Earnings Labs

EQT Corporation (EQT)

Q2 2016 Earnings Call· Thu, Jul 28, 2016

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the EQT Corporation Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Patrick Kane, Chief Investor Relations Officer. Thank you. You may begin.

Patrick J. Kane - Chief Investor Relations Officer

Management

Thanks, Adam. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for participating in EQT Corporation's conference call. With me today are Dave Porges, Chief Executive Officer; Steve Schlotterbeck, President of EQT and President of Exploration and Production; Randy Crawford, Senior Vice President of EQT and President of Midstream and Commercial; and Rob McNally, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. This call will be replayed for a seven-day period beginning at approximately 1:30 p.m. today. The telephone number for the replay is 201-612-7415. The confirmation code is 13637693. The call will also be replayed for seven days on our website. To remind you, the results of EQT Midstream Partners, ticker EQM, and EQT GP Holdings, ticker EQGP, are consolidated in EQT's results. Earlier this morning, there was a separate joint press release issued by EQM and EQGP. The partnership will have a joint earnings conference call at 11:30 a.m. today, which requires that we take the last question of this call at 11:20 a.m. The dial-in number for that call is 201-689-7817. In a moment, Rob will summarize EQT's second quarter 2016 results. Dave will discuss our increase in activity. And finally, Steve will give a brief Utica update. Following the prepared remarks, Dave, Steve, Randy, and Rob will all be available to answer your questions. I'd like to remind you that today's call may contain certain forward-looking statements. You can find factors that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements listed in today's press release under Risk Factors in the EQT's Form 10-K for year ended December 31, 2015, as updated by any subsequent Form 10-Qs, which are on file at the SEC and are available on our website. Today's call may also contain certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to this morning's press release…

Patrick J. Kane - Chief Investor Relations Officer

Management

Thank you, Steve. Adam, please open the call up for questions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, sir, and thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We will now be conducting our question-and-answer session. One moment while we poll for questions. Our first question comes from the line of Neal Dingmann from SunTrust. Please go ahead.

Neal D. Dingmann - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.

Analyst

Morning, guys. Just a question for Steve or Dave. Just your thoughts, you put the new – in the prepared comments you talked about obviously adding the wells. I'm a little surprised to see that the wells added, potentially been added in the Upper Devonian. How you think about adding – well, how you came about sort of the rationale of adding there versus just purely more activity in the Marcellus and Utica? Steven T. Schlotterbeck - President, President-Exploration & Production: Hey, Neal. There is a number of factors that went into that decision. And a few of those are, since we discontinued the program about this time last year, we've brought on 38 additional Upper Devonian wells that had been spud by that time. And based on the results we're seeing, our type curve is now 18% higher on a EUR per foot basis. So the economics of Upper Devonian have improved. That's combined with approximately 14% lower well costs. And I would remind you that our view of the Upper Devonian is, it's basically a use it or lose it play. If we don't co-develop it at roughly the same time as the Marcellus, we think that reserve will effectively be lost. So, when we look at the economics on the development of our resource base aspect versus just well-by-well economics, if we factor in these long lateral economic Upper Devonian wells and defer additional Marcellus wells for a time to make room for the Upper Devonian, we generate a lot more NPV versus drilling all Marcellus and forgoing the Upper Devonian forever. And I guess the bottom-line is the individual well returns for all of these Upper Devonian wells are well above our cost of capital. So they're economic opportunities that otherwise would be lost if we don't capture them now.

Neal D. Dingmann - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.

Analyst

And, Steve, I assume takeaway fine in Upper or that in incremental Marcellus. Steven T. Schlotterbeck - President, President-Exploration & Production: Yes, yes. There's takeaway capacity for all of these wells.

Neal D. Dingmann - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. And then just lastly, just how you guys think about M&A right now. Just anything you're still looking is still in that designated area, if you – maybe just a little color on M&A out there, Dave, for you, or Steve? David L. Porges - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. I don't know if we've got any further color we'd like to highlight. I mean I guess my current topic is basis, and frankly we're still just looking at Marcellus, Utica, the focus area is still that rectangle we put out, et cetera. As you're aware, since the last call, of course, we did announce and closeout a deal and I guess you're aware that there are a couple others that we did get involved in the process but other folks wound up making those acquisitions.

Neal D. Dingmann - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc.

Analyst

Very good. Thank you, all. David L. Porges - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Great. Thanks, Neal.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Holly Stewart from Scotia Howard Weil. Please, go ahead.

Holly Barrett Stewart - Scotia Howard Weil

Analyst

Good morning, gentlemen. Just a couple of quick ones, you mentioned on the flat CapEx and increased activity at lower well costs. Do you have new numbers to give out this morning?

Patrick J. Kane - Chief Investor Relations Officer

Management

Yeah. The Marcellus well will come in at $5.7 million. And we're publishing a new updated analyst presentation that will show you the new numbers.

Holly Barrett Stewart - Scotia Howard Weil

Analyst

Okay.

Patrick J. Kane - Chief Investor Relations Officer

Management

The $5.7 million on the Marcellus.

