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 will come as no surprise to anyone on this call when I say that the third quarter was difficult. In the commodity business you go through cycles. Those of us who have seen a few of these cycles recall what they feel like, the difficult decisions that must be made, but ultimately the companies with the right assets and strategy will emerge better for it. The Range team has navigated these cycles before, and has designed the company to consistently create value for its shareholders over time. You have all heard these tenets before, but they bear repeating when we distracted by minute-by-minute price updates. We believe value is created year after year by having a large position in the core of a low-cost play, a great team that consistently and safely executes the business plan and a strong simple balance sheet. Going a little deeper into each of these points, first, Range has the largest position in the lowest-cost play in North America. There is also tremendous additional potential upside in form of the Utica, downspacing in the Marcellus, the Upper Devonian, extending laterals and having size and scale. This resource has been captured and is largely held by production, which allows Range to be disciplined in its activity levels. Second, a team that consistently executes. For over a decade, the Range team has grown production at almost a 20% compound annual growth rate. This was accomplished despite periods of declining prices and high service cost. This team pioneered the Marcellus and helped bring other technical innovations into the mainstream, for example, water recycling and reduced cluster spacing. Marketing has been another area of solid execution with a history of firsts, including our first in obtaining takeaway capacity and the upcoming exports of ethane and propane out of Marcus Hook. I believe that you'll see more firsts from Range. Third, the balance sheet is a foundation that enables the company to execute its strategy. Range has prudently managed its balance sheet in a consistent manner for many years. As an operating-strategy driven company, we focus first on rigorous capital allocation to be good stewards of our shareholders' money. That has focused Range on building one of the best drilling inventories in the business. It has also led us to shed noncore assets totaling north of $3 billion over the last 10 years. Liquidity and financial flexibility are important, and we develop this just as we do our drilling inventory. We are well positioned, with a carefully structured bank credit facility with ample liquidity and a long-term debt portfolio with staggered maturities. In addition, we continue to make progress on our noncore asset sales, and we expect to announce one or more asset sales and close them by the end of this year. We will use the proceeds to pay down debt, further strengthening our balance sheet. Turning to the third quarter, another three months of strong operating performance drove 20% growth in production. A relentless focus on costs and efficiency yielded a 12% reduction in our unit costs over the prior-year quarter. This came against a continued backdrop of weak product prices, which more than offset lower costs. The good news is that two of the projects which I mentioned last quarter should help with fourth quarter pricing netbacks. Spectra's Uniontown to Gas City project became fully operational on September 1. This transportation allows us to move about 170 million per day net from local M2 Appalachian Index to Midwest markets. The net effect is it has increased our netback price by more than $1 on this volume, and we expect that we'll see a continued uplift of $0.75 to $1 for the fourth quarter. The other project I mentioned during our last quarterly call was Mariner East I. Our understanding is that Mariner East I will be fully operational by the end of this year. When operational, this project should result in a significant uplift on our ethane and propane pricing netbacks. We are the only producer that has capacity on this project, and we have 40,000 barrels per day comprised of half ethane and half propane. We expect a $90 million uplift in our net cash flow on an annualized basis when combing the net effects from Mariner East, Mariner West and ATEX. For 2016 we have projected bookends for capital spending of $550 million to $890 million. Both cases give us good growth within or near cash flow, depending on the price forecast used. We believe that if you look at the capital we're spending in 2015 for the growth we're achieving, we have the most capital efficient growth on a corporate basis versus any of our peers in the Appalachian or in any other basin. We believe in 2016 our capital efficiency will also be at or near the top of the peers. I'll now turn the call over to Ray. Ray N. Walker - Chief Operating Officer & Executive Vice President: Thanks, Jeff. During the first three quarters of this year we've demonstrated capital discipline, we've increased operational efficiency, we've further lowered our cost structure and continued to meet our production targets while staying within our $870 million capital budget. Third quarter production was better than expected at 1.445 Bcf equivalent per day, again largely driven by improved performance in the dry gas area of Southwest Pennsylvania, and we're still on track to deliver approximately 20% year-over-year production growth. Our Marcellus growth is forecasted to be 26% year over year. With our reduced capital spending in the fourth quarter and Mariner East starting up later than originally planned, our fourth quarter production is expected to average about 1.42 Bcf equivalent per day. Our latest communications with Sunoco indicate that the Mariner East startup should occur in the next month, with full commercial operations for propane and ethane by the end of the year. Thinking ahead about the bookends for next year's plan, we expect that our production growth profile in 2016 to be consistent with previous years. Importantly, our 2016 exit rate being higher than this year's exit rate, again setting us up for growth in 2017. Our cost metrics are consistently improving on both an absolute and on a per-unit basis. Corporate LOE per mcfe for the