Matador Resources Company - Q2 2024

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the second quarter 2024 Matador Resources Company Earnings Conference Call. My name is Marvin Rivas, and I'll be serving as the operator for today. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. We'll facilitate a question-and-answer session at the end of the company's remarks. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes, and the replay will be available on the company's website for one year as discussed in the company's earnings press release issued yesterday. I'll now turn the call over to Mr. Mac Schmitz, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations for Matador. Mr. Schmitz, you may proceed.

Mac Schmitz (SVP of Investor Relations)

Thank you, Marvin, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Matador's second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Some of the presenters today will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures regularly used by Matador Resources in measuring the company's financial performance. Reconciliations of such non-GAAP financial measures with the comparable financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP are contained at the end of the company's earnings press release. As a reminder, certain statements included in this morning's presentation may be forward-looking and reflect the company's current expectations or forecasts of future events based on the information that is now available. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.

Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially is contained in the company's earnings release and its most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. In addition to our earnings press release, I would like to remind everyone that you can find a slide presentation in connection with the second quarter 2024 earnings release under the Investor Relations tab on our corporate website. And with that, I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Joe Foran, our Chairman, Founder, and CEO. Joe?

Joe Foran (Chairman, Founder and CEO)

Thank you, Mac, and welcome to the call. We appreciate you taking the time to tune in. We are excited by this quarter. We're even more excited about the quarters to come in the year ahead. The teams have really worked hard, and I'd like to emphasize the amount of teamwork that's behind these numbers, that everybody has done their part. And want to invite all of you to come see us sometime, to see the teamwork, have lunch with them or breakfast, and you can hear how they really do come together and work as a team, which I think has produced these good results. In particular, I would just like—I, I have some slides that are on our website that connect to the press release itself, and really encourage you to take a look at those.

I think they help fill out the story. In particular, when we went public in 2012, we were making about 3,300 barrels a day, and today we're over 95,000. So it's been consistent growth across that time and a lot of teamwork and a lot of extra effort by a lot of people. And I want to thank them, and particularly our guys in the field, who, like this past quarter, in very hot weather, have kept everything going, and in the cold weather, they're still out there getting it done. So without that help carrying through, it'd be difficult to sustain this. The net result is that we're reporting that we now have approved reserves of over 500 million of Matador only.

Then Ameredev, if that closes with the customary contingencies and government approvals, we will be boosted to over 600 million. So things are on the right track. We anticipate these next two quarters, there's a lot of work to be done. But if the teams keep working as they have been, I, I'm confident I'll be here in 90 days, telling you again what a good quarter we have. If you like this last one, this next one should be better. And with that, let me open the phone to questions and try to help. But again, want y'all to know that y'all are welcome to come visit and meet with us.

Of course, I think that for all the capital and all the technology this business requires, I still think it comes down to people and meeting us in person to get a feel for the way we do things and the caliber of people I think is important, but I don't want to try to tell you how to do your job. I just want you to know you're welcome.

Mac Schmitz (SVP of Investor Relations)

Marvin, we're ready for Q&A. Thanks.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. At this time, we'll conduct a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you'll need to press star one one on your telephone, wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraints, we ask that you please limit yourself to one question. Again, we ask you to please limit yourself to one question. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Gabe Daoud of TD Cowen. Your line is now open.

Gabe Daoud (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Thanks. Hey, morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. Just hope we can maybe, Joe and team, just start with trajectory from here. Maybe for Matador standalone, it looks like 50% or so of the activity is done in the first half and the other 50% more or less in the second half. So just curious what's maybe driving the big step up in expectations on 4Q volumes? Is it well outperformance or maybe better base declines? Just kind of curious what's maybe behind the big step up in 4Q.

Brian Willey (EVP and CFO)

Hey, Gabe, we really appreciate that question. This is Brian Willey, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. And I think you hit it on. I mean, it's really the work of the team. Jill started and talked about that from the beginning. And so it's the great teamwork and how the schedule works out, that Tom does a really great job with doing the drill schedule and constantly trying to make it better and optimize that schedule. So we had a really great second quarter, and as we look forward into the future, in third quarter and fourth quarter, you're exactly right. We increased in the third quarter, as Jill said earlier, and then we expect it to continue to increase and have that step up in the fourth quarter. And that's even before Ameredev.