Holly Barrett Stewart - Scotia Howard Weil

Analyst

And that's down from the $6.3 million, if I remember right?

Patrick J. Kane - Chief Investor Relations Officer

Management

That's right.

Holly Barrett Stewart - Scotia Howard Weil

Analyst

Okay. Great. And then maybe, Steve, on the 33 more Marcellus wells, where are those primarily located? And is any of that on the newly acquired acreage? Steven T. Schlotterbeck - President, President-Exploration & Production: No. Those 33 wells are all in Pennsylvania. It'd be Greene County, Eastern Washington County, and Southern Allegheny County. And none of those are on the new Statoil acreage at this time.

Holly Barrett Stewart - Scotia Howard Weil

Analyst

Okay, great. And then maybe just one on basis, you came in a little bit wider than we were anticipating for the quarter, just given that I think Appalachian prices did relatively well versus NYMEX. So is there, I guess, any one-offs during the quarter and then maybe some comment on 3Q expectations?

Patrick J. Kane - Chief Investor Relations Officer

Management

Well, Holly, as far as the basis, some of the recoveries end up in that net marketing line item and not...

Holly Barrett Stewart - Scotia Howard Weil

Analyst

Yep.

Patrick J. Kane - Chief Investor Relations Officer

Management

...end up in the differential line. So the net marketing was a little bit above our guidance and the differential line was a little bit below our guidance. But if you look at the two together, we're kind of right in line.

Holly Barrett Stewart - Scotia Howard Weil

Analyst

Okay.

Patrick J. Kane - Chief Investor Relations Officer

Management

So, again, our guidance for the rest of the year is based on our mark-to-market of our – and we do have some fixed price sales which locks in the basis at the time. And also, basically, we're marketing our book to the forward curve for all of our sales points.

Holly Barrett Stewart - Scotia Howard Weil

Analyst

Okay, Pat. And then 3Q I guess the basis is a bit wide. But there's a lot of maintenance going on, on REX and Transco. I'm assuming that's just sort of rerouting?

Patrick J. Kane - Chief Investor Relations Officer

Management

Yeah. The summer's always tougher than the full year. So you're right. Maintenance is the main factor.

Holly Barrett Stewart - Scotia Howard Weil

Analyst

Okay. David L. Porges - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: And we'd expect you'll start to see some of the OVC impacts by the time we are reporting on fourth quarter our full year numbers.

Holly Barrett Stewart - Scotia Howard Weil

Analyst

Okay. Great. Thanks, Dave.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Michael Hall from Heikkinen. Please, go ahead.

Michael Anthony Hall - Heikkinen Energy Advisors LLC

Analyst

Thanks. Heikkinen Energy. Just curious as it relates to Greene County specifically, what's the remaining development inventory look like in Greene County? And how would you rank the – or characterize the economics in Greene relative to the other counties in, what you call, core? Steven T. Schlotterbeck - President, President-Exploration & Production: Well, regarding the economics, Greene is one of our better areas, but that Southern Allegheny, Eastern Washington, Greene and Northern Wetzel County area are all fairly similar in returns and that's kind of the core of the core. Overall, in the core, I think we're roughly 20% of our acreage is developed, so one-fifth of it's developed, four-fifth remains undeveloped, so still have a pretty good runway in that high-quality area.

Michael Anthony Hall - Heikkinen Energy Advisors LLC

Analyst

Okay. That's helpful. And I guess specific to Greene, how much would you say that's developed? Is it similar to that 20%? Steven T. Schlotterbeck - President, President-Exploration & Production: I don't have the specific number. It's probably a little more developed than that average, but not a lot, maybe 30% developed.

Michael Anthony Hall - Heikkinen Energy Advisors LLC

Analyst

Okay. Steven T. Schlotterbeck - President, President-Exploration & Production: I don't have that – that's a guess, so I don't have that specific number in front of me.

Michael Anthony Hall - Heikkinen Energy Advisors LLC

Analyst

Okay. And then I guess the only other one on my end, I'm just curious, can you – do you all have how much of the cash flow – the increase in cash flow guidance, how much of that was just price related versus other volume or cost related? Robert J. McNally - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: It's primarily...

Michael Anthony Hall - Heikkinen Energy Advisors LLC

Analyst

Meaning marking to markets to (22:14) NYMEX, how much of that drove the...? Robert J. McNally - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: It's primarily price-driven. I mean there's some volume increase, which we explained in the guidance, but the bigger part of the move for cash flow is price.

Michael Anthony Hall - Heikkinen Energy Advisors LLC

Analyst

Okay. Just wanted to make sure I was thinking about it right. Thank you. That's all I have. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we have no further questions in queue at this time. I would like to turn the floor back over to management for closing comments.

Patrick J. Kane - Chief Investor Relations Officer

Management

Thank you, Adam, and thank you, all, for participating in today's call. And, hopefully, we'll talk to you next month – or next quarter. I'm sorry. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This does conclude our teleconference for today. You may now disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation, and have a wonderful day.