Good morning. My name is Sylvie, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Vermilion Energy Q2 Conference Call. Note that all lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Thank you. Mr. Dion Hatcher, you may now begin your conference.

Thank you, Sylvie. Well good morning ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us. I'm Dion Hatcher, President and CEO of Vermilion Energy. With me today are Lars Glemser, Vice President and CFO; Darcy Kerwin, Vice President of International and HSE; Brandon McCue, Vice President, North America; and Kyle Preston, Vice President of Investor Relations. We'll be referencing a PowerPoint presentation to discuss our Q2, 2024 results. Presentation can be found on our website under Invest with Us and Events & Presentations. Please refer to our advisory and forward-looking statements at the end of this presentation. It describes forward-looking information, non-GAAP measures, and oil and gas terms used today and outline risk factors and assumptions relevant to this discussion. Production during the second quarter averaged 84,974 boes per day, which was at the top end of our Q2 guidance range of 83,000 to 85,000 boes per day, mainly due to the early startup of our BC Montney battery. On a year-to-year basis, production increased 2%, or 6% on a per share basis. We generated $237 million of fund flows and $126 million of free cash flow, which was lower than Q1, mainly due to lower realized commodity hedge gains. During the second quarter, we reduced net debt by a further $38 million to $907 million, and significantly increased our pace of share buybacks, as we transitioned to a payout target of 50% of an annual excess free cash flow. We repurchased 2.8 million shares during Q2, for total proceeds of $47 million, and also paid at approximately $19 million in dividends for a total return of $66 million, or 62% of excess free cash flow for the quarter. Year-to-date, we have returned $121 million, or 36% of excess free cash flow. During the second quarter, we also achieved key operational…

Thank you, Dion. As Dion mentioned during the beginning of the presentation, we significantly increased our pace of share buybacks during the second quarter. As you recall, we achieved our $1 billion net debt targeting Q1. And in early March we announced that we were increasing our ROC allocation to 50% of EFCF on an annual basis. The chart on the left of this slide illustrates the steady increase in shareholder returns since 2021. In addition to dividends and share buybacks, debt reduction is an informal return of capital as it transfers value from debt holders to equity holders. Including these three components, we have returned over $10 per share of capital to our equity holders over the past three and a half years. The chart on the right shows the cumulative effect of share buybacks over the past three and a half years. The achievement of our debt targeting Q1 of this year marked a pivotal change in our return of capital framework. And Q2, 2024 was the first full quarter executing under our revised ROC parameters. To-date this year, we have already repurchased and canceled 6.1 million shares, which is more than we repurchased in the full year of 2023. We have further reduced our share count to 157.3 million shares at July 31, 2024. We continue to believe our share price is significantly undervalued, and as such we plan to allocate the majority of our shareholder returns to share buybacks. Given the strong operational performance year-to-date and anticipation of new production growth during the second half of the year in Mica and Croatia, offsetting some planned downtime, we are increasing our annual production guidance to 83,000 to 86,000 boe per day, while maintaining our capital budget guidance of $600 million to $625 million. All other financial guidance remains unchanged. Our Q3, 2024 capital program includes completing and bringing on production the five wells from the 9-21 pad in the BC Montney and commencing per second half 2024 drilling program in Alberta and Saskatchewan. In addition, we will commence drilling operations on the second exploration well in Germany, while we conduct further evaluation, and testing of the successful exploration wells in Germany and Croatia. We expect Q3, 2024 production to be in the range of 83,000, 85,000 boe a day, taking into account planned turnaround activity, including a third-party turnaround deferred from Q2, 2024 in Alberta. Higher downtime during period supply temperatures and approximately 800 boe a day of dry gas production in Alberta that we have curtailed due to low gas prices. With that, I will pass it back to Dion.

Thank you, Lars. While closing, it was another strong quarter for Vermilion, as we delivered on our production guidance and achieved several milestones on our strategic growth assets. In addition, we benefited from a diversified supply portfolio that provides exposure to premium price European gas, which resulted in the corporate realized gas price of $5.69 this quarter, or a 4.8 times multiple to the ACO benchmark. We're excited about the upcoming test results from the recent discoveries in Germany and Croatia, as well as a ramp up of our Montney battery and Croatia gas plant. I look forward to providing an update at a later date. As Lars mentioned, we had made significant progress on our share buyback program, and plan to continue this momentum through the balance of this year. We truly believe the compounding effect of combining modest production growth with a growing base dividend and share buybacks will drive shareholder value in the months and years to come. Well, that concludes my prepared remarks. And with that, I would like to open it up for questions.

Well, thank you, Sylvie. Thank you again for participating in our Q2, '24 results conference call. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this does indeed conclude your conference call for today. Once again, thank you for attending. And at this time, we do ask that you please disconnect your lines.