Matador Resources Company - Q4 2023

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the fourth quarter and full year 2023 Matador Resources Company earnings conference call. My name is Tanya, and I'll be serving as the operator for today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. We will 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 as one year, as discussed in the company's earnings press release issued yesterday. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Mac Schmitz, Vice President, Investor Relations for Matador. Mr. Schmitz, you may begin.

Mac Schmitz (VP of Investor Relations)

Thank you, Tanya, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Matador's fourth quarter and full year 2023 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 issued yesterday, I would like to remind everybody that you can find a slide presentation in connection with the fourth quarter and full year 2023 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 Founder, Chairman, and CEO. Joe?

Joseph Wm. Foran (Founder, Chairman & CEO)

Thank you, Mac, and thank you all for taking the time to listen in. This has been, and last year was a very important year for us, and this year has taken on growing importance, too. The first thing that I'd like to mention is simply that it's been a remarkable year in that production is up, revenues are up, lease acreage is up 18%, inventory, of course, is up, and our dividends are up. While costs are down, including LOE is down, drilling costs are down, G&A is down, and the debt is down. So that's the big picture. Now, but we're trying to improve around all the edges on that, but that's the basic story. Things are headed in the right avenue.

The second thing, I'd just like to point out that we've absorbed the Advance acreage and acquisition that's the largest to date, and it's integrated very well. We owe a shout-out to the professionalism. The Ameredev people were very professional in the handoff. It went very smoothly, and we're delighted by how efficient and how the production and the rock have exceeded expectations. So, thanks to them, we're trying to put those assets to full work, and you'll be getting a report on that. And those were two of the main points that I wanted to get across to start the conversation, and now we're ready for your questions.

Operator (participant)

Certainly. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraints, we ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Again, we ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up until all have had a chance to ask a question, after which we will welcome additional questions from you. First question is from Scott Hanold of RBC Capital Markets. And Scott-

Scott Hanold (Md of Energy Research)

Hey, hey.

Operator (participant)

Your line is open.

Scott Hanold (Md of Energy Research)

Yep. Hey, can you hear me, guys?

Joseph Wm. Foran (Founder, Chairman & CEO)

Sure.

Mac Schmitz (VP of Investor Relations)

Yep. Hi, Scott. Good morning.

Scott Hanold (Md of Energy Research)

Good morning. You know, hey, up in the northern part of the Delaware, I mean, midstream constraints has been an industry issue. You guys alluded to some third-party tightness. Can you give a little more color on, you know, what that is and how much it impacts you and your solutions going forward?

Joseph Wm. Foran (Founder, Chairman & CEO)

Well, Scott, that's a real good question, and I'll start it off, and others around the table can fill in. But constraints is probably not the best word for it. It's more about maintenance that the older systems, you know, they're gonna have a leak here or there. There's gonna be some part of the equipment that needs to be attended to, and they have every reason to get it repaired as quickly as they can because they're not receiving revenues while it's down for maintenance. And of course, we're eager for them to, you know, to get it repaired as quickly, but that's just part of the, you know, part of the business and operations that they, they're gonna have a few more. But we appreciate the way they've gotten after it. We've appreciated their communications.

We've been fortunate on our part of our midstream system, we have not been down, but of course, our equipment is out of a later vintage. So everybody's working on the problem, and it isn't a matter of well productivity. It's just these things go down, they need to be attended to, and but we have fairly limited exposure there. But it has had the effect of about 5,500 barrels a day for this month. When you put that in perspective of the whole year, this is one quarter that we're experiencing it. And if you put it in the whole year, you're talking about maybe 1% of our expected annual production, and we think we'll make that up in the quarters to come, fairly easily.

We've, you know, we haven't taken into account any acquisitions in our projected production or very little. So you have that upside, and you have the other efficiencies that our production group seems to come up with each year.

Glenn Stetson (EVP of Production)

Hey, Scott, this is Glenn. I just pile on to what Joe is saying in just the temporary nature of this you know reduction in production for Q1. We do feel very confident that the issues will be resolved by the end of this quarter, and we'll be you know setting ourselves up very nicely for the rest of the year. I do wanna highlight you know that the connectors between the Pronto system and the Advance properties is very well underway. We have the permits and the right of way, and the construction is very well underway there, and same on the Pronto to the San Mateo connector.

We did highlight in the release, but just to say that, you know, the uptime that we experience with San Mateo and Pronto is, we feel second to none, and that, you know, that communication that goes on between the teams is daily, and we have a lot of visibility into the operations, both on the, you know, maintenance side and what our development plans are. And those two, you know, really three businesses do go very well hand in hand with each other, so.

Scott Hanold (Md of Energy Research)

Got it. Appreciate the color. And as my follow-up question, you know, you've had the Advance wells online for, you know, probably getting close to, you know, 6 months now. Can you give us a sense of, you know, how those wells are performing relative to your expectation? And with the next batch of Advance wells, which I think are the Dagger wells, remind us, like, of any differences we should expect there, and if you had any color on, you know, the timing within the second quarter, you do expect to bring those on?