quarter was down 21% as compared to last year, and G&A per mcfe is down 26%. We've made additional progress in operating efficiencies and reducing capital costs. I'll start with some highlights from Southwest Pennsylvania, where most of our capital is being invested. To give you an idea of just how much progress we've made in drilling cost, for the last two months, August and September, our average lateral length has increased by 38% over the average for 2014. Despite drilling 38% longer laterals, our drilling costs per well have actually declined by 10%. We recently finished a five-well pad at 45% less cost per foot as compared to 2014. This was all accomplished by a combination of service cost reductions, the application of improved drilling technology and improved drilling efficiencies. On the completion side, we've achieved a 44% increase in frac stages per day as compared to last year. Three recent pads totaling 427 frac stages achieved an average between 8 and 10 stages per day. Combined with service cost reductions, we've seen completion cost drop by more than 34% compared to this time last year. We believe that these efficiencies can continue to improve going forward. We also believe that this is not the case for everyone. It's a distinct advantage for Range on two fronts, both on the capital efficiency side and the operational side. Today we have some of the best recoveries per foot of lateral combined with one of the lowest total well costs per foot of lateral generating some of the best economics in the Basin. Of course this is largely driven by our team and our large scale, stacked pay and high quality acreage position in Southwest Pennsylvania. One of the most important factors in improving capital efficiency is drilling longer laterals. Our average lateral length this year is about 6,000 feet, and we expect to see it closer to 7,000 feet next year and still growing longer after that. Most of our competitors in the Basin are already drilling long laterals and will not see the same gains in efficiency going forward. Therefore, we see an advantage with our capital efficiency increasing steadily in the future as we go forward with longer and longer laterals. The other distinct advantage is our operating efficiency. For example, we know that we frac more stages per day and have less downtime on our completions than any operator in the Basin. Service providers know this and benefit with better utilization rates when they're on one of our locations. This generates a win-win situation for both us and the service company, resulting in Range receiving some of the best pricing in the Basin while the service companies maintain their margins. Importantly, we're also continuing to see outstanding well performance. Recently we brought online a new five-well pad in the dry area of Southwest Pennsylvania. The wells are producing under constrained conditions into a high-pressure gathering system, with an average initial sales rate per well of over 26 million a day. The five wells averaged 8,200-foot laterals with 42 stages. I also want to emphasize that the total well cost, including facilities, was less than $900 per foot. Now that we have more production history, I would also like to update you on a five-well pad in the wet area that we reported on earlier this year. The average initial sales rate of the five wells was 18 million cubic feet equivalent per day under constraint conditions and had 120-day average of 8.5 million a day. The average EUR per 1,000-foot for the five wells on the pad is 4 Bcf equivalent per 1,000-foot, and those wells averaged 5,700-foot laterals completed with 30 stages. The total well cost for these wells, including facilities, was less than $1,000 per foot, again, emphasizing class leading costs with 4 bcfe per 1,000-foot, which is one of the best recoveries in the entire Basin. Again, the rock rules. Both our dry and liquids rich wells in the Marcellus and Southwest Pennsylvania continue to deliver outstanding results and are a real testament to our operations and technical teams. As we continue to drill longer laterals, we expect to see even better performance. Our first two Utica wells in Washington County, Pennsylvania are now producing into the new dry gas pipeline, and we're currently drilling the third well on a nearby pad, expected to complete that well early next year. Our reservoir modeling for the first well, which is based on extensive reservoir measurements and production history, puts the EUR in the range of 15 Bcf from a 5,400-foot lateral with 32 stages. On a normalized basis that's approximately 2.8 Bcf per 1,000-foot of lateral and is in the top tier of Utica wells to date. Again, looking at all the production data from across the entire Utica play, our first well appears to be in the top-10 performers on both an absolute and a per-1,000-foot basis. And the second well is better. Remember, the first two wells are opposing laterals off the same pad, but the completions were different. The first well was completed with 400,000 pounds of proppant per stage, or approximately 2,400 pounds per foot. And the second well was completed with 500,000 pounds per stage, or a little over 3,000 pounds per foot. Both wells incorporated 100 mesh sand and 30/50 ceramic proppant and were similar in reservoir pressure, as you would expect, being direct opposing offsets. On the second well, we also utilized the choke management program designed to manage the near well bore drawdown. The second well is currently flowing to sales at approximately 13 million a day. It's been online a very short time, but early indications suggest it will be better than the first. It was a 5,200-foot lateral also completed with 32 stages. As we evaluate these two wells and continue to develop our reservoir modeling, we will let the data and the modeling guide us in optimizing the completion design for our third well. The third well is AFE-ed, (15:10) for a total completed well cost of $15.9 million for a 6,500-foot lateral. This includes facilities, diagnostics, additional science and new technology, mainly managed pressure drilling equipment, allowing us to keep drilling under the large pressure swings that have been seen by us and others in Southwest Pennsylvania. We believe as time