I think, you know, Joe mentioned Ameredev, which we're extremely excited about that, that closing and having the opportunity to do that, of course, subject to, to regulatory approvals and the other customary closing conditions. But excited to integrate those assets. I think, one of the great stories of this quarter, in the second quarter, is the Dagger Lake South well, which I'll pass it off to, to Chris to talk about in a minute. But bringing those on, efficiently and doing a very good job and bringing them on a little bit sooner than we even expected, and just really integrating those advanced assets, I think it shows how consistent we are, in integrating the assets and being able to do that over time.

And we expect the same thing with Ameredev, that we'll be able to integrate those assets and be consistent and integrate those into our program. I'm looking forward to that. So I'm going to pass it over to Chris. He can talk a little bit about the Dagger Lake South wells and some of the efficiencies we have with those.

Chris Calvert (EVP and CFO)

Yeah. Hi, Gabe, this is Chris Calvert, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer. You know, Brian highlighted the teamwork, and I think, you know, we can discuss on this call, you know, reduced D&C costs per foot. You know, I'm sure people might ask about OFS pricing, but I think while those are great results, I think the underlying story is just everybody doing the small things and just kind of pushing on the rock in kind of in their respective manners. And I think Dagger Lake South is really kind of the prime example of all the culmination of those things.

You look at, from an operational perspective, we had talked about our pilot test for our first Trimul-Frac completion process, and Dagger Lake South was a perfect example of that, to where we had a six-well pad that yielded about a $350,000 savings per well. But once again, that really could not have been done without the teamwork and the groups of the production team, the facilities team working with recycled water, the operations team planning with the land group for right of way and surface use agreements. A lot of things that had to come together to yield that $350,000 savings per well. And on top of that, the added benefit of getting accelerated production just due to reduced days on well. You know, the Simul-Frac and Trimul-Frac efficiencies that those pull forward.

You're doing Trimul-Frac yields about a 50% reduction in completion time on well, and so I think, you know, the end result being we have wells online faster. But I think, you know, we don't want to forget or understate the teamwork that goes into the results of those processes.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Scott Hanold of RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Scott Hanold (Managing Director and Head of E&P Analyst)

Thanks. Good morning. Hey, you know, obviously, you've had some pretty good success with both, well, with the two large pads you did with the Advance acquisition, the Margarita and the Dagger Lake. Just kind of curious if you can give us some color on. You know, really, it's a two-part question here. One, the path forward on that set of assets. But number two, do you like that cube development strategy? Is that something that you think you could apply to a larger portion of your acreage position?

Thomas Elsner (EVP of Reservoir Engineering and Senior Asset Manager)

Hey, Scott, morning. This is Thomas Elsener. Thank you for the question. You know, obviously, we're very proud of the Dagger Lake South and the Margarita properties. You know, their results have been excellent and have exceeded all of our expectations. We expect to drill another 12 or so wells on the Advance properties in the back half of this year. We'll have a couple of rigs heading out there in the third quarter to drill some really nice 2.5-mile-long laterals. We definitely like that these getting these wells drilled kind of all at the same time, but we were working very closely with our midstream team and with Glenn Stetson.

You know, as Chris mentioned, all the teamwork and the coordination to get these wells online. These are very prolific targets, and you know, I would definitely have to give my hats off to Ned Frost and the Geoscience team for identifying targets like the Third Bone Spring Carbonate. That would definitely be part of this next batch of development. This is something that we've, you know, we've transferred this knowledge between the different groups, and we expect to drill these wells kind of all throughout the Advance properties. Those wells that I mentioned will most likely be online in the first half of 2025. So, more to come on exactly how those do.

But again, we expect very consistent results with the strong oil cuts kind of in the mid-80s and, you know, low water to oil ratios. And, you know, we've seen the great IPs on the Dagger Lake South, and we expect to see the same type of results on this next batch of wells.

Glenn Stetson (EVP Production)

Yeah. Hey, Scott, this is Glenn. I just want to kind of pile on to what Tom said, and when we think about cube development and, you know, Dagger Lake South is a pretty good example of having to consider, you know, all the different factors when we're going into it, and again, that careful coordination and planning.

