Travis Stice
Analyst · Goldman Sachs
Thank you, Adam, and welcome to Diamondback’s first quarter earnings call. Before we get started, I would like to take a minute to extend our thoughts and prayers to all of those affected by the Coronavirus pandemic. The challenges presented so far in 2020 are unprecedented for the first perseverance is evident in the decisive action we have taken to preserve our strength in this cycle.Our organization has now been now been working from home for almost two months. And I can honestly say that business has performed extraordinarily well given the circumstances. Our teams have reacted quickly to the rapidly changing landscape and adjusted our operating and capital program in almost real time to prepare Diamondback for the commodity price weaknesses we are experiencing today.Crisis have a way of revealing characters and we have witnessed this across our organization. And I'm confident that you as our stockholders and owners of the Company will be proud of how our employees have responded in supporting the communities where we live and work. We have an organization of motivated and exceptionally talented people.Turning to the first quarter. Diamondback grew oil production 3% quarter-over-quarter and unhedged oil organization averaged 99% of WCI or highest oil realization in almost two years. We returned 80 operated wells to production in the quarter as our operations machine was executing efficiently before commodity prices weakened and we immediately ceased all completion activity in March.We expected to complete less than 10% of our 2020 well count in second quarter, with the only planned completions for the purpose of [indiscernible] slow operations in the fourth quarter of 2019, and maintained continuous operations with over 20 rigs and eight completion crews running through most of the first quarter. Capital spend was 709 million or a little over 27% of our original capital budget for the year.When commodity prices dropped, we took immediate action and dropped all of our completion crews per month, and are working down our rig count as quickly as possible without paying in early termination fees in existing rig contracts.While we are running 14 rigs today, we will exit May running 10 rigs and enter the third quarter running eight down over 60% from the beginning of the year. We also plan to enter the fourth quarter running seven rigs, with the ability to reduce further into 2021. This rig count reduction combined with our current completion schedule means we will exit 2020 with over 150 ducts.This is over 100 ducts above what will be required as a standard working duct inventory for three to five completion crew program, which is our base case program exiting 2020 as we see things today.While this may be a drag on overall capital efficiency in 2020, it will give us significant flexibility and be a benefit to capital efficiency over the next couple of years, particularly in 2021 as we navigate and uncertain forward outlook.Because CapEx is a cash flow statement number, we will start to see our reduction activity benefit our cash and at the end of the second quarter and through the back half of 2020. As a rule of thumb, activity reductions today are reflected two months later in cash flow statement. While commodity price fluctuations are realized in the month in which they occur.As a result, our CapEx spend will be weighted toward the front half of 2020 with the third quarter, beginning to truly reflect the significant activity reductions that began in March and continued into the second quarter.Diamondback is curtailing gross operating production, about 10% to 15% this month, due to the uncertainty in the forward oil price contracts and the risk of low unhedged realized oil prices for the mill.With differentials in role already set heading into the month at over $10 off the WTI. The risk of WTI prices declining further outweighs the benefit of producing as much as possible into extremely low unhedged realized prices.We have hedged production for nearly 100% of expected oil production before curtailments, including basis in both protection, and therefore can monetize in the money hedges without materially impacting the fact cash flow when production is curtailed.In assessing where to curtail production, we focused on fixed and variable operating costs and underline marketing contracts, choosing to slow production where we do not need to spend significant dollars to do so.We will continue to monitor future prices as we prepare to nominate production for June and the months ahead. And should meaningful curtailments persist or accelerate, we will plan to update our investors accordingly.Looking ahead due to the volatility in commodity prices, there is significant uncertainty in our full business plan. And we are trying to stay flexible on how many completion crews we bring back to work in the second half of the year, and which month both crews get back to work. We need to see some stability in the forward curve before making this decision.In the interim, we will continue to focus on what we can control, which is our cost structure and preserve as much liquidity as possible. We ended the first quarter with 1.9 billion of liquidity and only have one term debt maturity due in the next five years, a 400 million maturity due September 2021. With our reduction in spending, current hedge protection and suspension of our buyback program, we expect to maximize liquidity and retain cash to pay down debt.Our dividends remains our primary return of capitals for our equity holders and the Board of Directors has decided to maintain the dividends based on the current board outlook. Paying our interest expense, retaining our people and paying our dividend remain our priorities through these uncertain times.To finish, Diamondback is prepared to operate in a lower for longer oil price environment and our cost structure will prove to be a differentiator through this downturn. Low interest expense, low leverage, industry leading low cash G&A, a full hedge book, strong midstream contracts and the benefit of Viper and Rattler will allow them to operate effectively through these uncertain times.With these comments now complete. Operator, please open the line for questions.