. I now declare the meeting open for nominations for the Board of Directors of Vermilion Energy, Inc. May I have a motion to nominate the Board of Directors of Vermilion Energy, Inc.?

[Darcy Kerwin]

My name is Darcy Kerwin, and I’m a representative of Vermilion and a shareholder. I nominate Dion Hatcher, Robert Michaleski, James Kleckner Jr., Carin Knickel, Stephen Larke, Timothy Marchant, William Roby, Manjit Sharma, Myron Stadnyk and Judy Steele as Directors of Vermilion Energy, Inc. for the ensuing year.

[Robert Michaleski, Chair]

I will ask to move the resolution electing those individuals nominated as directors of Vermilion Energy, Inc. to serve as directors until the close of the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until their successors are duly appointed.

[Jenson Tan, Vice President-Business Development]

My name is Jenson Tan, and I’m a representative of Vermilion and a shareholder. I move that each of the 10 persons nominated be elected as a director of Vermilion Energy, Inc, to hold office until the close of the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until a successor is duly elected or appointed.

[Robert Michaleski, Chair]

May I have the motion seconded?

[Lars Glemser, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer]

I second the motion.

[Robert Michaleski, Chair]

As previously stated, the directors will be elected individually and not as a slate. For a nominee to be elected as a director of Vermilion Energy Inc., votes cast in favor of the election of the director nominee should represent no less than the majority of the votes cast by the – by shareholders represented in person or by proxy at this meeting. Is there any discussion?

I’m advised that there is no further discussion requested on this item. The next item of business is the appointment of the auditors of Vermilion. Deloitte LLP are Vermilion’s current auditors and have agreed to act as auditors of Vermilion if appointed.

May I have a motion for the appointment of the auditors.

[Lars Glemser, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer]

I move that Deloitte LLP be appointed as the auditors of Vermilion to hold office until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders.

[Robert Michaleski, Chair]

May I have the motion seconded.

[Lars Glemser, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer]

I second the motion.

[Robert Michaleski, Chair]

Is there any discussion? I’m advised that there’s no further discussion requested on this item. The next item of business is the advisory vote on executive compensation. As part of Vermilion ongoing commitment to strong corporate governance practices, we continue to hold a non-binding advisory vote on the approach to executive compensation commonly refer to say on pay.

In 2022, 96.6% of shareholders supported our say on pay vote. In respect of this meeting, two leading independent third-party proxy advisory firms ISS and Glass Lewis had both recommended the shareholders vote for the approval of the proposed say on pay vote at this meeting. May I have a motion for the say on pay advisory vote?

[Lars Glemser, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer]

I move that on an advisory basis and not to diminish the role and responsibilities of the Board of Directors that the shareholders accept Vermilion’s approach to executive compensation disclosed in the information circular accompanying the notice of this meeting.

[Robert Michaleski, Chair]

May have the motion seconded?

[Lars Glemser, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer]

I second the motion.

[Robert Michaleski, Chair]

Is there any discussion? I am advised that there is no further discussion requested on this item. If you have not already voted, please complete the electronic ballot for all items of business now through the virtual meeting platform. The voting will close momentarily.

The next item of business is to table the consolidated audited financial statements of Vermilion for the year ended December 31, 2022 and the report of the auditors there on. These financial statements were included in Vermilion’s Annual Report, which mailed to those shareholders requested the financial statements along with a notice of this meeting and the information circular.

For your ease of reference links to an Vermilion’s Annual Report, which include the financial statements are available on our website under the heading Invest With Us subheading Reports and Filings. Are there any questions regarding the financial statements? I am advised there are no questions regarding financial statements.

At this time, the voting is closed on all items of business. Please allow us a few moments to tally the votes and collect the scrutineer’s report. As mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, the exact results of ballot voting on the items of today’s business at today’s meeting will be disclosed in the voting results report and our press release, which will filed tomorrow, Thursday, May 4, 2023.

The scrutineers have provided their preliminary report of voting results. On the matter of fixing the number of directors of energy to be elected at 10, I’m advised by the scrutineer that greater than a majority of the votes cast have been voted in favor of this resolution.

Therefore, I declare the motion to fix the number of directors is carried. On the matter of electing directors of a Vermilion Energy Inc., I’m advised by the scrutineer that for each of the director nominees greater than a majority of the votes cast have been voted in favor of the election of each director. Therefore, I declare that this motion is carried and each of the nominees for election as director has been elected.

