Earnings Labs

Talos Energy Inc. (TALO)

Q2 2015 Earnings Call· Thu, Aug 6, 2015

$15.54

+0.19%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning. My name is Shawn and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Second Quarter 2015 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session Thank you. Chairman, President and the CEO, Mr. David Welch, you may begin your conference. David H. Welch - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Okay. Thank you, Shawn, and welcome to our second quarter 2015 conference call. We're joined this morning by Ken Beer, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Ken will read the cautionary statement, review the financial performance for the quarter, he will then turn it back over to me to provide some additional color on our execution and an operational update in this low-priced environment. So, Ken, over to you.

Kenneth H. Beer - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Management

All right. Thank you, Dave. In this conference call, we may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements are subject to all the risks and uncertainties normally incident to the exploration, development, production, and sales of oil. We urge you to read our 2014 Annual Report on Form 10-K and the soon-to-be filed second quarter 10-Q for a discussion of the risks that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those that in any forward-looking statements, we may make today. And in addition, in this call, we may refer to financial measures that may be deemed non-GAAP financial measures as defined under the Exchange Act. Please refer to the press release we issued yesterday for a reconciliation of the differences between these measures, our financial measures and the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. And with that, I will move on to our comments. We'll assume that everyone has seen the press release and the attached financials. Accordingly, I'll look to focus on some of the financial and operational highlights. Our second quarter results showed an adjusted $9 million loss or loss of about $0.17 per share before and after tax non-cash impairment charge of $144 million, which brought the reported loss to $153 million. Our discretionary cash flow for the quarter was about $85 million, or around $1.50 per share, which was above the First Call consensus of about $1.35 per share, driven primarily by greater-than-expected production and lower costs. As was also discussed in last quarter's conference call, the non-cash ceiling test impairment was primarily due to lower oil gas and NGL prices, which are calculated using a rolling 12-month trailing average. If prices continue to stay at the lower level compared to…

Operator

Operator

Your first question comes from the line of Jon Evans from JWEST. Your line is open.

Jonathan Richard Evans - JWEST LLC

Analyst

Can you just talk a little bit about your initial thoughts for CapEx spend next year? And then also, as you go into the redetermination, do you think any indication, does the $500 million stay pretty constant, or can you give us any insights?

Kenneth H. Beer - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Management

Yeah, Jon. This is Ken. Let me take the second question first. So on the redetermination, very difficult to tell. I think even the banks are in limbo as to exactly what their price deck is. Clearly, back in the spring, they had a low-price deck. So we're not sure what that will look like. As I mentioned in my comments, you might have lower prices. But one of the positives for us will be, we'll have a Cardona #6 online and we expect to have that online. And as you may be aware, from a bank standpoint, as they go through their borrowing base calculation, by far, the most important factor in their determination is who producing. And in this case, having the Cardona #6 on and having the #4 and #5 performing so well certainly will help us, but very difficult for us to estimate what that new number will be, whether it stays at $500 million or not. Shifting to CapEx, as I mentioned in the comment, again, premature to come up with a number. Certainly, directionally, it will be down from the $450 million that we have for this year. But exactly where that number unfolds, we're working through that now. And we'll certainly have a figure for our board to ultimately sign off. Probably, they will see that sometime in the October board meeting.

Jonathan Richard Evans - JWEST LLC

Analyst

Okay. And just one more follow-up to that. Is it fair to say that you hope by this time next year that you have the convert taking care of, et cetera, and extent to that maturity, it seems like that's been an overhang on the company and the stock? So I'm just curious. David H. Welch - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yes. So I think that's fair to say that a year from today, we would hope to have a lot more clarity on exactly what steps we'll take, whether that is with using internal funds, using our credit facility, using a restructuring with the current holders, coming in with a totally new external financing approach, those are all options that are out there. I think it is important that we don't have to make those decisions – that decision right this moment in what clearly is a very difficult environment. But certainly that is one of the key issues that we'll be addressing certainly as we go into 2016.

Jonathan Richard Evans - JWEST LLC

Analyst

Great. Thank you for your time. David H. Welch - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Great. Thank you, Jon.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Blaise Angelico from IBERIA Capital. Your line is open.

Blaise Matthew Angelico - IBERIA Capital Partners LLC

Analyst

Hey, good morning, gentlemen. David H. Welch - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Hi.

Blaise Matthew Angelico - IBERIA Capital Partners LLC

Analyst

Just looking at possible ways to fund additional CapEx over the coming years, what are your thoughts about potentially selling in its entirety or selling down an interest in Pompano and Amberjack? Those are assets that probably don't receive an appropriate valuation from an NAV perspective. Just curious as to how you're thinking about this as an option to realize value, but also bring cash in the door to fund future CapEx? David H. Welch - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: I'll ask Ken to give you his thoughts, but basically everything is on the table right now and we're considering any option that might improve the state of the company. So I'm not really keen to go do something right now, but it's not a bad idea to think about it. Ken?