goes on and we get more of these wells under our belt that we'll see between 20% and 30% reductions in total well cost resulting from technology advancements and operational efficiencies combined with improving well performance. We have 400,000 net acres of what we believe is core dry Utica. Early wells drilled by us and our offset competitors in Southwest Pennsylvania are promising, and certainly help to prove up and delineate the Range acreage position. But those five or so wells have only limited production history to date. We plan to gather data from the offset activity combined with our wells, and while we focus on the Marcellus in the near term, just like the super rich, wet and dry Marcellus and Upper Devonian, our Utica play could be another complementary large-scale and low-risk option in our portfolio, with good economics for dry gas growth. Activity in Northeast Pennsylvania and in our Midcontinent division slowed dramatically in the third quarter, and today both areas have finished their capital spend for the year. Our Fort Worth team, which now operates both areas, has done an excellent job of lowering costs and focusing on optimizing production and revenue. Our Southern Appalachian team in Nora is also finished for the year with its capital spending. They're continuing to bring online some of the best coalbed methane wells we've seen in years. In fact, over the past 30 years, four of the top-five wells are the new design, and 11 of the top-30 wells are wells that we have drilled and completed since taking over full operational control of the properties in 2014. Utilizing the new high rate and larger size frac technique, the recent CBM wells are 75% better than their average offsets, with significantly better economics. And again, this area has some of the best gas pricing in the Eastern U.S. It's large scale, low risk and has very low declines. Environmental protection, regulatory compliance, employee safety and having positive relationships in the communities where we live and work remain top priorities in our operations. In Southwest Pennsylvania, we had no reportable spills in the third quarter, and we'll work hard to repeat that success going forward. Employee and management commitment to safety has resulted in Range having only one OSHA-recordable injury thus far in 2015 and zero hours of lost time in the last 21 months. We are really proud of all of our operating teams for working safely, protecting the environment and being good stewards in the communities where we live and work. Now, over to Roger. Roger S. Manny - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Thank you, Ray. Financially, the third quarter of 2015 was much like the second quarter, with significantly lower realized prices across all commodities set against significantly lower costs and consistent capital efficient growth. Year-over-year production growth for the quarter was 20%, and all-in realized prices were down by 36% from the third quarter of last year. We continue to improve our already low cost structure by reducing cash unit costs by $0.23 from last year, a 12% decrease. All of our individual unit cost categories were at or below guidance, with another quarter of most expense categories coming in below last year on an absolute dollar basis as well. Fourth quarter line item expense guidance may be found in the third quarter earnings press release. Revenue from natural gas, oil and NGL sales, including cash settled derivatives, was $390 million for the third quarter, a $7 million increase from the second quarter of this year but $73 million below last year's third quarter. EBITDAX for the third quarter was $209 million and third quarter cash flow was $169 million or $1.01 per fully diluted share. Year-to-date third quarter EBITDAX was $656 million and year-to-date cash flow totals $536 million. Net loss on a GAAP basis for the third quarter was $301 million, driven primarily by $502 million of pre-tax proved property impairments from some of our legacy shallow gas areas in Northwest Pennsylvania and oil properties in Northern Oklahoma. The properties impaired are non-core assets. Year to date, less than 3% of total company production came from these impaired assets. Non-GAAP earnings reflecting common analyst methodology, which removes many non-cash and nonrecurring items, was $5.5 million or $0.03 per fully diluted share. Both non-GAAP earnings and cash flow per share for the quarter were higher than the second quarter and above analysts' consensus. NYMEX strip oil prices were 16.5% lower at September 30 than June 30, and strip gas prices were 10% lower. The fact that revenue, cash flow, EBITDAX and adjusted earnings were all higher in the third quarter of this year than the second quarter speaks to the responsiveness of the company to the current industry environment through continued cost cutting and capital efficient growth. Turning to the balance sheet, the most significant improvement completed during the third quarter was the redemption of our old 6.75% notes. Listeners may recall that we issued $750 million of 4.875% notes during the second quarter, effectively replacing our 6.75% notes, which were not callable until the third quarter. Having used the bank credit facility to bridge the two transactions, we redeemed the 6.75% notes in August using the bank credit facility. The refinancing reduces our corporate weighted average bond interest rate by 42 basis points, generating just under $11 million of annual interest expense savings. Also, the redemption of our 6.75% notes places our earliest bond maturity in the year 2021. We remain well hedged in 2016 with a floor gas price of $3.42 an Mcf on over half our anticipated 2016 gas production. Hedging activity during the third quarter, summarized in the earnings release and Range website, consisted of several new oil hedges and some natural gas basis swaps. All in all, a challenging but solid quarter with higher revenue, production, cash flow and lower costs sequentially from the second quarter. In the fourth quarter we look forward to continued year-over-year growth, cost focus and balance sheet improvement. Jeff, over to you. Jeffrey L. Ventura - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Operator, let's open it up for Q&A.