Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:CHK) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Mohit Singh: Hey Charles, this is Mohit again. Again, we don’t want to speculate on rumors. But one thing I’m sensitive to, I have — do have a BP legacy since I came to Chesapeake from BP. So, I know the team and those assets really, really well. I think your general comment around the quality of the assets is very competitive. I would agree with that. But maybe we’ll leave it there. And just if something were to happen there, and again, as we do, we always take a look across the lease line to see what else might be available.

Charles Meade: That’s what you was looking for. Thank you, Mohit.

Operator: Our final question will come from Noel Parks with Tuohy Brothers. You may now go ahead.

Noel Parks: Hi, good morning.

Nick Dell’Osso: Good morning Noel.

Noel Parks: So, I wanted to ask you about infrastructure and future investment there. With LNG coming to the picture, it seems like a lot of producers are looking at what level they might consider maintenance or expansion infrastructure investment. And I’m just wondering, is there anything either directly spurred by LNG or otherwise. Are there any nonobvious factors that would affect your decisions going forward about on balance sheet versus JV structures with infrastructure investments. I’m thinking about tax considerations or incentive considerations or things like that pretty much back burner when you’re looking at your down the road planning?

Nick Dell’Osso: Well, I’ll take a shot at answering that, Noel. I think the way we think about infrastructure when you’re looking to create access to new markets and premium markets, you often are going to need either expansions or new construction of infrastructure. When I think about what we’ve done with the NG3 pipeline with Momentum, that was an opportunity to support a project that we thought was a competitive project that would improve the marketability of our production. We also thought that the economics of that development were very attractive to us because you could invest at the preconstruction stage and have great line of sight into the fact that, that project would be successful since our equity production would be a big driver of causing it to be successful.

So, that kind of return opportunity is very compelling to us and it helps to underwrite a project that’s accretive to our entire portfolio of Haynesville production. So, that’s a great project for us. When we think about how or where, why we might participate in infrastructure, it’s when you have that kind of differential opportunity to earn return for your shareholders. If you can participate in infrastructure that without participating in it, you don’t have access to a premium market, sure, you can consider that. if you can participate in a place where there’s an outsized return that you’re uniquely capable of earning. That’s great, too. If it’s otherwise just to own infrastructure style producing returns of call it, high single, low double digits for fully developed assets, probably less interested in that.

I hope I’ve answered your question there. But strategically, we think about if we’re willing to make an investment in infrastructure, it should be for a differential return.

Noel Parks: Great. Thanks. That too get to what I was wondering. And I was wondering with the — either the Vitol or the Energy Transfer Gunvor deal. Are there any Right of First Refusal or similar conditions when it comes to the potential to add more volumes down the road? Or are both parties essentially just reagents to contract with whomever they want going forward?

Mohit Singh: Yes. So, the terms of the arrangements with both Vitol, Gunvor, Energy Transfer are confidential, Noel. We can’t get into all the specifics, but what I will tell you is we are delivering the LNG FOB and then it’s — that’s where the custody transfer is happening and then the buyer to take it to whichever end user, it makes sense for them.

Nick Dell’Osso: But just to be clear, those agreements that we have are limited to the volumes we’ve announced. We don’t have a broader partnership with any of those counterparties at this point. It’s 1 million to 2 million tons per annum with Gunvor and 1 million tons per annum with Vitol. So, beyond that, we are free to contract with anybody should we choose to do additional contracts.