W. Thomas Elsener (EVP of Reservoir Engineering and Senior Asset Manager)

Sure, Scott. This is Tom Elsener. The first part of your question regarding the 21 Margarita wells we brought online back in August 2023. We've been very pleased with those results. Just as we've always said, those wells would come online with very high oil cuts, and I think we've certainly gotten that. At average oil cuts of over 84%, they've gone very smoothly into integrating with the production facilities teams. Those wells are off to a great start. The next wells we've got the Dagger Lake South wells. As we said in the slide deck on page 11, those wells are very close to the Margarita wells with very similar rock quality, gonna have very high oil cuts, just like the Margaritas.

Those wells will come online in the second quarter of 2024, similar to how we brought the Margaritas online in a staggered fashion. It's still a very big project for us. Those wells are a mile and a half laterals as opposed to the 2.25-mile Margaritas, but still at a very high working interest. I believe it's 21 gross and about 19 net wells, and we're feeling very strong about those results, and I can't wait to get them online soon.

Scott Hanold (Md of Energy Research)

Appreciate that. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

One moment for our next question. Our next question will be coming from Neal Dingmann of Truist. Neal, your line is open.

Neal Dingmann (Md & Energy Analyst)

Sorry, guys, I think I was on mute. Joe, nice quarter. My question is around your regional focus, and I'm just wondering, you know, could you specifically talk about... It seemed like that Northern Lea area, you had very strong activity. I'm just wondering, in that, is that gonna be the focus of this area, and could you talk about how this gray area, sort of, compares to that, you know, very, very strong Rodney Robinson state line area? Neal, if you could repeat your question. You cut out in the middle of it. So I-- if you'd restate the question, I'd feel better than trying to guess.

Okay. Joe, what, what, what I'm getting at is, specifically, you know, you suggest that 2024 oil production is growing faster, boosted, I think, by that Northern Lea County activity. And I'm just wondering, can I assume that post the natural gas connection, that much of the, this year's activity will be in this-- in that Northern Lea area? I'm just wondering then, how do y'all think this Northern Lea area compares to, you know, that very strong state line of Rodney Robinson?

W. Thomas Elsener (EVP of Reservoir Engineering and Senior Asset Manager)

Hey, Neal, this is Tom Elsener. I'll take the first part of that, and then, you know, Ned or Glenn may want to chime in as well. You know, as we've kind of talked for quite some time, as the bulk of this kind of the Advance acreage that's in the kind of Lea County area is sandwiched between the Rodney Robinson acreage to the south and some of the Mallet acreage to the north and east. You know, we've been very pleased with the results, not just from those two tracts, but also some of the other properties that have been drilling in that same area. You know, the oil cuts on all of those are very high.

They're not exactly the same amongst all areas, but very strong oil cuts, and we expect to continue to focus there. I will highlight that, you know, this is one of the areas where we've been very happy with the Third Bone Spring Carbonate interval, where we highlighted that one of our Third Bone Spring Carbonate wells had IP'd at approximately 2,600 BOE per day, and I believe at about 86% oil. That's a zone that we added to our inventory over the last year. And also, we've also added the Second Bone Spring Carbonate to our inventory this year based on the strength of several wells drilled in and around that area. I believe we have about 19 wells that we have have an interest in to help kind of delineate that zone for us.

But, you know, we've always been proud of that, of that Ranger area and also, you know, kind of the Antelope Ridge area. But I would highlight that all of our assets are contributing, all around the basin. And even, you know, we brought online 17 wells in the Arrowhead asset area in the last quarter that we're very proud of, and we're also connected to the San Mateo system and also located, generally speaking, where that Pronto to San Mateo connector line is. Hopefully, that helps.

Joseph Wm. Foran (Founder, Chairman & CEO)

You know, I think, Neal, a good point at this time since come up, is we got some questions last night from people asking about the connector lines, would they be on or not? And, I want to just say again, for the record, that we have a very high confidence level that they'll be on in the next quarter. Glenn, do you want to elaborate?

Glenn Stetson (EVP of Production)

Yeah, just, just as I said, and, and, Joe said, we mean, we're, we're very confident, that, that those will be complete, by the end of the first quarter, and, and, we'll be, we'll be ready to go there. And, you know, another advantage to that system is, is just, you know, by tying those two together is, is really taking advantage of all 520 million cubic feet a day of, of, processing and, and gathering. So, we're excited to, they're-- It's getting put in the ground right now and excited to put them in service.

Joseph Wm. Foran (Founder, Chairman & CEO)

Well, all the permits are taken, all the surface use agreements are done, all the paperwork's done. They're out there working on it, two crews.

Glenn Stetson (EVP of Production)

Yep.

Joseph Wm. Foran (Founder, Chairman & CEO)

So we're in control of our fate. You know, it's just continuing. They've already done a substantial amount of the work. So again, we have a high degree, it'll be finished. In the same way with the other connector, that's coming together nicely. And again, we'll have, if we need to, to bring it to expedite matters, we'll have a couple extra crews. So, they won't be waiting on us.

Glenn Stetson (EVP of Production)

No, that's exactly right.

W. Thomas Elsener (EVP of Reservoir Engineering and Senior Asset Manager)

Go ahead, Glenn.