When we purchased the Advance assets a year ago, we immediately put plans into place with Pronto to go out and build the connector from the Pronto system down to the Dagger Lake South properties, and then the connector that goes from Pronto over to San Mateo. And really, the value of all that was exemplified this quarter as we turned on those 21 wells, and we were making around 30 million cubic feet a day of gross gas. All that gas went to the Marlin plant, and there were days where we were exceeding, you know, the capacity of that plant, and we utilized the connector to send those volumes to San Mateo.

All that resulted in days that were close to San Mateo and Pronto processing, close to a half BCF a day of gas. And so, you know, and not to be, you know, ignored is that we were also making, you know, thousands of barrels of oil a day, close to 20,000 barrels of oil and 70,000 barrels of water. And so, you know, these are things when you're developing on a queue basis that need to be, you know, planned out meticulously. And I think that our team has done a fantastic job with the careful coordination between all the groups to be able to execute on a project of that scale.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We'll move to our next question.

Joe Foran (Chairman, Founder and CEO)

I just, this is Joe. I'd just like to add to that. Our midstream business has really enabled because they were there ready to go when the wells were ready to go, and they made it work, even though they were approaching the nameplate capacity, and get all that oil, gas, and water properly sold and, and disposed of. And give a lot of credit to to them, Justin, and others processing. Justin, you want to say what y'all were doing during that period?

Justin Hosp (SVP of Operations - Midstream)

Yes, sir. Senior Vice President, Operations, Midstream, Justin. So, as Glenn said, we were filling up Marlin, and for the last 45 days or so, we've consistently exceeded the nameplate of that facility, so we're very excited about that. And then utilized the connector line to swing the gas over to the Black River as well. And so, we look forward to the rest of the year and the development plans and approaching nameplate on both of those facilities, and then also setting water gathering records on the San Mateo side as well, as we've turned a record number of wells to in line this quarter.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. One more for our next question. Again, as a reminder, please limit yourself to one question due to time constraint. Our next question comes from the line of Zach Parham of J.P. Morgan. Your line is now open.

Zach Parham (Zach Parham is an Executive Director of Equity Research at JPMorgan Chase)

Thanks for taking my question. You, you took down your D&C per foot guidance to 960 per foot at the midpoint. That's down about 5% versus the prior guidance and over 10% year-over-year. Can you just talk about the drivers of that decline in D&C costs? You know, what's the split versus of cost deflation versus efficiency gains?

Chris Calvert (EVP and CFO)

Yeah. Hi, Zach, this is Chris Calvert again. I'll take that. You know, thank you for noticing. Obviously, we're, we're extremely proud of that revision down in the second half of the year, down to the kind of the 960 number that we're talking through. As far as, you know, the drivers behind that, I think it's, it's still kind of the story that we've spoken to on the last few quarters. It's sustainable efficiencies and improved processes. You know, as we look at Simul-Frac, Trimul-Frac, you know, spending less days drilling on wells, U-turn savings, things of that like, we are focused on sustainable process improvements that, that we can carry forward regardless of, regardless of OFS pricing environments. Now, moving into the second half of this year, we do feel like we, you know, we are in a more competitive OFS market.

There have been some services that have become a little bit more competitive from a pricing standpoint. However, a lot of the drivers that push that are efficiencies and win-win situations that we have between ourselves and our vendors. You know, you look at something like Simul-Frac and Trimul-Frac, you know, this is truly a win-win for us and our service providers, whether it's Halliburton or Patterson, VCV next year, to where when we're able to go out and Simul-Frac or Trimul-Frac wells, we are getting 12, 18 stages per day, and so that's really a win-win for both providers. And that just kind of continues that, that efficiency story for both us and our, and our service providers. U-turns are the same story, where we're spending less time drilling these wells.

You know, on the third U-turn well that we drilled, we drilled it in about 50% of the time as our the average of our first two. And so you look at drivers that are really pushing these costs down, and while we are, what we believe in, in a kind of a deflationary OFS market in the second half of this year, the majority of it is driven by efficiencies. And, and those efficiencies that are pulled forward by the operations team, once again, those really couldn't be possible without the work of the land teams, you know, the geology team of identifying different subsurface targets. And so it's really, we get to tell the good story of the D&C cost per foot going down, but it really isn't possible without the work of everybody else that's kind of pushing on the, on the process.