On an – on the matter of appointing Deloitte LLP as auditors of Vermilion to hold office until the close of the next annual meeting of shareholders or until their successors are appointed. I am advised by the scrutineer that the greater than a majority of the votes cast have been voted in favor of the appointment of Deloitte as auditors. Therefore, I declare that this motion is carried.

On the matter of the approval of Say on Pay advisory vote, I’m advised by the scrutineer that a greater than a majority of votes cast have been voted in favor of this resolution. Therefore, I declare that this motion is carried. Is there any further business? As there is no further business to be brought before this meeting? The meeting has concluded.

I will now turn it over to Dion Hatcher, President, Chief Executive Officer of Vermilion to provide you with an update on our business and our strategy moving forward. Questions will be addressed at the end of his presentation.

[Dion Hatcher, President and Chief Executive Officer]

Thank you, Bob, and thank you to everyone that has joined us today. I’m going to provide you a quick summary of our 2022 highlights, overview of our Q1 2023 results and recent Montney activity as well as the outlook for the balance of the year. Before I get started, I would like to refer to our advisory and forward-looking statements at the end of the presentation. It describes forward-looking information, non-GAAP measures and oil and gas terms used and outlines the risk factors and assumptions relevant to this discussion.

2022, we delivered on our strategic priorities and continued to position Vermilion for long-term success. We remain focused on our financial discipline and reduced net debt by another $300 million. We’ve benefited from strong European gas prices as a result of our internationally and diversified asset base. We advanced a Corrib acquisition to significantly enhance our Euro Gas exposure, which we closed on March 31 of this year and we completed the strategic Montney acquisition marking Vermilion’s entry into this prolific resource play, which has significantly increased the depth and quality of our drilling inventory.

Looking at our financial results, Vermilion generated a record fund flows of $1.6 billion and record free cash flow of $1.1 billion in 2022, representing a year-over-year increase of 78% and 99% respectfully. This free cash flow allowed us to fund over $500 million of strategic acquisitions, reduce net debt by over $300 million and return over $100 million to our shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. We reinstated the quarterly dividend in Q1 and commenced the share buyback program in Q3, returning a total of 11% of free cash flow during the year.

We exited the year with net debt of $1.3 billion and the resulting net debt to fund flow ratio of 0.8 times, which is the lowest leverage in over 10 years. In the first quarter of 2023, we reported $253 million of fund flows and $98 million of free cash flow. Production for the quarter was 82,455 BOEs per day, which was downed slightly from the previous quarter due to the unplanned downtime in Australia as we noted with our Q4 results.

This was partially offset by the new production from our Alberta, Deep Basin and Montney assets in Canada. Excluding the downtime in Australia, we saw strong operational results in Q1. We also made significant progress on our asset high grading initiatives, the closing of the Corrib acquisition and the divestment of select non-core assets in Southeast Saskatchewan. These transactions positioned Vermilion for long-term success by increasing our exposure premium priced European gas, by reducing our operating costs and as well reducing our asset retirement obligations.

In addition to funding the Corrib acquisition, we allocated a significant portion of our free cash flow to the return of capital during Q1. We’ve repurchase 1.6 million common shares for $30 million and declared cash dividends of $0.10 per share or $16 million for a total of $46 million returned to shareholders in the quarter. The base dividend was increased by 25% in Q1 of this year and increased 67% since Q1 of 2022.

Production from our North American operations averaged 60,046 boe per day, an increase of 3% from the prior quarter primary due to new production from Alberta, Deep Basin and Montney assets in Canada. Drilling activity was concentrated in Canada where we drilled 7 drills, 3 net, Mannville condensate and liquids rich gas walls, 6 mountain wells and 3 oil wells in southeast Saskatchewan. Our Deep Basin wells delivered strong production results, while we saw continued improvement in our Montney development. The two Montney wells recently drilled on our BC lands were tied in during the second half of March and produced at an average IP30 rate of approximately 1,250 boe per day with 51% liquids per well. The vast majority of our Montney development, including all of our planned 2024 drilling program will be in BC. I’ll review our Montney asset in more detail later in the presentation.

In the U.S., we participated in two non-operated Parkman wells and one non-operated Niobrara well and look forward to evaluating these results as it will enhance our understanding of these formations as it relates to future development prospects on our Wyoming acreage. We have a large land base with approximately 15,000 net acres perspective for the Niobrara and the Parkman. In addition, we participated in a one non-operated Turner well and we have initiated our operated six well Turner program, which consists of 2 mile wells.