Glenn Stetson (EVP of Production)

At this point, it's on us, and we're very good at building pipelines, so.

Neal Dingmann (Md & Energy Analyst)

That's fantastic details. And guys, my second question is on land acquisitions. Typically, specifically, you all continue to be highly successful just bolting on assets like the... I think you mentioned about the, besides the assets that added about 1,000 BOE per day, that came with the latest additions. I'm just wondering, will this continue to be a priority going forward, and do you see these opportunities?

Joseph Wm. Foran (Founder, Chairman & CEO)

Yeah, Neal, thank you for asking that question is, yes. The answer is yes. Last year, of course, Advance was, you know, our biggest deal ever, and it's drawn a lot of attention. But our land group, our business development group, did another 200 transactions. Most of them were—some of them were very, very small, some of them were a little larger, but they're out there, our landmen, in particular, are out there all the time, making deals. What the deals last couple of years have grown increasingly, it's just a rationalization of assets between companies.

We, you know, you trade out of your non-op for somebody else's non-op that, that you operate. And so things like that are little orphans out by themselves. So I think those will come along. Companies are being very cooperative with each other, and, you know, these are small transactions. They don't have that kind of, by themselves, a big material impact, but in the aggregate, they add up, and they make your operations that much more efficient. So there's a real rationale to do that. And then, at the same time, some of the, the bigger outfits are, are wanting to concentrate their assets in one area or another, so those opportunities come up.

And then you have private equity has always got a few things coming out. So, I think it'll continue. And, Van's group may want to say a word, but he has them out there on the road a lot. And, we-- And, and they've-- they're building relationships and just trying to do things that make sense for both sides.

Van Singleton II (EVP of Land)

Yeah, hey, this is Van. I'll echo what Joe just said and add a little bit that we try to make these win-win deals for both sides. I think we've got a long track record of our brick-by-brick approach. I think you can expect to see that to continue. We're off to a great start so far this year, and have a pretty favorable outlook for the rest of the year.

...but also want to give a shout out to our counterparts that we do these deals to. You know, it takes both sides to make it a win-win. And, as Joe mentioned earlier, the professionalism that we saw on the other side for the Advance deal, I think we see that on these smaller deals, too. And relationships, as you know, are important to us, and we want to be able to say that we did what we said we're going to do. And I think you could just, as I said, expect to see more of the same going forward. That's our bread and butter. And, we're constantly evaluating different deals and trying to keep our pipeline full.

Joseph Wm. Foran (Founder, Chairman & CEO)

Well, that's been the other key, Neil, is that Van and his group hadn't done one deal and then just stopped and let the pipeline run dry. They just managed to keep, you know, deals floating down the pipeline. Some of them fall out for one reason or another, but by keeping deals in the pipeline all the time, there's that brick by brick approach, it happens each month. And it's been effective, and we like our chances. We like our ability of our landmen to build those relationships and make those deals.

Neal Dingmann (Md & Energy Analyst)

Thank you, Joe.

Operator (participant)

Okay, one moment for our next-

Joseph Wm. Foran (Founder, Chairman & CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

One moment for our next question. Our next question will be coming from Tim Rezvan of KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Tim Rezvan (Md of Equity Research)

Good morning, folks, and thank you for taking my question. I wanted to circle back on the 21 Dagger Lake wells. You provided some comments on them earlier. They clearly look like they're going to underpin what's going to be a pretty big, steep, you know, production ramp in the back half of the year. So they're obviously pivotal, you know, to the guide you have out there. Can you give some specificity on exactly what's happening there? Have you started completions, or what is sort of the schedule over the next couple months, you know, to get those online with expectations?

Christopher Calvert (EVP & COO)

Hey, Tim, this is Chris Calvert, EVP, Co-COO. It's a great question. You know, if you look at slide 11 in our deck, we, we have a pretty good summary slide on the Advance integration. But as far as timing on these 21 Dagger Lake South wells, you know, everything is going as planned. It's a very similar story to the, you know, to the Pronto connector down to some of this acreage. It's, it's kind of business as usual on the operations front. You know, we, we message that we are, pilot testing our sim-- or excuse me, our trimul-frac. That's actually going on, on this, on this Dagger Lake South project.

So we're very excited about trimul-frac in and of itself, but just more specific to your question, operations are moving forward as planned, and, you know, we're pushing forward for that kind of Q2 turn in line date, but everything operationally seems to be going, according to plan.

Glenn Stetson (EVP of Production)

Tim, this is Glenn Stetson. I just wanted to highlight that, you know, the, when we bought the Advance properties, they had built out a water gathering system, and they had a disposal well out there, too. So we'll be tying into that on the water side. Then on the gas side, as I mentioned, that gas is planned to go to Pronto with the connector. So we're all set up there from a takeaway standpoint.

Tim Rezvan (Md of Equity Research)

Okay. And then I know you staggered those tails. Do you have any timing you can provide on when that'll happen? Like in April or June? Just trying to understand.

