Magnolia Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:MGY) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Leo Mariani: Okay. That’s helpful. And then just do you have any color you might provide on a few of the big-picture expense items? I think that perhaps the new oily asset had a little kind of higher cost. Any kind of range at all you can kind of throw out there if LOEs going to continue to tick up a little bit and maybe DD&A and maybe G&A has not really changed. Is there anything you can have high level on some of those kind of key cost items?

Chris Stavros: Yeah, sure. Well, the new assets, especially the latter acquisition that we did in Giddings, considering that it is oilier in nature. Yeah, there is a little bit more in the way of LOE, as would be common or typical and as we’re also sort of bringing it up to Magnolia standards, if you will. We are owners of the assets where the prior folks might have been viewed as more renters of the assets. So there’s some things that we need to do or probably will do to bring it up to our standards. However, I will tell you that my choice and my view is that we are going to pursue sort of a program to focus a little bit more on LOE broadly through the year to try to get that down a bit. So, as we transition with the new asset into the first quarter, you might see a little bit more in terms of bump in LOE, not very meaningful, frankly, but a little bit.

And then my hope and view is that we’re going to try to attack this and manage it to the point where we could see some decline later into the year.

Leo Mariani: Okay. That’s helpful. And I guess just anything on any of the other costs, is it G&A per barrel still pretty flat, I don’t know if there’s any impact on GP&T from the new asset either, as that pretty ratably flat?

Chris Stavros: Not really. GP&T, actually, I think we’re doing a pretty good job there and we’ll see how that goes. I’ll just say we’re doing a good job around that. G&A, not going to change very much, frankly, at all, not meaningfully on a per barrel basis.

Leo Mariani: Yep. Okay. Thanks, guys.

Chris Stavros: Okay, thanks.

Operator: The next question comes from Charles Meade of Johnson Rice. Please go ahead.

Charles Meade: Good morning, Chris and Brian and the rest of Magnolia team there. Chris, I’m at risk of frustrating you. I’m going to ask one more question about the — about your activity on those recently acquired asset…

Chris Stavros: That’s all right. You wouldn’t be the first one.

Charles Meade: Well, maybe I’ll be the best. Presumably, I think you indicated, actually that you guys had a slightly different view of that asset, or maybe you thought you had a differential insight on that asset. And so I’m curious if you could tell us what further activity you have. Maybe you just kind of characterize the number of wells that you’re going to drill, the number of the pads you’re going to drill on that newly acquired asset. And if there’s any aspect of your well design that’s going to test perhaps some of those differentiated ideas that you have, in which case, what’s kind of a timeline for any kind of results or update there?

Chris Stavros: Yeah. Thanks, Charles. It’s a little early days to be too granular-specific around how we are going to drill the well or wells. There will be a handful of wells that will be drilled later this year where we’ll have some results that probably through some of these data — the data sets, you will be able to see over time. I just don’t know. We’re still sort of studying it and looking at prior results to see how it’s gone. We may make some smallish, modest changes going forward, but we are not at the point, frankly, where these are going to be probably more single wells frankly at this stage. So we’re just not quite there yet. Frankly, we closed on the deal, call it three months ago. So we’re still integrating it and devising it, developing it, folding it into the plan. So it’s still somewhat early days.

Charles Meade: Okay. Well, thanks for that added detail. And then a second question. This is about A&D and the Eagle Ford more broadly. How would you characterize the opportunity set for Magnolia? And how much of your attention are you spending on looking at opportunities right around Giddings? And how much of is directed to the larger Eagle Ford? And also [indiscernible] across Texas?

Chris Stavros: Yeah, it’s a fair question. Percentage of my time, pretty meaningful, I mean, because there’s a lot of things out there. And again, as I said earlier, much of this is born out of our own experiences and knowledge and as we gain further understanding of the wells that we drill and directionally where we want to go and what excites us, what is more attractive for us. And I said this to folks before, at the end of the day, we are trying to — and maybe this is why we’re not overly open about what our plans are, but we’re trying to build a little bit of a mosaic around the asset and fill in some of the blanks and improve the business based on some of the quality areas that we see. So we won’t go after everything. It’s not like I say, well, I’d like to own all the acreage everywhere.

It’s not that, but there are some areas that look interesting and will help us and will help the business, where I can see this enhancing the runway, if you will, and provide more sustainability for the business over time. So I think the opportunity set is reasonably good.

Charles Meade: All right. Thanks for that.

Chris Stavros: Sure.

Operator: The next question comes from Oliver Huang of TPH & Co. Please go ahead.