David Wood
Analyst · SunTrust. Please go ahead
Thank you, Jessica. Welcome everyone and thank you all for joining us this morning. For the full year 2019, Gulfport reported $118.6 million of adjusted net income and generated $814.4 million of adjusted EBITDA. In addition, despite the difficult pricing environment, Gulfport’s operating cash flow before the changes in working capital and inclusive of capitalized expenses, totaled $640.3 million and we reported free cash flow of $37.8 million in 2019. Overall, I am pleased with our full year financial results and operational performance. Net of the previously announced sale of certain non-operated interests in the Utica, capital expenditures incurred in 2019 totaled $574 million. This total is in line with our 2019 guidance of $565 million to $600 million and approximately 25% lower than full year 2018. Total production was roughly flat in 2019 versus 2018, and in line with guidance and expectations. Our ability to generate cash flow in 2019, despite a declining price environment, was attributable to our strong natural gas hedge book, and the dedication and focus of our operations teams, who work to optimize efficiencies and improve our cost structure throughout the year. To underscore this, during the fourth quarter of 2019, our per unit operating expense including LOE, production taxes and midstream gathering and processing expense totaled $0.77 per Mcfe, which was 13% below the levels we saw in the fourth quarter of 2018. We continue to focus on ways to improve our cost structure across the business, which Quentin will discuss further in his comments. On the strategic front, we delivered on our goal to simplify the portfolio through 2019 and completed several non-core asset sales throughout the year in a difficult environment, which generated cash proceeds of over $95 million. We were also able to retire approximately $190 million of senior debt at a $50 million discount during 2019, which improved both our leverage and cash flow profile. Year-to-date in 2020, we have repurchased an additional $10.2 million in principal amount of unsecured senior notes for $6.9 million in cash. As we continue to evaluate potential uses of cash, we will remain disciplined in our allocation of capital, balancing maintaining a strong liquidity position, and enhancing value. Touching on reserves, Gulfport’s year end 2019 proved reserves totaled approximately 4.5 Tcfe and what comprised of 89% natural gas and 11% liquids. Lastly, we made numerous structural and personnel changes to improve the organization during 2019. We assembled our talented new management team, which we believe will serve the organization well in the future. We added Patrick Craine as Executive Vice President and General Counsel, who brings extensive legal, governance and compliance expertise to the organization. We recently also named a new head of our Human Resources Group, and brought in a new Chief Information Officer. Finally, on the finance and accounting side, we recently hired an extremely qualified Controller for our accounting group, and a new assistant controller. These are in addition to bring in Quentin on board in August as our new CFO. These key additions have substantially improved our organizational structure, processes and capabilities. We are building a team orientated culture here at Gulfport, and which all are working to achieve our shared strategic and financial priorities, and where transparency active communication and accountability are all fostered. In addition, our ongoing Board refreshment process continues, to ensure shareholders are represented by fresh diverse voices, with strong expertise and qualifications at the Board level. We recently announced Valerie Jochen and Al Bledsoe who have joined our Board, and believe both Valerie and Al bring strong skillsets, capabilities and experience to our Board. Following these two appointments in the past two months, Gulfport’s Board is now comprised of eight Directors, seven of whom are independent and five of whom have joined the Board in the last three years. As we recently disclosed, David Houston, our Chairman has decided not to seek reelection at our next annual meeting. Gulfport has benefited from his many years of distinguished leadership on Gulfport’s Board and our employees and Board thank him for the many contributions he has made to Gulfport over the years. Gulfport recently published our inaugural Corporate Sustainability Report, which you can find on our website. The report highlights the success we had last year in improving our company, as we responsibly developed our assets and illustrates our commitment to the highest standards of health, safety and environmental stewardship. The report also highlights our efforts to improve the communities in which we operate, through volunteering charitable giving and other initiatives. We also recently adopted formal Corporate Governance guidelines and a board diversity policy, underscoring our commitment to ensuring sound Corporate Governance policies. These can also be found on our website. In summary, Gulfport did a good job of controlling what was within our control, and managing things out of our control in the best way possible. We executed on our operational plan within budget, and generated positive free cash flow, despite a sharply declining commodity environment. Our focus on capital discipline and cash flow generation carries into 2020, which is setting up to be a challenging year for the entire energy sector. On the macro front, due to natural gas supply growth over the past several years and unseasonably warm winter, we entered 2020 with natural gas prices at the lowest level seen in 20 years. Having said this, we firmly believe that low gas prices cure low gas prices. Producers are faced with ever declining access to capital, shrinking borrowing basis, and a steady drumbeat from investors to generate cash flow. These factors should lead to a decline in U.S. supply in 2020, and the strong U.S. economy and continued demand growth, give me belief that there will be bright days ahead for gas prices and gas weighted companies such as Gulfport. Because we believe in a much higher gas price in the future, we are aggressively cutting our activity levels in 2020 to preserve our high quality inventory for a better day. Simply put, this level of pricing is not sustainable and producers are slowing down, which we believe will result in the price recovery. We want to be poised to drill our high quality inventory when this recovery takes place, rather than turning to sales high rate gas wells at low prices. Gulfport’s 2020 operational plan and financial outlook prioritizes free cash flow generation, which ensures we maintain our strong liquidity position. Accordingly, we are managing activity to align total capital expenditures within cash flow at strip. During 2020, we plan to invest approximately $300 million across our core assets, which is half of what we spent in 2019. We forecast minimal reliance on our revolver to fund our operations throughout the year, which again allows us to maintain a strong liquidity position, and underscores our focus on capital discipline. Turning to our specific core areas in the Utica; our 2020 program will be centered around the dry gas window of the play. We entered 2020 with two rigs running, and currently have one rig drilling ahead today. We plan to continue with one-rig program throughout the third quarter of 2020. In the SCOOP, our 2020 program is focused on the liquids rich wet gas area of the Woodford, where we continue to see strong efficiency gains. When normalized to a 7,500 foot lateral, our fourth quarter of 2019 average spud to rig release was 40.7 days, an improvement of 36% from the 2018 program average, and we are continuing that momentum going into 2020. During 2020, we plan to run 1.5 rigs on average for the year and currently have two rigs drilling in the play today. In summary, our 2020 budget is highlighted by a significant reduction in capital and our commitment to exercise capital discipline, maintain strong liquidity, generate free cash flow and remain intensely focused on further cost reductions and efficiency gains in this challenging commodity environment. With that, I will turn the call over to Quentin for his comments.