Joe Foran (Chairman, Founder and CEO)

Yeah, Chris, that's a good answer. There are two things I want to emphasize is your MAXCOM room is helping. When you talk about efficiencies, a lot of what that is, is saving time on the wells, saving days on well. Every time you save a day, you save money. They've enabled a lot of that and helped you set your 300 drilling records. And the second part of that teamwork is that, again, the midstream is there to assure flow assurance, and that when you're ready to go online, they're ready to go online.... and working between Patterson and the other vendors we have, next year, as you mentioned, as more we work with them, there's a joint-- we're not trying to beat them down on price.

We are looking for ways to save time and make more effective whatever work that they're doing. And so there's real collaboration, which we hope to keep expanding. Just-

Chris Calvert (EVP and CFO)

Yeah, I think that's perfect color. I think, you know, if you, Zach, refer to slide I, you know, we talked to our—excuse me, slide H—we talked to the MAXCOM, you know, the benefits of MAXCOM and the inception since that was kicked off in 2018, you know, the drilling records that have come from that room. But not only that, improved targeting, which ultimately yields better productivity, better well recoveries, improved processes that reduce days on well from the MAXCOM room.

Not only that, just as a training tool to where when we have young engineers and geologists that are coming to the company, potentially out of college, they're working side by side, seven days on, seven days off, you know, working through well planning, working through steering to make these wells, to target these wells better and ultimately lead to better recoveries. And then after a year or two years, those geologists and engineers join asset teams. And so they have built-in camaraderie of working side by side for a year or two years. It just continues to improve the efficiencies and the communications between the teams.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from the line of Neal Dingman of Truist. Your line is now open.

Neal Dingman (Managing Director and Head of E&P Analyst)

Morning, Joe and team. How you doing?

Joe Foran (Chairman, Founder and CEO)

Hey, Neil.

Chris Calvert (EVP and CFO)

Hey, Neil.

Neal Dingman (Managing Director and Head of E&P Analyst)

Hey, Joe, quick important one. You didn't mention if we come up there to see you all, if you'll be paying for breakfast. I wanted to get that out of the way first.

Joe Foran (Chairman, Founder and CEO)

Say that, say that again, please.

Neal Dingman (Managing Director and Head of E&P Analyst)

I just wanted to make sure you're gonna be paying for breakfast, you know, when we come up to visit you. I thought that would be an important one to get out of the way first.

Joe Foran (Chairman, Founder and CEO)

That depends on how many questions you ask.

Neal Dingman (Managing Director and Head of E&P Analyst)

Joe, my question is around the midstream position. It's, you know, now that you've added Piñon and, you know, you've got San Mateo, Pronto advanced, I would love to hear you guys take as far as how much more build-out you all think you need in the area. And, you know, now that you've added Piñon, does that sort of complete the full takeaway position in the area?

Joe Foran (Chairman, Founder and CEO)

No, I don't think so. I don't... We're gonna be open to whatever makes sense or makes money and that enhances the system we already have. I mean, I don't think we'll put a lone pipeline up in Chaves County or something, that there we don't have anything near. It'll be, expect to be near our properties and where we can fold that in to make the system where, just like these connectors give you more options and the ability to offload from one plant to another, it just makes us, that's much more effective. We're gonna be careful on what we do. And, you know, Gregg Krug has done, I think, a magnificent job.

If you remember, Neal, back when we were going public, we were asked on the road show all the time, are we having any takeaway problems? And that was primarily in the Eagle Ford at the time. But everywhere we went, we got asked that question, so it meant that others were having that problem. And we said, One night at dinner, we said, "What are we gonna do about that? It seems like others are having problems." And the suggestion was made, go talk to Gregg again, who's been a friend for a long time, and see if we can get him to come over and run that part of the show for us.

He did, and he's put together a great group, and not just in the midstream business, but also in measurement, you know, run the 24/7 measurement room, and helps out with the auditing of various accounts and finding lost barrels. Big contributor in many respects, and through him, we—he's been the strategic guy that says he'd recommend this and that, and it comes before, again, the executive team and then possibly the board, depending on size. That's put us in a position like, just like, Chris saves days on wells with drilling, we save days not having to wait for the midstream connection.

