Earnings Labs

U.S. Energy Corp. (USEG)

Q4 2014 Earnings Call· Thu, Mar 12, 2015

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning. My name is Jonathan and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the U.S. Energy Corp. Fourth Quarter and Year End 2014 Selected Highlights Financial Results and Operations Update Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Reg Larsen, Director of Investor Relations of U.S. Energy Corp. Sir, you may begin your conference.

Reggie Larsen

Management

Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us today. With me this morning is Keith Larsen, Chief Executive Officer; David Veltri, President and COO; and Steve Richmond, Chief Financial Officer of the Company, as well as members of the management team. In terms of agenda for the call, Steve will provide you with an overview of our highlights, financial results, operating initiatives for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2014 and we’ll finish the call with the question-and-answer session. As a preliminary matter, I would like to note that during this call, we may make forward-looking statements which may be identified by the words will, anticipate, expect, and similar words that are based on the beliefs and assumptions of U.S. Energy's management. These and all statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 and Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933. The forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including those described in the Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014, which was filed premarket this morning and our other filings with the SEC, all of which are incorporated herein by reference. Relevant non-GAAP reconciliations are available on the Company’s web site which is located at www.usnrg.com. I'd now like to turn the call over to Steve.

Steven Richmond

Management

Thank you, Reg, and good morning ladies and gentlemen. To begin I would like to thank the audience for attending today’s call and for following the Company’s progress throughout 2014. At year-end, the Company have participation interest in 136 gross, 20.02 net producing wells primarily located in South Texas and in the Williston Basin of North Dakota. During the three months ended December 31, 2014, the Company produced 101,265 net BOE. Average net daily production during the quarter was 1,101 BOE per day. During the 12 months ended December 31, 2014, the Company produced 465,342 BOE or 1,275 BOE per day. In South Texas, 2014 production increased 148% when compared to the prior year, from 76,773 BOE to 190,760 BOE as a result of our Buda limestone drilling program. We do not anticipate this growth to continue due to lower oil prices and a decreased pace of drilling in the region. However, we are continuing to test the potential of this region through additional drilling in order to continue to prove inventory on a going forward basis. The decrease in both the net daily average production and overall total production when compared to the previous quarter of 2014 until the same period of the prior year comes from the curtailment of drilling in both South Texas and in North Dakota due to the dramatic downturn in the price of oil beginning in the fourth quarter of 2014. The pricing situation affected all aspects of our business including lower sales volumes and lower realized oil prices which are reflected in the following quarterly and annual results. During the three months ended December 31, 2014, the Company recognized $5.1 million in revenue. For the 12 months ended December 31, 2014, the Company recognized $32.4 million in revenue which is a slight decrease…

Operator

Operator

Yes, sir. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Patrick Rigamer from Global Hunter Securities. Your question please.

Patrick Rigamer

Analyst

Hi, good morning guys.

Steven Richmond

Management

Good morning.

Patrick Rigamer

Analyst

Talking about I guess this Eagle Ford vertical pilot well in South Texas, you mentioned that the operator has planned another well in the second half of the year. Do you have enough information at this point to narrow? I mean do you plan to participate in that well or is that still to be determined?

Steven Richmond

Management

At this time, we do plan, Pat, on participating in that well.

Patrick Rigamer

Analyst

Okay. And if successful, do you have an idea of I guess how many potential future locations that could open up.

Steven Richmond

Management

Not at this time. You can do the math and multiply by three to one is or whatever the spacing is but I think that would be a bit optimistic at this time.

Patrick Rigamer

Analyst

Okay. And then I guess as kind of scale back operations here, are there any acreage expiration issues that you need to deal with?

Steven Richmond

Management

We do have a continuous drilling obligation on one of our leases with U.S. Enercorp and I believe it’s every 150 days but that isn’t an issue.

Patrick Rigamer

Analyst

Okay. And then…

Steven Richmond

Management

Fortunately most of our, I am sorry Pat, fortunately all of our Williston Basin acreage is held by production and a majority of our South Texas business as well.

Patrick Rigamer

Analyst

Okay. That’s helpful. And then I guess as you look to transition from non-op to becoming an operator, are you looking at that transition in the Williston or South Texas or both or where I guess where would you see that happening initially?

David Veltri

Analyst

Pat, this is David Veltri. I think we are concentrating on both of those areas as both of them have been successful in the past and we have a good working knowledge of both South Texas and North Dakota, but we are not going to limit ourselves to those. We feel like we can look in some other conventional and traditional basins that are easy to understand or we’ve got experience as well.

Patrick Rigamer

Analyst

Okay. So there would be potentially new acquisitions or new acreage or...?

David Veltri

Analyst

Yeah. We are going to focus on conventional and acquiring possibly producing property and even outside of the two basins.

Patrick Rigamer

Analyst

Okay. That’s it from me. Thank you very much.

David Veltri

Analyst

Thanks, Pat.

Steven Richmond

Management

Thanks, Pat.