Ovintiv Inc. (NYSE:OVV) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript May 8, 2024
Ovintiv Inc. isn’t one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).
Operator: Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Ovintiv’s 2024 First Quarter Results Conference Call. As a reminder, today’s call is being recorded. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]. Members of the media attending in a listen-only mode today, you may quote statements made by any of Ovintiv representatives or members of the media who wish to quote others who are speaking on this call today, we advise you to contact those individuals directly to obtain their consent. Please be advised that this conference call may not be recorded or rebroadcast without the express consent of Ovintiv. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Jason Verhaest from Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Mr. Verhaest.
Jason Verhaest: Thanks, Joanna, and welcome, everyone, to our first quarter conference call. This call is being webcast, and the slides are available on our website at ovintiv.com. Please take note of the advisory regarding forward-looking statements at the beginning of our slides and in our disclosure, documents filed on SEDAR+ and EDGAR. Following prepared remarks, we will be available to take your questions. I’ll now turn the call over to our President and CEO, Brendan McCracken.
Brendan McCracken: Good morning. Thank you for joining us. Our team has carried our momentum from last year into 2024 with every item at or ahead of our first quarter guidance midpoints. We delivered net earnings of $338 million, free cash flow of $444 million and cash flow per share of $3.80, beating consensus estimates. We’ve raised our full year production guidance, which will see us deliver oil and condensate volumes of about 206,000 barrels per day, while leaving our capital guide unchanged at $2.3 billion at the midpoint. Our 2024 oil and condensate capital efficiency now reflects a 19% gain compared to our original pre-acquisition 2023 guide. The combination of strong productivity across the portfolio, our leading capital efficiency and stronger oil price environment have raised our expectations for 2024 free cash flow from $1.6 billion to $1.9 billion, roughly $750 million more than last year with similar volumes and less capital spend.
This will allow us to deliver enhanced returns to our shareholders and accelerate debt repayment. As we highlighted in February, we also added 65 premium 10,000-foot equivalent locations in the Permian through three bolt-on transactions at an average cost of less than $3 million per location. These inventory additions are immediately competitive for capital, and are contiguous with our existing acreage in the core of the Midland Basin. Our multiyear disciplined strategy of both organic and inorganic inventory extension has added about 1,650 premium net 10,000-foot locations to our portfolio, delivering a huge boost to our full cycle returns and the durability of our business. We believe our 2024 program is highly repeatable in 2025 and beyond, reflecting our leading capital efficiency and the depth of our premium inventory.
As I mentioned, our strong execution enabled us to meet or beat all our first quarter guidance items. Production during the quarter came in above the midpoint of guidance on all products. Oil and condensate volumes averaged 211,000 barrels per day, with total volumes of 574,000 BOEs per day. We also came in below the midpoint on capital. We resolved the production disruptions we experienced during the quarter, largely due to refinery turnarounds in Salt Lake City as well as some downtime related maintenance that was largely in the Montney. We expect our oil and condensate volumes to stabilize through the second quarter with a more consistent profile in the second half of the year. I’ll now turn the call over to Corey.
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