W. Thomas Elsener (EVP of Reservoir Engineering and Senior Asset Manager)

Yeah, Tim, this is, this is Tom again. Yeah, very, you know, very similar to, to how we, how we did things at, on the Margarita side. We'll probably have a little bit of a compressed ramp-up compared to Margarita, since, you know, many of these facilities are, you know, they're a little bit further along in the integration process. But, you know, probably, probably mid to late Q2 is probably, you know, my guess. And, you know, these, these forecasts, they, they do, you know, tend to change, but, but I agree with Chris. Things are, things are going very well, and we have great confidence in, in the second quarter.

Tim Rezvan (Md of Equity Research)

Okay. Thank you for those details. With my follow-up,

Operator (participant)

I'm sorry. Our next question will be coming from Leo Mariani.

Leo Mariani (Md & Senior Research Analyst)

Hi, guys.

Operator (participant)

Leo-

Leo Mariani (Md & Senior Research Analyst)

I just wanted to kind of get a little bit more color on the midstream. I think you guys obviously seem very confident the issues will sort of be behind you at the end of the first quarter here. So once everything's kind of connected in terms of Advance to Pronto and Pronto to San Mateo, do you guys generally feel like this gives you a lot more redundancies in the system, so you're not as dependent upon third parties? And then could you also just address kind of where you stand on potential partner conversations for the new 200 million a day plant?

Glenn Stetson (EVP of Production)

Leo, I'll start. This is Glenn. The short answer is yes. So, the Pronto to San Mateo connector will be set up such that those two systems can flow one way or the other. And so, you know, today, it looks like, you know, it's more Pronto to San Mateo, but once the second plant, the 200 million a day plant expansion that is underway today on the Pronto system, that will expand the capacity of the system as a whole, and gas can swing back and forth between those two systems. And, and, you know, provide more flexibility and, and more flow assurance for times where there's, you know, either preventative maintenance going on or, or, you know, whatever the situation might be. And, and that, that second plant is scheduled for the, the second half of, or excuse me, the first half of 2025.

... And, our BD teams are, you know, we're gonna fill a lot of that plant expansion up with Matador's equity volumes. But certainly there'll be extra capacity there, and our teams are actively working on what opportunities there are for third-party volumes that'll deliver to that system. And we feel like there is a lot of opportunity, given the nature of what exists today in that northern part of the basin.

Leo Mariani (Md & Senior Research Analyst)

Okay, that's, that's helpful. And just any, any color on, you know, kind of where you stand with partner discussions, potential partners for that new 20 million a plant?

Joseph Wm. Foran (Founder, Chairman & CEO)

Yeah, Leo, I'll take that question. Look, we're in a position. We have plenty of money on our RBL to fund it. We paid down our RBL over $200 million from what we borrowed on the, you know, on the Advance acquisition. So that's the use of that, it's there. We have over $1 billion on our RBL. We have good standing, so it's not a problem. Our criteria is not because we need some partner. We're interested in somebody who helps bring something extra to the table, you know, in some way that enhances the value or the efficiency of the system and the plant, or gives drilling incentives like what we have with San Mateo. So it's out there.

If we can find a partner who can enhance it, we're interested in talking, but we're not just trying to get financing, and that doesn't have a lot of appeal because we already have that in place with our RBL.

Leo Mariani (Md & Senior Research Analyst)

Appreciate the color.

Operator (participant)

One moment for our next question. Our next question will be coming from Zach Parham of JPM. Your line is open.

Zach Parham (Executive Director)

Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I guess first, just on your cash taxes, the guidance at 5% to 10% of pre-tax income was a bit better than we were modeling, as we had assumed you'd be subject to the AMT. You know, can you give us some color on how you're able to still defer a majority of your taxes in 2024, and any thoughts on how cash taxes will trend in 2025 and future years?

Robert Macalik (EVP & CFO)

Sure. This is Rob Macalik, I'm the Chief Accounting Officer. You know, we continue to work really hard, both internally and with our external tax providers, and we try and take every deduction and tax credit that we're allowed to take under law. You know, in 2023, as you noted, you know, we were down about 1% on our current tax rate. We knew that that was gonna go up for 2024. I think it is a little bit better than, you know, even what we were anticipating, just as we continue to work through the, you know, kind of vague guidance that's out there. But we feel very confident in our current estimation that we won't be subject to the AMT, that alternative minimum tax that you referenced for 2024.

We continue to evaluate that and, and look through. Just there are so many factors that can go into whether we'll be subject to that in 2025, and we'll continue to monitor that. But, you know, at the moment, like you said, we, we feel very good about the 5% to 10% of our pre-tax income would be cash taxes. But, like I said, we'll continue to work and, and drive that down as, as much as we can.

Zach Parham (Executive Director)

Thanks for that color. And then one just quick follow-up. On the cash flow statement, there's a $68 million payment to Advance this quarter. Can you detail what exactly that was and, and if there are any future expected payments, in regards to that deal?

Van Singleton II (EVP of Land)

Sure, Zach, this is Van. That was actually a tack-on deal for some additional interest in the basin that was very complementary to what we had closed on last year. And so, Brian, I don't know if you wanna expand on that, but it was just more additional acreage from the same deal, which I think goes towards what we said earlier, that these relationships are important. You know, they had this interest that they wanted to move out, and called us, and we were able to make a deal.

