Gulfport Energy Corporation (NYSE:GPOR) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

John Reinhart: Yeah, thanks, Tim. Appreciate the question. Appreciate your participation on the call. we’re in a very fortunate position at the Company to have many different toggles that we can pull on. We have a very good high-quality liquids-rich skew. We have some very high-quality liquids with Utica, as well as some new Marcellus and some great dry gas. So as the Company sits today, there’s just not a lot of external to motivators for us outside of economics to drill one way or the other, meaning we don’t have a lot of onerous FT, we don’t have a lot of MVCs, we’re not out there holding acreage. So, for us, as we tend to look at capital allocation, it’s truly an economic perspective. This is a process that we go through, of course, every budget time and even during the year.

So, as we have these many different options, it is more of an economic decision with the current pricing looking out one to two years what that will deliver. And the great thing about having all these toggles as we move forward into ’24 and into ’25 is we see certainly the gas backwardation kind of be realized in higher prices. That will most definitely lean towards our leaning in probably more on gas in the future. So, for us, it’s purely economics. Oils had a good run lately. We feel very confident in the well results and the high-quality asset base in the economics. So, we’re going to lean in on that more than likely when we come out with our ’24 plan here in February. But certainly, we’re open to adjusting and moving forward to, depending on what commodity price is doing, where economics takes us.

Michael Hodges: Yeah. And Tim, this is Michael. I might just add as far as the production profile going forward, I think in 2024, a lot of the activity that John’s describing likely doesn’t impact our actual production until the second half of the year. So, if you think about, to your comments around the, the liquids weighting, I think you start to see that change a little bit late in the year. But really, it’s in 2025 where you likely see the impact and a little bit more of a liquid weighted production profile for the Company. So, I’d say relatively similar in ’24 to ’23, gas versus liquids. And then you’ll start to see a little bit of a pivot in ’25, most likely.

Timothy Rezvan: Okay. I appreciate that color. And then as we think about hedging, you have a pretty optimal position, it seems. You’re about roughly half hedged next year at $4. As you look out beyond 2024, you have a pretty more attractive strip, roughly $4. Again, you’ve been hedging at that level. Do you see 50% as kind of that target level, or as you get kind of bigger and your balance sheet strengthens, you feel less of a need to hedge? Just trying to understand how you’re thinking about that longer term.

Michael Hodges: Yeah. Yeah. Great question, Tim. So, I think, as a business, we feel really good about where the balance sheet sits with the low leverage profile. I think we feel really good about the fixed cost. John mentioned that we don’t have a lot of external factors that force us into decisions. And so certainly that de-risks the operational side of the business a little bit. So, I think, to your point, we feel like 2024 is, it’s looking better than ’23, but also a bit of a transition year for natural gas. So, we do have what we feel like is a very attractive hedge book in place. And we’ve increased it slightly over the last quarter, but feel pretty good about where it sits. For 2025, I think we’re more bullish on gas.

we’ve talked publicly before about wanting to be in a range of, of hedging percentages, something in that 30 to 70%. I think, to the extent that we’re bullish and there’s opportunities for gas prices to look strong, we may lean a little bit towards the lower side. But as I mentioned in my comments, we have added some hedges in 2025 just to make sure that we’re being prudent and protecting at least a certain amount of our cash flow. So, I guess I would say I’d bias us a little bit towards the low end of our range. But certainly, going to be monitoring the macro. And if things start to change, we’ll take the opportunity to adjust those decisions going forward.