So, I think we're very open and following the drill bit, where if we open a new area to drill and, and the like, and we look at the pipeline situation, and we think we can, enhance that area, we'll, we'll go and do it. We don't have any limits with, and say, "That's all you're ever gonna get, Gregg." You know, that he, he's put together a great team, and, and where we're drilling, we, expect to have a midstream presence. I, I hope I said that right, Gregg. Is that-

G. Gregg Krug (EVP of Marketing and Midstream Strateg)

Yeah. Thanks, Joe. Yeah, I, Neal, that's a good question, and I think that, you know, in order to keep up with the drill bit, I mean, we're gonna have to continue to grow our midstream presence out there.

... it's continually growing with good growth every year. And we're gonna have to keep up in order to have adequate and flow assurance takeaway. And so that is - that's the primary goal, is to always stay on top of that, stay in front of it, actually. And so that's what we're gonna be focusing on, is continually looking at opportunities.

Neal Dingman (Managing Director and Head of E&P Analyst)

Well, I have one other thing. Our third-party participants has really continued to grow, and so that's made it more likely where their drill, and it's not just our drill bit, but where their drill bit, we want to be sure we're servicing them properly.

G. Gregg Krug (EVP of Marketing and Midstream Strateg)

Well, absolutely. And that's, you know, that's one thing we try to emphasize to third parties as well, is that we're gonna be there for them as well, 'cause we have a producer mentality when it comes to, you know, shutting off production and curtailing production is just not an option for us. That's not what we're – that's not what we do. We wanna stay in front of this. We wanna, so... And with that, that is the benefit as far as to the third party as well, is that they'll get the benefit of that type of mentality. Yeah.

Glenn Stetson (EVP Production)

Yeah, I'd Neal, this is Glenn Stetson. And I would just, you know, continue to pile on for what Joe and Gregg said and say two things. One is, you know, we're continued to be focused on building this new 200 million cubic feet a day cryogenic gas processing facility at the Marlin plant. That project remains, you know, on time and on budget, and looking forward to the first half of next year, getting that plant online. And do commend the teams of the efforts, you know, thus far in the year. They've built over 50 miles of pipe and compressor stations to accommodate the production from a lot of these new wells that were turned on this last quarter. And then, you know, also, you'd mentioned Piñon.

I just wanted not to be overlooked. We highlighted in the release that Ameredev themselves have approximately 135 miles of pipeline in infield gathering that they have built themselves, which was, you know, a similar philosophy to Matador in controlling a lot of that gathering and processing. So they, you know, that 135 miles of pipe is crude, water, and gas gathering and high pressure gas pipelines for gas lifts. So I think, you know, it just further exemplifies the strategic nature of the midstream business, and Ameredev has a good chunk of it, too.

G. Gregg Krug (EVP of Marketing and Midstream Strateg)

Yeah, yeah, this is Gregg again. I do wanna kind of pile on to what Joe mentioned as far as the measurement audit group that we have. That's something that some companies don't have, and that's something that we've taken very serious, and we've been able to find millions of dollars over the years that probably would have just been unnoticed and lost because we audit all of our systems. We do balance checks every month, and we just don't let anything get by us. And I think we've got a reputation throughout the industry of always staying on top of our business when it comes to measurement. So, I take a lot of pride in that.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from the line of Leo Mariani of Roth. Your line is now open.

Leo Mariani (Managing Director and Head of E&P Analyst)

Hey, guys. I was hoping to dive into Ameredev a little bit more here. Can you give us maybe an update on where, you know, kind of current production is, you know, there on the asset? And I wanna say that they are maybe running a rig, so just wanted to confirm here that the ninth rig that you're bringing on, you know, might be a replacement rig, you know, for the rig they're running, you know, once the deal closes. Just wanted to kind of get a sense of how you're approaching that asset. I assume you're gonna continue to drill on it, you know, post-close. I know you've replaced some rigs on other properties in the past. So any color on that would be great.

Brian Willey (EVP and CFO)

Yeah, Leo, hey, this is Brian Willey. Happy to take that one to start, and then I'll pass it on. But just really appreciate the question. You know, the Ameredev folks have just been very professional, and great to work with. You know, it's the same team that we worked with when we did the Advance acquisition. And so, you know, they ran a rig before we acquired Advance, and did just a fantastic job, and we're really excited that they're continuing to do a good job here with Ameredev. As they go forward, and they're running that rig right now, doing a good job as a team. We're coordinating with them.

