James Bennett
Analyst · William Butler, representing Stephens
Thanks, Matt. Our second quarter is very positive and eventful for SandRidge. Our production was on target, results in our 2 oil plays continued to meet or exceed expectations. And our confidence in our asset base continues to grows. We continue to have success in raising capital, this year, and announced 2 very significant transactions this week: the launching of the second Royalty Trust and our joint venture in our Mississippian play. The combination of our large, high-quality asset base and the ability to raise funds around these assets allow us to increase our capital program and bring forward the NPV of our drilling inventory, while at the same time, adding another potential oil play. Regarding our balance sheet liquidity, we will continue the monetization of assets and adhere to our goal of funding CapEx with non-debt sources of capital. Touching on a few of our financial results. For the second quarter, adjusted net loss was $2 million or $0.00 per diluted share. Adjusted EBITDA was $156 million or $182 million including realized gains on out-of-period hedges, and operating cash flow was $134 million. Recall that in April, we completed the IPO of SandRidge Mississippian Trust I, which is being consolidated into the financials of SandRidge. So in the second quarter, you will see net income attributable to noncontrolling interests on the income statement, which reflects the impact of the 62% of the trust owned by the public. Also the actual quarterly EBITDA impact from the trust can be found in our reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA tables in our earnings release. SandRidge's second quarter adjusted EBITDA is up 7% over the first quarter 2011, and 18% versus comparable period in 2010, as a result of higher oil production and higher realized oil prices, somewhat offset by a decline in gas production, and as Matt discussed, an increase in lease operating expenses. Capital expenditures for the quarter were $454 million and $874 million for the year-to-date period. In terms of leasehold, as Tom mentioned, we launched a new Mississippian play and began acquiring acreage in the play. In the second quarter, we also added to our acreage positions in the original Miss and the Central Basin Platform in the Permian Basin. In our earnings release, we have updated full year guidance and included initial production in CapEx guidance for 2012. In terms of 2011, we are increasing our production guidance by 3% or 800,000 Boe to 24.1 million Boe. We're also increasing 2011 CapEx by $500 million to $1.8 billion reflecting the increase in the rig count in Mississippian play and leasing efforts in our second Mississippian play. Recall that 100% of our drilling expenditures this year are directed towards oil, as returns on our oil projects are superior to those on our gas assets. Other per-unit measures, including LOE, DD&A and G&A have also been updated. As Matt discussed, we are seeing higher lease operating expenses and have guided that range up to $14.10 to $15.50 per Boe. While we think over time we can bring these per-unit costs down, as we achieve scale in Mississippian play, for now we feel it's prudent guiding at this higher level of LOE. In terms of our capital-raising efforts, this week, we issued press releases for 2 pending and important components of our capital-raising program. First on August 1, we launched the IPO of our Second Royalty Trust, which we expect to close in mid-August and net proceeds to SandRidge were approximately $600 million. Second, this week we signed definitive agreements to enter into a joint venture and development agreement in our original Mississippian play. As discussed in more detail in the press release issued yesterday morning, this $500 million joint adventure consists of $250 million of cash at closing and $250 million in the form of a drilling carry, which is expected to be utilized over a 3-year period. Generally for transfer of 13.2% working interest and approximately 860,000 acres or approximately 113,000 net acres. Also note that in the JV, we're not selling production or conveying an interest in any proved assets or HBP acreage. All of this is included from the AMI. The JV is expected to close in the fourth quarter. The pending closing of these 2 transactions, combined with $800 million in year-to-date closed asset sales, will fully fund our revised $1.8 billion 2011 capital budget and also begins to fund our 2012 capital needs. With the continued success of our capital-raising efforts, we feel very comfortable raising our 2011 and 2012 CapEx guidance to $1.8 billion. Turning to our liquidity and balance sheet, at June 30, we had total debt outstanding at $2.9 billion, consisting of $80 million outstanding under our credit facility and $2.8 billion senior notes. This represents a $280 million reduction in total debt from March 31. As of August 1, we had $195 million outstanding under our $790 million credit facility and available liquidity of $573 million. Pro forma for the over $800 million of proceeds from our 2 pending capital raise transactions, we'll have approximately $600 million of cash on the balance sheet, no debt outstanding under our credit facility and we'll have reduced our leverage by over a turn of EBITDA. In terms of our hedging position, we continue to hedge our oil production, to summarize our updated derivative position which is outlined in our earnings release. Since our second quarter earnings, we have added oil hedges in the form of swaps for 6.4 million barrels at an average price of approximately $102 per barrel. For the remaining half of the year, we have approximately 71% of our guidance liquid production hedged at $88 dollars per barrel. And through 2015, we have 32.5 million barrels of oil hedged at approximately $93. This concludes management's remarks. Keysha, let's -- I'd like to open up the call for questions.