Brian Willey (EVP, CFO and Treasurer)

Yeah, Van, this is Brian. I think that's exactly right. And so on the cash flow statement, it set forth as Advance because it's really, for accounting rules, they treat it as almost a continuation of the business combination we did before. But it's just, it's a great deal. Continue to add interest in some of the similar acres that we bought, and we're really excited about. We already talked about the wells coming online this year that we expect to come on, the 21 additional wells and the 21 Margarita wells that came on last year. So great acreage and you know, we really enjoy working with the Ameredev folks and being able to continue to complete these transactions.

Zach Parham (Executive Director)

Thanks. Maybe if I could squeeze one more in. Can you detail any production that came with those acquisitions?

Brian Willey (EVP, CFO and Treasurer)

Yeah, this is Brian. So I think really that the 1,000 BOE per day that we mentioned in the release, that really is due to that Advance acquisition, the additional Advance acreage and interest that we got. And so, you know, I think that's a good deal for us, and I think if we look at,

Billy Goodwin (SVP of Drilling)

... you know, going forward, it's 80% oil, 77% oil is what we got, and so it's really, really good acreage, and so good interest. So that's really for that specific deal. You know, I think I mentioned earlier, we do blocking and tackling deals all the time, and our land group does a very good job at that, and they continue to add interest and add production that way. And so as we grow throughout this year, part of that growth, of course, is always that we will do deals. We think that the land group's done a great job the last few years doing 200 deals a year, and I expect they'll continue to do that this year.

Joseph Wm. Foran (Founder, Chairman & CEO)

We appreciated also that EnCap and Ameredev worked with us on that transaction. They were primarily some minerals and some overrides, and it was a good fit for us. And so we appreciate the follow-up and that we got that. It isn't huge, but if we do enough like this, they'll have a favorable impact.

Zach Parham (Executive Director)

Great. Thanks, Joe. Thanks, Brian.

Operator (participant)

One moment for our next question. Our next question will be coming from Oliver Huang of TPH & Co. Your line is open, Oliver.

Oliver Huang (Director of Exploration & Production)

Good morning, all, and thanks for taking my questions. Just on the operational side, I think you all highlighted about 60% of completions this year are going to be using simul-frac or trimul-frac ops. Just how much of the expected cost benefit and also the efficiency benefit from a cycle time perspective has kind of been underwritten into your 2024 outlook as it sits today?

Christopher Calvert (EVP & COO)

Yeah, Oliver, this is Chris Calvert. That's a great question. You know, you're referring to slide 15 in the deck, where we're talking about our completed lateral footage efficiencies. And really, that has kind of been the main focus of our operational teams, is how do we put forward those capital efficiencies that really help insulate from any sort of OFS inflation or deflation. And so when we look at the cost savings associated with simul-frac and/or trimul-frac, a lot of those savings are baked into our capital budgets. It you know, we pilot tested simul-frac in 2021.

So I think, you know, now that it has become such a large percentage of our portfolio, you know, we do calculate that and factor that into, excuse me, into our budget, forward-looking budget. You know, trimul-frac, from an efficiency standpoint, you know, we still, like I said, we're in process of doing that right now. And so as far as the efficiencies of what we will gain, I think we'll be talking about that more on the call in April. You know, but we're excited about trimul-frac. You know, we saw about a 20% to 30% improvement in capital efficiencies from the completion standpoint when we moved to simul-frac.

You know, and so we're expecting some similar numbers, a significant improvement from an operational efficiency standpoint by incorporating trimul-frac into the operational portfolio.

Joseph Wm. Foran (Founder, Chairman & CEO)

You know, Chris, while you're on that area, I was going to ask Tom to talk about the U-turn wells and the capital savings there. The same thing, can you look at slide M on page 16?

W. Thomas Elsener (EVP of Reservoir Engineering and Senior Asset Manager)

Sure. Yeah, thanks, Joe. Oliver, this is Tom Elsener. Yeah, looking at slide M on the U-turn wells, you know, as you know, as we've kind of talked about before, we drilled our first two U-turn or horseshoe wells, as we've called them before, down on our Wolf property in Texas. You know, we've had very successful production results from those wells that you know even though they're U-turn wells, they perform just like a straight two-mile long lateral, very high pressures and IP rates of between 2,100 and 2,400 BOE per day. You wouldn't know the difference if it was a U-turn or a two-mile lateral from the production results.

We monitored those wells for several months now, and, you know, combined with the great cost of savings that, you know, the team executed down there, you know, we're ready to kind of do a few more of those. And I think we've highlighted that there may be, you know, up to 20 or so, you know, U-turn wells that we may mix into the drill schedule kind of, you know, over the next kind of 2 years. We have some really nice rock that we would like to put into the program, just want to drill them as some U-turns. And so I think we're very excited for those. And you know, I think that they'll be very successful.

We still are kind of in the learning phase. We're gonna learn about some different, you know, targets in different areas. So we still, you know, I still think we're kind of in the walking mode. We're not quite in the running mode yet. But I think we're very optimistic about it.

