Earnings Labs

Range Resources Corporation (RRC)

Q3 2015 Earnings Call· Thu, Oct 29, 2015

$43.04

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We apologize immensely for the delay for today's call. Thank you very much for standing by today. We want to welcome you today to the Range Resources Third Quarter 2015 Earnings Conference Call. This call is being recorded. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Statements contained in this conference call that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. After the speakers' remarks there will be a question-and-answer period. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Rodney Waller, Senior Vice President of Range Resources. Please go ahead, sir. Rodney L. Waller - Senior Vice President & Head-Investor Relations: Thank you, operator. Good morning and welcome. Range reported results for the third quarter 2015 with record production, a continuing decrease in unit costs and some outstanding well results. The order of our speakers on the call today are Jeff Ventura, Chairman, President and CEO; Ray Walker, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; and Roger Manny, Executive Vice President and Chief Finance Officer. Range did file our 10-Q with the SEC yesterday. It should be available on your website under the Investors tag, or you can access it using the SEC's Edgar system. In addition, we've posted on our website complemental tables, which will guide you in the calculation of the non-GAAP measures of cash flow, EBITDAX, cash margins, unit costs per mcfe and the reconciliation of reported earnings to our adjusted non-GAAP earnings that are discussed on the call today. Now let me turn it over to Jeff. Jeffrey L. Ventura - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you, Rodney. It…

Operator

Operator

Thank you, Mr. Ventura. The question-and-answer session will now begin. The first question comes today from Matt Portillo with TPH. Matthew Merrel Portillo - Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Securities, Inc.: Good morning, guys. Jeffrey L. Ventura - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning. Ray N. Walker - Chief Operating Officer & Executive Vice President: Good morning. Matthew Merrel Portillo - Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Securities, Inc.: Thank you very much for the color on your initial thoughts around the Utica. I was hoping to get potentially a little bit more around development plans on the asset. You've laid out an EUR for the first well and an updated well cost. How do you think about incremental capital spend on the Utica heading into 2016 and 2017 versus the current Marcellus and how those two projects potentially compete for capital? Jeffrey L. Ventura - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Okay. It's a great question. If you look on our website on slide 11, it lays out the economics for the Marcellus. And the good news for us is, our wells, we have all depth rights. So we hold everything, basically: the Marcellus; the Utica; the Upper Devonian; and every horizon up and down the wellbore. So what we know is we're encouraged by our first and second Utica wells, and the wells in and around us. And we think, just like we've been saying for a long time, that the drycore, the best part of the drycore of the Utica, we believe, will be down in Southwest Pennsylvania. We hold a big chunk of it; a few other operators do too. But the good part for us is it's stacked on top – it's right below the Marcellus. So we're encouraged by the Utica. We've drilled…

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Bob Brackett with Sanford Bernstein. Bob Alan Brackett - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC: Can you give a little more color on noncore asset sales? What's noncore? Is there a preference for oil versus gas? How do you think about pricing that you might get for those assets? Jeffrey L. Ventura - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Okay. Great question, Bob. And I really look forward to sharing the details on the asset sales, and when we can. We feel, I feel and our team feels, very confident that we're going to get one or more of those done prior to the end of the year. It's interesting, when you look back, it's a consistent part of our strategy. We've sold over $3 billion worth of noncore assets really over the last 10 years. Thinking about that another way, the remaining assets that we have are noncore are high quality. So we've seen a lot of interest in those assets that are high quality. And basically, you can see us putting almost all of our capital into Pennsylvania and into the Marcellus. Therefore, we're not funding some of these high quality areas where some of our peers and competitors are showing a lot of interest. But again, I really look forward to sharing the details on those when we can, and feel confident that we'll get one or more done prior to the end of the year. Bob Alan Brackett - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC: Do you consider the Marcellus and the Utica core? Jeffrey L. Ventura - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. Clearly, the Marcellus is the engine. The Marcellus is what's driving our company. Again, we're looking at 17 Bcf wells for basically $6 million. That's about as good as it gets. And with our being a first mover and in essence "having discovered it or pioneered it" we have the cheapest transportation to some of the best markets. Some of these new transportation deals, like we have Spectra Uniontown to Gas City, an uplift of $0.75 to $1 on a huge portion of that in the fourth quarter. Mariner East propane and ethane are on the verge of starting up in the next 30 days, and it'll be fully on by the end of the year. That'll be a big uplift in our netbacks owning both of those. So clearly, we think that's core and strong. We have a big position. We have 1.6 million net acres of stack pay potential. That's clearly size and scale on what we believe is the highest quality play in North America. Even though those other assets are by definition noncore for us, they're not competing for capital and are not competing for returns, they're good properties. And we're seeing a lot of interest. So it would be the areas outside of there. Bob Alan Brackett - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC: Great. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Dave Kistler with Simmons & Co. David William Kistler - Simmons & Company International: Morning, guys. Jeffrey L. Ventura - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning. Roger S. Manny - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Good morning. David William Kistler - Simmons & Company International: Real quickly on the Mariner East piece of the equation, can you talk a little bit about what's contributing to those delays? I know you've been informed by Sunoco that they'll have it fully operational by year end, but is it purely just timing of facility development, items like that? Or is there any regulatory issues? Just any kind of additional color you can give us there? Ray N. Walker - Chief Operating Officer & Executive Vice President: Sure, Dave. It's a good question. I can give a little bit of color. In the original plan, the startup was going to be in July with full operations for ethane and propane being basically full up and running in the fourth quarter. Of course, that's certainly been delayed. And again to repeat, they should have startup operations begin within the next 30 days, and we expect full operation to be basically right at the end of the year. And so that's sort of how we've got it in our plans going forward. I think I would characterize the delays as mainly construction. There were some permitting issues, and so forth and so on, but as you get closer to the imminent time that it starts up, sort of the over under, gets a lot – it's a lot more clarity in that decision. So we feel very confident. We, of course, we're in partnership and working with Eneos guys, the Chicago Bridge and Iron Works guys, we're…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Dan McSpirit with BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Dan E. McSpirit - BMO Capital Markets