Production from our international operations averaged 22,408 boe per day, which was down from the prior quarter primary due to unplanned downtime in Australia. Also worth noting is that Q1 production excluded the 7,500 boe per day from the acquired 36.5% in Corrib, which closed at March 31st. We drilled wells in both Germany and Netherlands during the quarter. Production in Netherlands increased over the prior quarter due to volumes for a new well brought online and production in France increased over the prior quarter as volumes were restored following the forest fire related downtime in the second half of 2022.

We also continued to advance our deep gas exploration and development plans in Germany as we prepare for first wells to be drilled in the fourth quarter of 2023. In Australia, maintenance work on the Wandoo platform has progressed well, but due to weather delays we’re now estimating the platform will remain offline for most of the second quarter. To date, we have performed over 95% of the inspections and completed repairs were necessary to ensure we operate with the highest safety standards.

Much of the identified repair work resulting from the inspections is preemptive, which we expect to result in less unplanned downtime in the future. Early April, a cyclone entered the region which forced us to evacuate the platform and temporary halt maintenance operations. Fortunately, there was no physical damage to the platform, however, the evacuation occurred during final maintenance work and we now are required additional time to reorganize and –sorry, reorganizing and complete the remaining inspections.

Vermilion we would like to thank the efforts of all staff on a safe and expeditious evacuation of the platform. Before I provide an update on our Montney development. I wanted to spend a few minutes talking about Vermilion’s philosophy around operational excellence. Vermilion operates in multiple bases around the world of onshore and offshore. This diversification not only provides exposure to global commodities and greater flexibility for capital allocation, but also allows us to leverage expertise across our operational teams. Our expertise spans from offshore drilling to building and operating gas plants to optimizing conventional oil assets as well as executing on conventional horizontal drilling and completion operations. This breadth of technical expertise is particularly helpful when entering a new basin or plane as we’re able to quickly draw upon this knowledge.

Key elements of our approach to operational excellence are continuous improvement, technical excellence, and leveraging technology. Our global teams work collaboratively on initiatives such as operation maintenance, best practices and the deployment of technology in our field operations as well as the day-to-day activities such as subsurface, geological, peer reviews and project look facts, this way of thinking as part of our culture and improved safety, operational efficiencies and profitability. One of the common attributes across our North American assets is the presence of multi-zone development opportunities.

On Slide 24, we show some of the stack plays in our Deep Basin asset. Our initial focus on this asset was the Corrib, which you can see ramped up to nearly 14,000 views today in the middle of the last decade. As we were developing the Corrib, we were also studying and testing other zones and eventually transitioned our development to the Mannville condensate rich zones, which then doubled the production base over the subsequent years. Given the stacked nature and line base and our ability to utilize the same above ground infrastructure, this development was very capital efficient and profitable as we continue to assess and develop additional zones within our deep basin asset.

Having made significant progress on our asset hydrating and debt reduction strategy over the past two years, we’re now placing an even greater focus on operational execution throughout our asset base.

In the United States, we will continue to develop and grow our Turner oil play in the Powder River Basin, while also testing new prospects across our land base, including the Niobrara and Parkman. In Canada, we will continue to develop and grow our strategic Montney position. We are seeing very encouraging results from recently drilled wells.

The Montney is a very important asset for Vermilion and will be the primary focus of our Canadian business unit in the years to come. We’ll underpin our long-term return of capital. We’ve been operating these assets for about a year and to date at drilled nine wells and completed 11 wells. Core of our Montney position is in BC. We allocated capital to the Alberta lands prior to the resolution of the permitting restrictions in BC. And we are now pursuing a drill-to-fill strategy on our Alberta lands to utilize the existing infrastructure and prioritize free cash flow generation.

Our primary focus today is on the BC lands where the majority of our inventory is located. We are waiting one more permit before proceeding with the construction of the 16,000 BOEs per day battery at the 8-33 location, which we expect to receive during the second half of the year. This will be part of our 2024 development program and in preparation for this, we have already completed the detailed facility design and ordered long-lead equipment. We’re currently bidding contracts for the installation. We also have the permit in place for a multi-well pad at 16-28, which we plan to drill at 2024.