Of course, they're in control of it, and they make the decisions here, but we'll move forward towards closing, you know, subject to the regulatory approvals, as mentioned earlier. And so, but they do just a fantastic job. Our teams are coordinating with theirs. I know that we had a group of our folks down in Austin working with them very closely. And just getting ready as we do the due diligence and move forward on the transaction. So very excited about the acreage. It really starts with the rock, and this is fantastic rock. And maybe I'll pass it over to Tom to talk a little bit more about the rock and then about what Ameredev's doing.

Leo Mariani (Managing Director and Head of E&P Analyst)

Sure.

Thomas Elsner (EVP of Reservoir Engineering and Senior Asset Manager)

Yeah. Thanks, Brian. This is Tom Elsener again.

... Yeah, Leo, that's a good question. We're clearly very excited about the Ameredev properties and the acquisitions, and, you know, again, we're kind of in an observation role, and they're clearly doing a very nice job. As Brian mentioned, and we expect the same kind of performance and, you know, they're not letting up. They're doing a great, great job down there. They are running one rig as was noted. They also, at the time of the announcement, had 13 drilled but uncompleted laterals. They're in the process of getting those, there's kind of two groups. They're in the process of getting the first, first half of those, you know, finished out and brought online.

As we noted in the prior release, the estimated production for the third quarter is approximately 25,000 BOE per day at a, you know, good 65% oil cut. You know, we're excited to get to work on these properties. They have, you know, over 200 federal permits, and we're very excited to get to work out there. I think that the ninth rig will be ready to be put to work as soon as we can, and we'll be drilling some very nice Wolfbone wells and some Bone Spring targets as well.

You know, as we noted, we had 431 gross, 371 net, net locations, that we're very excited to put to work and, and get to work with the, you know, working with our midstream group and working with Piñon. And so we just, we just can't wait to, to get that going. We'll, we'll look forward to talking about that more, once we, once we close the deal. You know, it's expected to happen late in the third quarter, and then we'll, we'll give you an update from then.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from the line of John Freeman of Raymond James. Your line is now open.

John Freeman (Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst)

Hi, guys.

Brian Willey (EVP and CFO)

Hey, John.

John Freeman (Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst)

The topic I wanted to follow up on was just some of what Chris was talking about earlier on just the reduced days on well, cycle time improvements, and just trying to kind of reconcile maybe the updated guidance with the ninth rig. So it looks like y'all are saying you get an incremental four gross operated wells with the addition of that nineth rig. And in 2Q, you know, alone, y'all were able to bring online four more gross operated wells than y'all had planned on.

I'm just trying to understand how much of those incremental wells in 2Q was due to kind of what you were talking about earlier, Chris, just cycle time improvements versus just maybe kind of a timing sort of an issue, and how to think about maybe that full year guide, if it necessarily might have an upward bias if these kind of cycle times kind of continue.

Brian Willey (EVP and CFO)

Yeah, John, this is Brian. We'll pass it to Chris in a minute, but just thanks for the question. I think it's a fantastic question, and we're excited to be able to talk about efficiencies. Chris always likes that. And you know, looking to Q2, you're right, we brought on four additional gross wells than we had expected. That's part of the you know, beat that we had. And as we go forward, we do think that additional rig, that ninth rig, will add about four wells. And so not much production in the year, just because those wells will be turned online, you know, late in December.

But we are excited about that rig, and Chris can talk a little bit more about the ninth rig and some of the efficiencies that it'll produce for us.

Chris Calvert (EVP and CFO)

Yeah. Hey, John, Chris Calvert. Good question. You know, the efficiencies and spending less time on wells is, like I said, it's a story that we've been talking through for many quarters now. And so, you know, when we look at quarterly timing, there's always a lot of push/pull with wells when they're coming on, if especially if they kind of straddle the quarter. But the ninth rig, specifically, like Tom had mentioned, we, you know, we're excited to be able to use that to do, you know, the Ameredev integration once that closes. But looking at really the efficiencies, you know, I think one of the things that I would truly point to is the increased utilization of Trimul-Frac. You know, we did our first pilot test of Trimul-Frac with the six Dagger Lake South wells.