Joseph Wm. Foran (Founder, Chairman & CEO)

Billy, you know, it's your group, and you've had a lot of innovations from managed pressure drilling to the rig design. Do you want to say anything else you're working on?

Billy Goodwin (SVP of Drilling)

Yes, sir. I mean, that was a good project, and, you know, we had Patterson rigs out there on it and, had some good engineers and did a really good job there, getting those wells drilled and completed. And, it was a great operation. Just, while we're at it, go ahead and give a little shout-out to Patterson and everything they've done through the last couple decades. They didn't just build a rig and leave it there. They've continued to add with their technology and their operating systems and techniques. And, this is another one they were out there with us, had extra people out there to make sure it was a good, good, successful operation. And, you know, also their frac side, NexTier and all, we've worked with them. They do a great job for us.

I'd like to mention Halliburton, Schlumberger, and others that work with us and help us stay on top of our game. But really have done a lot of good with Patterson on the U-turn wells, especially was a highlight. But also now we've picked up, you know, the larger rig, 2000 horsepower rig, and... We're looking to do great things with that as well. We're just getting started with it and got our, got the rig out there put together, got our surface hole intermediate, and fixing to get to the game time, showtime with the, with the you know, getting after the production hole, and we're expecting to set some new records there. And while we're talking about records, at MAXCOM Group, where our geologists and engineers work together, they've been doing a great job there.

You know, coming up on our board week, a week or so ago, we had 262 records there since we started MAXCOM, and we already upped that three more to 265. They just continuously get better and better, and that's worked out to be just a great, great operation for us there. All of our hands coming in, we try to work all of our new people, engineers, and geologists, spend a little time in there and get to know each other, and it makes us a lot better on both sides of the operations. You know, we talk about the records and the money we're saving, drilling faster, but and staying in zone, and that staying in zone is a big part. We don't talk about a lot.

You know, we talk about all the money, $40 million we saved with all the records and the time. But also, when you drill a, you know, a 10,000-foot lateral and you stay in zone, you know, 99% to 100% of the time, and you get an extra 10 barrels of oil per foot, you know, you get a extra 10,000, you know, barrels of oil. I mean, that's, that's a lot of money right there. So all around, just a great, efficient program, and drilling and completion both have been doing a great job. Chris, you want to add something to?

Christopher Calvert (EVP & COO)

Yeah. Hey, Oliver, I'll just kind of close the loop. I think, you know, what it really comes down to operationally for us is, you know, we look for technological improvements that we can continue to push every single year, and those come through relationships such as Patterson, NexTier, and other vendors to help us drill and complete wells faster. But then also just, you know, engineering and people efficiencies that we find here in the office, and that's, you know, you look at something like trimul-frac or simul-frac, and that's really just kind of reimagining a process that's been around for a long time, and that comes from the people side.

There's not a lot of new technology that goes into a simul-frac or a trimul-frac. It's just reimagining a process of how to make it better and more of a win-win situation for us and our partners, which in this case would be, you know, Patterson, NexTier, Halliburton. So I think it's a really good combination approach of how we look to maintain and maximize our capital efficiencies from the operations standpoint.

Joseph Wm. Foran (Founder, Chairman & CEO)

Speaking of the efficiencies, we, while we're giving shout-outs, need to do some for Forrester Smith, who is out there all the time. Pipe is there. We don't have to wait on it. I appreciate him and,

Christopher Calvert (EVP & COO)

Yeah, correct, Joe. There's a lot of people. The list is numerous, you know, but I think when we talk about anything that we're looking at as far as just timing and tools and things like that, you know, if you don't have pipe ready on location when you're ready to case a well, you're going to be held up, and our service provider has been really our casing provider, you know, for decades. And so I think you have relationships that go back that help weather the bad times and flourish in the good times. I think, you know, whether it's Halliburton, Patterson, NexTier's, you know, the casing companies, it is something that we value at a tremendous level, and we continue to kind of push forward to make it win-win situations for both the vendor partnerships and Matador itself.

Oliver Huang (Director of Exploration & Production)

Thanks. That's great detail. For my follow-up, I know that you all have had extensive results and data kind of across the stack, but the increase of capital for wells targeting the First Bone Spring caught our eye for the 2024 program. Any color with respect to just kind of the thought process behind that decision, and maybe if there's any sort of commentary on expectations for those wells, and also assumptions embedded for year-over-year well productivity trends for the program as a whole?

W. Thomas Elsener (EVP of Reservoir Engineering and Senior Asset Manager)

Sure, Oliver, this is Tom Elsener. Yeah, we really like the First Bone Spring, and the reason we're investing money in that specific interval is simply because the well results have been very solid. You know, even going back to you know, many years ago with our kind of first test of the First Bone Spring at Marlan Downey in Eastern Antelope Ridge, we've continued to delineate that zone kind of all throughout the Northern Delaware Basin and feel very confident in those targets.

Kind of going to your kind of well productivity question, yeah, we, we put out, you know, slide, slide number 6 or slide, slide C, you know, showing our, our average, EUR over the last 4 years being, you know, being, being a very, very successful program, and we could expect that to, you know, continue. There's a variety of different performances in all of our different asset areas, but we continue to focus on investing the, you know, the, the, the company's, resources into the northern, kind of the oilier portions, and you see that in the oil EURs that we've generated, and the First Bone Spring was certainly part of that.

