Ovintiv Inc. (NYSE:OVV) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Corey Code: Greg, Corey here. Just on the details of how that works, and I’m sure you’re familiar, but when we changed our development plan, you actually have to do it by stick. So if you have a stick that’s in the original plan last year, you no longer plan to drill it, that comes out as a revision. And then when you rebook and put a different stick in, that comes in as an extension. So net-net, you could leave your development plan exactly the same and have a minus 1 in 1 category and a plus 1 in the other. So you really do have to look at it on a net basis, even though you have to record them separately.

Greg Pardy : Okay. That’s really helpful. And then I want to shift gears and it’s really kind of a hedging question, and it’s around the effectiveness of the 3 ways, not so much when pricing is range down. But if we look at what’s happened with the natural gas market over the last 6 months or so, the 3 ways really aren’t giving you much, much protection given the drop. I’m just wondering what your perspective is there and how you sort of think about 3 ways on a go-forward basis.

Brendan McCracken: Yes. Thanks, Greg. This is really related to the new hedging approach that we’re now into. So we’ve now got a book that reflects that new approach. And if you remember the principles of that approach were to provide downside protection to the business and essentially protect us so that we’re going to be free cash flow positive after the base dividend even at the bottom of the cycle for a prolonged period of time. And we we kind of have notionally talked about that being something like $40 on oil and $2 on NYMEX for like a 12-month period. And we’d want to be able to drive through that period and be free cash flow neutral to positive after the base dividend. And that’s really what our book is designed to protect against.

So it’s not necessarily designed to capture a market view. It’s more of that risk management piece. And the reason that we chose to put 3 ways on as the vehicle for 2023 was because we were able to get a really wide put spread in those 3 ways. And so that protection level is there for the event of that sort of severe bottom of the market, but not necessarily there to take upside off the table, which is really why we chose the 3 ways. I think as we look forward and now we’re into thinking about the book for 2024, we’ll adapt to the market conditions that are on the board today. And choose amongst the different structures, whether that’s fixed price swaps or collars or puts to again put that risk management in place for 2024.

Operator: Your next question comes from Arun Jayaram of JP Morgan.

Arun Jayaram: Brendan, I wanted to maybe start with the portfolio renewal. You noted the ability of the company to add 450 sticks to less than $300 million of capital. So I just want to get your thoughts on how you’re able to add some of those locations when you think about today, the market price of a premium stick is $2 million to $3 million, and you’re able to add those well below that number. And just — maybe just overall, your updated messaging on portfolio renewals we’ve — generally, in our model, just earmarked about $300 million per annum in CapEx for portfolio renewal. Any change to that messaging?