Analyst · BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning. Just to follow up on the last series of questions on 2016 and to clarify. Where we sit today, what growth scenario is more likely next year: the 10% or 20% case? And where does leverage sit in either case, applying strict pricing and assuming no proceeds from the asset sales? Jeffrey L. Ventura - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Well, let me start the discussion and then I'll turn it over to Roger. In terms of capital budget for 2016, we have a process and we're going to continue with the process. We have a board meeting in December and we don't want to get ahead of the board. We'll present it to the board and typically we announce that in January. But to specifically answer your question. If where pricing is today, we would tend to be on the low end. We have the, of the bookends, given what we see today. And before I turn it over to Roger, let me say, as I said earlier, I feel very confident that we will complete one or more asset sales prior to year-end. But, Roger? Roger S. Manny - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. I think when you look forward, it all depends, obviously, on the points you've made, Dan. What are prices going to be and how much you're going to spend. And on the lower end of the bookends, you're really not overspending at all, if not underspending. So in that case, like I said, the EBITDAX is up third quarter versus second. So if your EBITDAX is increasing, you're not overspending, then your leverage is improving, even without any asset sales. So if I look at the balance sheet; I don't lose any sleep over the…

Dan E. McSpirit - BMO Capital Markets

Analyst · BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Got it. Many thanks. Have a great day. Jeffrey L. Ventura - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Ron Mills with Johnson Rice. Ronald E. Mills - Johnson Rice & Co. LLC: Good morning. Ray, on the dry gas pad you highlighted the five wells that had a 4 Bcf per 1,000-foot. Those obviously were over 8,000-foot laterals. Is that kind of the plan going forward compared to your type curve of 2.5 Bs per well? I'm just trying to get a sense as to, is that the new normal? Ray N. Walker - Chief Operating Officer & Executive Vice President: Well, actually that five-well pad, Ron, was a wet area pad. I think I said that in my notes. I hope I did. But there was a five-well dry pad that I talked about with the new IPs that we just brought online, and then the five-well pad that has a significant amount of history, because we talked about it almost a year ago when it came online, we're pretty confident in those EURs. It fit our modeling. We've got lots of offset history and reservoir models built all around it. So we're very confident in that 4 Bcf. They were about 8,100-foot laterals I think or so. And to answer your question further, yes. We do expect to drill. The team is actively trying to drill longer and longer laterals as we go forward. This year the average of the wells that we're putting to sales is about 6,000-foot all across the Marcellus. Clearly, there's some that are much, much longer. And clearly, there's some that are still shorter. But the average is 6,000 feet. Next year, we see that average approaching 7,000 feet. And I do believe, in a couple of years past that, you'll see us averaging close to 8,000 feet, more than likely. And I do think that…