You know, we're actually on our second test of Trimul-Frac right now, and we've, you know, potentially identified a third Trimul-Frac, which will be a remote Trimul-Frac, potentially later this quarter. And so I think those are the efficiencies that are really pushing or, I guess, reducing, you know, those cycle times. And so, you know, we've, we've factored in savings from Simul-Frac, reduced drilling days from Simul-Frac, but the incremental that we're seeing from Trimul-Frac is something that we really, we really didn't guide to at the beginning of the year. And so you look at the, you know, reduction in days on well, whether it's on the drilling side or completion side, it does, it stems back to just improved processes. You know, getting upgraded better equipment from Patterson.

You know, when we look at the ability to drill longer laterals, you know, upsized pumps, you know, high torque top drives, increased setback ability that allows us to push lateral lengths north of two, two and half miles, you know, improved cycle times with U-turn wells, which I had said before. But it's these partnerships with our vendors that have allowed us to get kind of the, the better equipment, which, which that ninth rig is definitely one of. And so that really kind of all comes together with these reduced cycle times. And so it's, it's hard to kind of put a, you know, these four wells equate to, to this efficiency, but it's something that we're just continually looking at and pushing, pushing throughout the program, looking forward.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from the line of Phillips Johnston of Capital One Securities. Your line is now open.

Phillips Johnston (Stock Analyst)

Hey, guys. Thank you. Just to follow up on Leo's question regarding the Ameredev properties. I realize that production is still on track with, you know, 25-26 thousand a day for Q3, but, you know, as we think out, as we think out to Q4, just given the uncompleted laterals, would you expect the Ameredev standalone volumes to be directionally flat versus the third quarter, or would you expect a little bit of growth there?

Thomas Elsner (EVP of Reservoir Engineering and Senior Asset Manager)

... Hey, Phillips, this is Tom Elsener. You know, I think we would look forward to commenting more on that, you know, again, after the deal closes. There are two groups of drilled but uncompleted laterals. The first group going on now, and the second is a little bit more uncertain as to the exact timing, and I think it'd probably just be more appropriate for us to comment on that once we close.

Operator (participant)

Our last question comes from the line of Kevin MacCurdy of Pickering Energy Partners. Your line is now open.

Kevin MacCurdy (Managing Director)

Hey, good morning, and thank you for taking my question. This year, your legacy program will be about eight and half rigs, with really just the eight rigs contributing to production in 2024. And that resulted in pretty material growth throughout the year. Obviously, when you get the Ameredev volumes in, your maintenance structuring levels will increase. Without asking for too much detail on 2025, do you think that a nine rig program is sufficient to hold those volumes flat or even grow a little bit?

Joe Foran (Chairman, Founder and CEO)

This is Joe, and I'm gonna, I guess, kick it off and then ask Tom and Chris and Brian to comment. But what this is where that days on wells become important, is that if you can reduce the days on well, your existing rig fleet can drill that many more wells. So we hope that the rigs will become more efficient, and as Chris pointed out, they're coming with new equipment, new, you know, techniques that also should reduce the days on well. So that's, that's an important factor as we plan out 2025, how many rigs we need and how many wells we're gonna drill by how effective are they gonna be. So these next two quarters are gonna help us understand that better, and we'll go from there.

We've never been a company that just grown for growth's sake, but it is part of a plan and a team game is where does this situate us, so that our capital spend is it goes to the right sources. Some of it, years we could have grown if we didn't put some into the midstream, but look where we'd be if we didn't have the midstream today, how vulnerable we'd be to a lot of situations, and we wouldn't have the flow assurance, and we wouldn't necessarily have the quick hookups or, or the, you know, the water disposal capacity and the like. So that was a deal where we were playing for the long term, diverting some CapEx we could have spent on drilling rigs for a midstream business, and we think that was the right thing.

As far as drilling, we expect to, we've fully challenged our teams to come up with a growth strategy, but at the same time, we want to keep our flexibility when an opportunity like Ameredev or Advance comes up, because a lot of people don't, or won't, sell their good rock. Their best rock, they keep for themselves. So when you had opportunities like them come up, where you had a chance at acquiring really quality rock, we wanted to be sure we, we did that. So, we've, we've, we've done the slow but careful steps with our rig count this year to where we could grow the rig count or lessen it, depending on things.