The completion of this battery will then have approximately 22,000 BOEs per day of infrastructure capacity across our Mica asset. And we expect to increase this capacity over time to achieve our targeted production base of 28,000 BOEs per day. We have sufficient inventory to maintain this production level for over two decades. We are leveraging our deep base and expertise to quickly improve the well productivity on our Mica, Montney asset.

I will take a few minutes to walk you through the operational improvements we have made and the tier one productivity we are seeing with our recent BC wells. Starting with the 4-03 six-well pad in Alberta, which is the pad that we took over drilling operations on, then completed in Q3 and brought online in Q4 2022.

As you can see in the production plot on Slide 28, we achieved an average rate of approximately 440 BOEs per day with 50% liquids per well in the first 30 days. This was below our expectations for Alberta acreage, but we learned a lot from these wells. Late December 2022, we drilled the second pad in Alberta, a six to five three-well pad. These wells were drilled a slightly longer laterals, optimized well placement and flow back as well as [indiscernible] completions. The pad has been on production for about 50 days and as you can see we realize a significant improvement in productivity with an average IP30 rate of 610 BOEs per day per well, which is about 40% increase over the IP30 of the prior Alberta pad.

The BC lands represent the majority of our drilling inventory. Reservoir and our BC lands higher quality and as such we expect to see better results. That was shown with the delineation wells such as the 9-33 pad that was brought on production at 2021, which achieved an average IP30 rate of 900 BOEs per day with about 57% liquids. Worth noting is that this pad was drilled with shorter laterals and completed with a sliding sleeve system.

In Q1 we drilled and completed 2 BC wells from the 16 to 28 pad. The wells have only been on production for just over a month, but as you can see they produce at an average IP30 rate of about 1,250 BOEs per day with about 51% liquids per well. This is again approximately a 40% increase to the well results in a 9-33 BC delineation pad. We are pleased with the results as they exceed our internal type curve and demonstrate the strong deliverability on our BC lands, in particular, the high liquid content. We plan to drill 12 wells in 2024, all of which will be on or offsetting the 16 of 28 pad. We’ll continue to optimize our Montney wells and expect to realize further improvements in the development progresses.

The next few slides provide a summary of our financial projections for the balance of the year. Our 2023 capital budget remained unchanged at $570 million and our production guidance remains unchanged at 82,000 to 86,000 BOEs per day, which includes the impact from the Corrib acquisition closing on March 31st and the divestment of select southeast Saskatchewan assets on March 27th. Our capital allocation priorities also remain unchanged. Our number one financial priority at this time is to reduce debt and further strengthen the balance sheet.

We will continue to allocate the majority of free cash flow to debt reduction until we achieve our next debt target of $1 billion. The majority of the incremental capital return beyond the base dividend will be in the form of share buybacks, as we believe our stock remain significantly undervalued. To date, we have repurchased 2.2 million common shares in 2023 and 4.6 million in total under our existing NCIB. We plan to renew our NCIB in July 2023 and based on our current pace of share repurchases and base dividend, we anticipated returning between 25% to 30% of free cash flow to shareholders in 2023 depending on commodity prices.

Slide 32 shows our improved financial position. Compared to the 2018 to 2020 period. We have reduced net debt by 50% and increased fund flows by 50%. Zooming in on a 2023 based on our internal forecast and using the forward strip as of April 24, we were projecting approximately $1.2 billion of fund flows with the year end net debt at approximately $1.1 billion.

Our Vermilion outlook for 2024 also using the April 24 forward strip would see fund flows increasing to over $1.4 billion. We haven’t finalized our capital allocation decisions for 2024, but we believe we have the capacity to balance further debt reduction in 2024 with increasing shareholder returns.

I would like to end the presentation with an overview of our Vermilion’s purpose statement, as I believe is an excellent representation of who we are, what we do, and why we do it. We are an international company that responsibly produces essential energy while delivering long-term value to our people, to our shareholders, to our customers, to our partners and our communities. Our end goal is to create long-term value for all stakeholders, including our investors.

In summary, we have made significant progress over the past two years on strengthening the balance sheet and high grading the asset base to position Vermilion for long-term success. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our employees for their hard work and dedication and to thank our Board of Directors for their oversight and guidance.

I would also like to thank our shareholders for their support as we undertook this repositioning over the past few years. We’re an even stronger and more resilient company today and I’m very excited about our future.

With that, I would like now to open it up for questions.

Okay. So with that, we’ll look to – thank everyone, again, for participating in the AGM and our Q1 2023 results. Thank you.