Vista Energy, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:VIST) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Miguel Galuccio: Yes, you’re completely right, and we have the same target. Let me set first, I mean, one of things that we have in hand today is the decree to . I think our main objective is that this decree that was put in place and was fully regulated by the government. So that means that they have fulfilled all the process that they have to — they will have to put in place in order for the decree to be operational. It’s already fulfilled from the government side. It’s also fulfilled from our side. We have presented everything and basically today, we have a first claim of $36 million that is in place and we are waiting for the Minister of Energy, basically to release the certificate of that claim that we have done, okay.

So I will say that is what we have to keep pushing. And if a decree that was put in place, that basically is good for the industry, and I think good for the country, since all that money today is result of investment. And it’s the first thing we need to focus on. Second, I would like to comment, in terms of CapEx. The 2023 is a year where most of the CapEx — most of the cash that we generate, it will be translated to CapEx, because we need to invest in facilities because it’s a moment that we have to upgrade our capacity in order to fulfill the plan that we have to 2026. 2024 is a year where we have a strong cash generation and not that investment in facilities. Therefore, for that to have that decree and probably other things that could come, I expect it will come from a new economic regime due to the election that we will have this year, I think will be in place.

Between most of the parties, some politicians today, besides — I mean, in comparison where we have probably 4 or 5 years ago, Vaca Muerta is the key for the country to access to U.S. dollar and to access to that U.S. dollar, we need to continue investing and we need to continue growing the production in order to create more export volume. I think this is very clear across the board. So I’m positive that whatever happened after the election, that will be part of something that will be very high in the agenda in the new government, okay? So I don’t think I can tell you more than that. Concrete the decree to 7.7 . And then of course we are hopefully that we can do even better than that.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Andres Cardona from Citi.

Andres Cardona: Congratulations on the very strong results in 2022, not only on the financial front, but also on the reserves and even on the locking value strategies. Let me start from that last idea. You have been very active on the M&A front. Do you see more room to do something else in 2023, maybe farm out some working interest at Vaca Muerta to accelerate development or something else? And the second question is with such a low leverage and strong cash flow, what is holding you back to accelerate the development of the projects? Is it something about, I don’t know if facilities. It’s our company policy to work on a new trial cash flow basis. So just wanted to understand what is holding you back from accelerate on the production front?