Fortunately, we were ready when Ameredev came up, and we paid down our line of credit, like our RBL, our current RBL is paid off completely. We have zero borrowed on it, and so we have that line of credit to go towards Ameredev or building out some of the midstream, and that's been helpful. So a lot of our strategy, to be direct, is we try to build in as many options as we can each year, because each year is a surprise, there are some surprises occur every year, and we just want that flexibility for financially, as well as having the right equipment and the right people. So it's a balancing act through that, and our teams have done a, I think, a really good job making adjustments as things go along. I mean, you couldn't predict COVID, and that happened.

Not that I hope we get another situation like that, but, you know, you just try to prepare for all the contingencies and keep your flexibility and options open. I know that may sound like platitudes, but we, we try to, we try to maintain that flexibility, and we found that's been a good strategy over 40 years. As you know, we started out with $270,000 in 1983. We didn't have many options then. We did and we, each year, we tried to get better on that, and the teams have done a real good job, ready to pivot, as those circumstances change. So I, you know, I'll ask my Chief Financial Officer, Brian, to say, is that... I hope that coincides with what he's planning.

Brian Willey (EVP and CFO)

Yes, sir, Joe, that's. I fully agree. I think this is a, you know, we often talk about it being a people and a relationship business. And, you know, maybe two things I would just note on the relationship side with the banks, that we've talked about Ameredev a few times today.

... And just wanted to thank our banks and the great support that they have been. We visited each one of the 19 banks in their offices earlier this year, and we were able to develop those relationships, and those have proved very fruitful now as they've been supportive of the Ameredev acquisition. And then, you know, the relationships and the people at our employees. It really starts with our employees, and we have a great intern program this summer. I think 30 interns. They've been fantastic. We just keep getting better and bringing them in, and the best and the brightest. And, you know, I look at our employee stock purchase plan, that's an opportunity where our employees can buy shares in the company.

Normally, in an employee stock purchase plan, a good participation rate is probably 50%, 60%. And I think in our last period we had where people could participate, we actually had 95% participation, which is almost unheard of. And so it really just shows that we're all rowing in the same direction, everybody's working together, and it really just comes down to the people and the teams, and it's a great business. It's a fun business to be in.

Joe Foran (Chairman, Founder and CEO)

Well, one other thing I want to add to show the, you know, the importance and the, the integral nature of our midstream. We've added to our board, Susan Ward, who was at Shell for many years and was their Chief Financial Officer when Shell Pipeline went public. So that gives us another pair of eyes. Are we headed in the right direction, and we're using it to its best advantage? And, Gregg and his team have put together just a great group, and, and, I know that the results that we have and the what the midstream has done, and also built out relationships with the real blue-chip listed companies that are our third-party partners. And it's just as important that we treat them right as any of our teams on their deals.

There's still a lot of wood for us to chop there, but I think that attention is making us a better company.

Operator (participant)

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This ends the Q&A portion of this morning's conference call. I'd like to turn the call over to management for closing remarks.

Joe Foran (Chairman, Founder and CEO)

Well, thank you very much, and thank you for the participation. And, you know, now that I've had some time to think, about, you know, Truist's comment about breakfast, I just want to assure everybody that if you come have breakfast with us, you will not have to pay. We'll be happy to buy that breakfast. And the last thing I do want to close on, because it didn't quite get the attention, the teams working have turned out an amazing amount of work. And Ned, I want you to talk about when we came out here, we had three zones that we were after, and where have we gone from there?

Edmund Frost (Executive VP, Geosciences)

Sure, Joe. Thank you. This is Ned Frost, EVP of Geosciences, and Joe's referring to when we started out in the Delaware Basin, we had three discrete zones that we targeted, the Second Bone Spring, the Wolfcamp AXY, and the Wolfcamp B. And today, we are producing out of 11 different zones with 25 discrete target intervals that we, we can map regionally around the basin. So to do this, it's like so many other parts of Matador, it requires all the teams working together. A lot of people have their hands on that, from reservoir engineers to land, to drilling and operations, from you know, being able to complete these wells.

So we, we're really proud of, of how we've advanced the ball over the years, and we're, we're very confident that there's a lot more to come. So we, we appreciate your support and, and we'll continue to do what we do.

All right. With that, I'm through. But thank you all for listening in and your time. We really appreciate it. We know it's valuable, and appreciate the relationship.