Kenneth H. Beer - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Management

Yeah, and, Blaise, I think what you're alluding to is just that the platforms themselves, which certainly, at least in our minds, have some true value that could be separately financed. Certainly, any step we take in that regard might have some impact on whether it's the borrowing base or other issues. But, as Dave pointed out, these are all capital – or financing options that we're going to take a hard – that we have and will continue to take a hard look at.

Blaise Matthew Angelico - IBERIA Capital Partners LLC

Analyst

Got you. Thanks. And just one quick follow-up on the onshore. Say, prices are steady-state, differentials remain where they are, and you all don't reinvigorate the drilling program, what would the cost to terminate that rig contract be? David H. Welch - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: It's in the $18 million range.

Kenneth H. Beer - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Management

Yeah, that's over $6 million a year. So for 2016, you're looking at about $6 million.

Blaise Matthew Angelico - IBERIA Capital Partners LLC

Analyst

Perfect. Got you. Thank you, guys. Appreciate the color.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Patrick Rigamer from Seaport Global Securities. Your line is open.

Patrick Bryan Rigamer - Seaport Global Securities LLC

Analyst

Hi. Good morning, guys. David H. Welch - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Hi, Patrick.

Patrick Bryan Rigamer - Seaport Global Securities LLC

Analyst

The press release mentioned that you sold a deepwater block. And I was just curious, any more color on that? And are there more opportunities to do that or – just kind of what was going on there? David H. Welch - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. This was a lease that a different operator had a discovery right next to that lease. We didn't have plans to move forward. They did want to move forward. So we were able to just monetize the lease at roughly $10 million. So certainly, those are the kinds of hidden assets that we hope to be able to continue to monetize as the opportunity presents itself.

Patrick Bryan Rigamer - Seaport Global Securities LLC

Analyst

Okay. And then, I guess, moving onshore, the Utica well that you drilled was drilled in a different price environment on the service side. I mean, I realize that there's not a lot of activity up there now, but do you have a sense of where development cost, well cost might be today? And is there a certain well cost that would, kind of, make you reconsider the development program up there? David H. Welch - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Let me tackle the latter part of it, and Ken can weigh in on the actual well cost. But we really feel like we need some sort of a structural change there before we would want to get back to drilling. The structural change is really in the price and in the transportation environment. As you know, there's a big differential between Henry Hub and Appalachia right now. There are a lot of pipelines that are being built out of Appalachia that over the next couple of years that differential should be cut in half or even improve better. So that's one factor that we're looking for. The closer we get to 2017, the better – the more pipes are being built, so the lower that differential is likely to be. So that's one thing. The other thing is just that we are starting to now see some of these export LNG things start to add a little demand. And over a cumulative period of time, the demand growth may help lift Henry Hub a little bit as well. So we just feel like it's a good time to take a little bit of a time out. Obviously, with prices coming down across the board for rigs and services, I think we expect that we could drill wells cheaper. But I don't know exactly if we have a current outlook on what a well would be to drill today. Ken, do you know that?

Kenneth H. Beer - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Management

No, that's fair. I mean, certainly, those numbers have come down, but, as Dave highlighted, it's really the price – the gas price side that's the bigger driver. And not wanting to add to the oversupply situation in the next three, six, nine months, our thought was, let's go ahead and step back and use this time to prepare for the Utica development program, but not initiate it in the face of, as was highlighted, very unattractive differentials that we do expect to get better. So no reason to rush now, when in 12 months or 18 months we feel like we could see, at least, in our minds, a material change on the differential side. David H. Welch - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: And just tactically, we've chosen to put our capital into projects that throw off as much cash as possible over the shortest period of time. And so that's another reason that we've really tilted everything to the deepwater right now. We do have developments to do. And these developments are low-risk. They provide a high return and they also provide immediate cash.

Kenneth H. Beer - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Management

Yeah, and really to that point, Patrick, as Dave pointed out, the Gulf of Mexico production is very high-margin, whereas right now the Appalachian production, they've done a very good job of keeping production pretty flat with no extra wells. But the margin there, because of the differential and because particularly in the Marcellus, the low prices that you're experiencing out of the liquids side, it just seems like push capital to where we're getting a high-margin on our production, just makes a lot more sense. And so that's why we've just diverted capital to those projects.

Patrick Bryan Rigamer - Seaport Global Securities LLC

Analyst

Okay. Appreciate the color. And then just quickly on the model, gas and NGL, as a percent of total production, were up a little bit this quarter. I'm assuming that's just because of the prior-period true-up; and going forward, kind of, return to what it was like over the prior quarters? David H. Welch - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. That's a fair observation. And, in fact, as you get into the fourth quarter with Cardona #6 coming on, that – I think you'll see even more of a waiting towards oil. So not only do you have, kind of, the catch-up behind you in the second quarter, but by the fourth quarter, I expect that number to be up higher.

Patrick Bryan Rigamer - Seaport Global Securities LLC

Analyst

Okay. Great. Thanks. David H. Welch - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thanks, Patrick.

Operator

Operator

There are no further questions at this this time. Mr. Welch, I turn the call back to you. David H. Welch - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Okay. Thanks, everyone, for joining the call. And we appreciate you being here, so long.

Kenneth H. Beer - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.