Oliver Huang (Director of Exploration & Production)

Awesome. Thanks for the time, guys.

Operator (participant)

One moment for our next question. Our next question will be coming from John Freeman of Raymond James. Your line is open.

John Freeman (Md & Head of Energy Research)

Hi, guys.

Christopher Calvert (EVP & COO)

Hey, John.

John Freeman (Md & Head of Energy Research)

On the Marlan processing plant, y'all laid out the return and the payback period that's expected. Can y'all speak to how y'all envision the volume split on that plant between Matador and third parties once it's up and running next year?

Brian Willey (EVP, CFO and Treasurer)

... Yeah, John, this is Brian. I'm happy to take a shot at that, and then Glenn can clean up anything after. But really, I think right now at San Mateo, we're 70%, 80% Matador. I think as you move over to Pronto, it's almost the opposite right now. But I think going forward, you'll end up more with the new plant, almost 50/50 split with the new plant. So all in, you know, we'll probably end up being 60% to 65% Matador, and the other third party, and we look forward to those third-party opportunities. We think there are a lot of them up in that area, and so a lot of good partnerships and a lot of repeat customers. And so as we build the plant, we think there's a lot of real opportunity there.

John Freeman (Md & Head of Energy Research)

That's great. And then my follow-up, and it kind of dovetails what you just mentioned, Brian, which is, you know, y'all talked about kind of a need in this area for more processing for, it seems like for probably about a year. And so I guess once we think about, you know, the Marlan plant coming, the expansion at least being completed next year, is there another area, you know, across y'all's acreage footprint that you've already sort of identified as, like, another area that at some point y'all would like to expand processing capability?

Joseph Wm. Foran (Founder, Chairman & CEO)

You know, John, that's still in the thinking stage. And, give us a little time to firm up our ideas and plans, and we'll be happy to share them with you. And, but it's a little too tentative to go out there and then be, you know, why didn't we do exactly what that is? We're in the planning stage, and there's a lot of factors, and when we come out, we'll have all that detail for you. But, it certainly is a matter that's on our mind, and we think a good opportunity to go along with our other opportunities.But we've got to prioritize, because we have some great drilling opportunities and great third party, and reconciling those is, part of the process the guys around this table are, we're all thinking about with each other.

John Freeman (Md & Head of Energy Research)

Thanks, Joe. I appreciate the time, guys.

Joseph Wm. Foran (Founder, Chairman & CEO)

Appreciate the question, too.

Operator (participant)

One moment for our next question. Our next question will be coming from Philip Johnston of Capital One Securities. Philip, your line is open.

Philip Johnston (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Hey, guys. Thanks. Most of my questions have been answered, but maybe just a clarification on the additional Advance property acquisition in Q4. You mentioned about 1,000 net acres back to Q4. Just in terms of timing of when that closed, was that a full quarter's impact or a partial quarter's impact, meaning that the current run rate impact is somewhere north of that number?

Brian Willey (EVP, CFO and Treasurer)

Yeah, this, this is Brian. I'm happy to answer that. It really, when we're referring to the thousand, we're really referring to the full quarter impact. But, you know, on a go-forward basis, I think that that deal will continue to have really good returns for us, going forward into 2024. I mean, I think, again, as I said, the land guys have done just a fantastic job. I think if you look at page 12 of our deck, you'll see in 2012, we had 7,500 net acres, and now we're over 152,000 net acres. And so they continue to build that brick by brick acquisition and add to our production, add to our reserves, and do a fantastic job.

Philip Johnston (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay, great. And just to clarify what's embedded in your production guidance, does the fourth quarter 2024 exit rate guidance assume any incremental volumes from these, you know, types of future small scale acquisitions, like the ones you've been doing, or is it sort of organic from where we stand today?

Brian Willey (EVP, CFO and Treasurer)

Yeah. So I think going forward this year, really it's more, you know, acquisitions that we know that are, you know, close to being closed or being closed. We take those into account. But other than that, it's in large measure, it's organic growth. And so, you know, I think that we do these brick by brick acquisitions. There's always some of that, and we know there will be some of that, so we take some of that into account. But really, it's more on just the straight organic growth for the year as we look at the exit rates of 2024.

Philip Johnston (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay, perfect. Thank you so much.

Operator (participant)

Okay. And the final question will be from Kevin MacCurdy of Pickering Energy Partners. Kevin, your line is open.

Kevin MacCurdy (Md)

... For taking my question. I appreciate all the details on the first quarter turn-in-lines and CapEx. Your guided exit rate for 4Q oil was better than we expected. Can you kind of help us bridge that gap on how you hit that exit rate? Any more color you can provide on the CapEx or the turn-in-line cadence throughout the year? I mean, you mentioned the 21 wells that come on in the second quarter. Is there another slug of wells, or is that really what's gonna drive the production higher?