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Paul Grigel with Macquarie. Paul Grigel - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Hi. Good morning. On 2016, realizing the budget process is still going on, but with the recent pullback in natural gas prices, how should we think about the focus on spending in the dry gas areas versus the wet gas versus Northeast, Southwest, North, just kind of across the Marcellus asset base? Ray N. Walker - Chief Operating Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. This is Ray. Paul, that's a great question. And I think you'll see us proceed forward just like we always have. We have a very disciplined capital allocation process. And we look AFEs throughout the year on a real-time basis, every AFE above a couple hundred thousand bucks has to go through Roger, myself, and Jeff. So we get to look and see what real-time is happening in the market, and with that we will have some flexibility to be able to adjust throughout the year, just like you've seen us do this year, from the original budget process to what we finally arrived at in January. You saw us change our capital allocation and begin to change our mix towards dry. As it stands today, clearly our dry gas economics are still better, and you'll see us continue to push a little bit more that way. That does not mean we're walking away from the liquids, by any means, because the returns there are still good, and we do still need to build infrastructure and do the things that we're doing over there. But I do think you'll see our mix move more towards dry going into 2016 also. Paul Grigel - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Okay. And then just shifting – a follow up on the Utica. On…

Operator

Operator

We are nearing the end of today's conference. We will go to Subash Chandra with Guggenheim Securities for our final question.

Subash Chandra - Guggenheim Securities LLC

Analyst

Thanks for fitting me in. The first question is on the NGL ex force (46:15). Just curious how you gauge a sentiment or an end user appetite from Europe. And just on some headlines we've seen from one of your customers, Eneos, if you see this as cooperative or competitive in that they got shale leases, they hired Mitchell people and buying gas properties out there? If you see that as sort of a stepping stone to broader exports or something that might stunt exports over time?

Chad L. Stephens - Senior Vice President-Corporate Development

Analyst

Well, yeah. Subash, this is Chad Stephens. Thanks for the question. So from Range's perspective, we think for our NGL prices, realized prices, and especially propane, we think the worst behind us. Mariner East gives us a lot of optionality. We can use seasonality on the East Coast, seasonality demand on the East Coast. We can put the propane on the water and focus on best prices, whether it be into Europe, or Asia or South America. We have a new – we'll talk about it, we'll have our IR team talk about it more – but we have a new contractual relationship with a global trader that has deep understandings of all the international markets and have relationships with Asian propane buyers and European propane buyers. They have a deep understanding of shipping and logistics. We're real excited about that. It's something we just actually inked – the ink is not even dry on the agreements, but it will give us what you're talking about, understanding of the buyers on the demand side, whether it be in Europe or in Asia. So we're excited about Mariner East. We're excited about this new relationship we have with this global trader.

Subash Chandra - Guggenheim Securities LLC

Analyst

That's good to know. And a quick geology question here, so Utica versus Marcellus, I guess I get the producibility questions, carbonate versus something that's probably not, but from a Bcf per 1,000, I'm just trying to understand why the Utica, given the pressures and the organic content of the Utica source rock into the Point Pleasant, why just naturally wouldn't have more gas in place than the Marcellus? Ray N. Walker - Chief Operating Officer & Executive Vice President: Well, I think – I'm not a geologist, let me start by qualifying that. I'm a frack guy. But if you look at our map on page 15 in the presentation, and we've got some maps further back in the presentation, and you look at gas in place, these maps have been out there for some time. There's a lot of penetrations. There's a lot of offset activity. There's of course hundreds, and hundreds and hundreds of wells in Ohio that have all gone together to put this map. And I think it's pretty consistent against – through all of our peers and Southwest PA and in Ohio that everybody agrees with the map. About the best gas in place numbers that you see are around 100 Bcf. Now there might be some isolated areas that are closer to 150 Bcf per square mile. If you look at the Marcellus, it's about the same, if not higher in some cases. So I think it is what it is. The rock rules. I don't know that being in carbonate versus a shale would have any bearing on how much gas in place it has. It's going to be more things like total organic carbon content, victronite reflectants, and permeability, porosity and pressure plays a big role. Overburdened stresses determine how it…

Subash Chandra - Guggenheim Securities LLC

Analyst

Thank you very much. Jeffrey L. Ventura - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the call back over to Mr. Ventura for his concluding remarks. Jeffrey L. Ventura - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: We believe that we have the most capital-efficient growth, that we will have the most capital-efficient growth for 2015 and 2016 versus any of our Appalachian peers on a corporate basis. Importantly, with our 1.6 million acres of stacked pay potential in the core of the Marcellus, Utica and Upper Devonian, we have the option to drill dry, wet gas or super rich acreage. Since about 900,000 net acres are dry and the rest is split between wet and super rich, in essence this gives us a portfolio within a portfolio. Coupling this resource base with our capital discipline and diversified marketing arrangements, which gives us multiple options that our competitors do not have, Range is positioned to create value as we move forward into an expected better market that more effectively balances supply, demand and infrastructure capabilities. Thanks for participating on the call. If you have additional questions, please follow up with our IR team.

Operator

Operator

Thank you very much, sir. Thank you for your participation in today's conference. You may disconnect at this time. Thank you.