Brian Willey (EVP, CFO and Treasurer)

Yeah, this is Brian. Kevin, thanks for the question. I think, you know, going through the year, we talked about those 21 wells will come on in the second quarter, and those really do help drive production higher. In addition, you know, this year, on total, we expect to turn to, to sell 94 net wells. And so, you know, those are spread out as well, kind of throughout the second, third quarter as we go forward into the fourth quarter. And so, you know, it's really, it's really a mix there. It's kind of split between the two quarters from third quarter and second quarter, with more weighted towards the second quarter, just because those 21 wells will come online. And so that sets us up for that great fourth quarter that we've talked about.

I think we're really excited about that exit rate and how it sets us up for next year.

Kevin MacCurdy (Md)

Great. And, and as my follow-up, you mentioned that you made some payments on the Marlan plant expansion in 4Q. How much of the 2024 midstream budget is allocated to the processing plant expansion? I, I think in the past, you've said that that plant could cost $200 million overall.

Glenn Stetson (EVP of Production)

Yeah. Hi, this is Kevin, this is Glenn. So for 2024, approximately $90 million to $100 million is associated with the actual Marlan II plant. And then, you know, there's obviously CapEx that we've attributed to the, you know, the build-out between, you know, the connectors that we're talking about there, the addition of compressor stations, and then building out to some of our properties on the Ranger North, the northern part of Ranger.

Kevin MacCurdy (Md)

Great. Thank you, guys.

Operator (participant)

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

Joseph Wm. Foran (Founder, Chairman & CEO)

Yes, I, I do have a few closing remarks. The first is just to refer you to slide D, which summarize our company highlights for last year. At this time last year, I was saying that we were beginning the year at about 100,000 barrels, BOE per day, and that I thought, with the advance as our other drilling programs, we would boost that during the year and come up by 50%. And sure enough, we did. Our exit rate was 145,000 barrels, so great work, by the team. A second, and slide D just shows that, and also emphasize that our alignment of interest, that the management group itself has about 6% of Matador, and we have over 90% participation in our employee stock purchase program.

So, everybody in this room and throughout the company, it's just like, like you, that we've got chips on the table. I'd also like to give a shout-out to our measurement room. It runs 24/7 like our MAXCOM, and keeps an eye to be sure we're getting paid for each barrel of oil and Mcf. And now, over the years, of the time period, they've added tens of millions of dollars. I think $32 million was the number we discussed at our board meeting. So it's great work by them in tracking that and checking each barrel of oil at each invoice. Some of that's tedious work, but they've stuck to it, and it's paid off.

I'd also, just, you know, y'all have asked a lot of really good questions, but I, I just want to be sure. Some things to emphasize, the reserve growth from 360 million to 460 million. And, if oil price hadn't slipped, there'd be more oil than that. Some, some of those, as you would probably be approaching 500 million. And then the growth of the acreage itself, I think the land group, Van and his guys and the women, the men and women of his land group, that they increased the Delaware Basin position from, you know, 119,000 acres to 152,000 acres.

If you remember, when we went public in 2012, and we were establishing this as an area of interest, we began with 7,500. So we've gone from 7,500 to 150, over 150,000. I didn't want that to go without being missed, and that you have growing third-party revenues from customers out there in the basin, and these are really the blue chip companies, and we've tried to be careful. Also, I've always believed, you know, I've been in this business 40 years, so I started with $270,000 today, and I think you'd put our assets all together, you know, approaching $10 billion.

One thing is just kind of we're more of a tortoise than a hare, getting a little bit by little bit, year after year. And slide K on page 14 shows you that it's been steady since we went public. And we see for the foreseeable, with the number of locations that Tom and his team have been putting together, the growth of the midstream, Van's acquisition team, that this will continue and should be there. Billy's group is saving money on the cost, but he's also doing innovations that make us more capital efficient, such as, you know, using these modern rigs to come in, and his MAXCOM room, his trimul-frac. Am I saying that right?

Mac Schmitz (VP of Investor Relations)

You are, Joe, yes.

Joseph Wm. Foran (Founder, Chairman & CEO)

They give me a hard time on my, some of my pronunciations, but that's been a big add, and you can see the outperformance that we've had over the years on slide O, you know, comparing the S&P 500, oil price, XOP. And I think that's a lot of what we have to offer, a consistent performance with a strong balance sheet, you know, with our leverage ratio less than one. And we intend to continue to keep an eye on the balance sheet because we're shareholders, too, and look for ways to boost the dividend. So I do want you also to know that, look, we're available to you. If you've got questions, you need answers, Mac is really good, welcomes your questions. Brian will take them.

If you come visit us, we'll buy you lunch or breakfast, and we'll have it more extensive. So we want to be open because we're proud of what we're getting done, and it's kind of the old-fashioned pick-and-shovel method, and little by little, and we think our people on staff are working, trying to get better every day. It's corny to say that, get better every day and helps the team get better, but that's what we're, that's what we aim for. And I think you can see it's from where we were a year ago to where we are today and the outlook going forward, we're still making very steady progress up and to the right.

With that, I'm going to sign off, but know our phone lines are open if you need further follow-up and information. Thank you for taking the time that you have to talk to us, as well as study.

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation today. This concludes today's program.