To begin. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the first quarter results conference call. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. David Spyker. Please go ahead, Mr. Spyker.
Good morning, thank you for joining us today. On the call from Freehold are David Hendry, our CFO, and Rob King, our COO. We're off to a good start for 2023, with operational momentum carrying over from our record year in 2022. Production of 14,724 BOE per day was up 8% over the first quarter of 2022 and in line with our expectations. Canadian production of 9,822 BOE per day was modestly up over the previous quarter and was the highest quarterly average since Q1 2020. The resiliency of our Canadian production is a testament to the quality of our land, as we've only made minor early-stage investments over the past three years, with our team primarily focused on new developments, leasing, and optimization efforts on our Canadian acreage.
Production from our U.S. assets averaged approximately 4,900 BOE per day during the quarter, also in line with expectations. Overall, Q1 production was slightly lower than the previous quarter in the U.S. as the completion schedules of some of our larger payers resulted in a significant number of new wells being brought on production in the fourth quarter of 2022 in both the Eagle Ford and Midland Basins. Declines from the significant flush production associated with these Q4 new well starts are reflected in our Q1 numbers. On the drilling side, in Q1 2023, we had 349 gross wells drilled, up 19% over the previous quarter and up 43% over Q1 2022. In Canada, 175 gross wells were drilled on our land this quarter, up 22% from a year ago and up 28% over last quarter.
6.9 net wells represent the second most active first quarter of drilling activity since 2010. Oil-weighted drilling in the Viking, Cardium, and Clearwater led Canadian activity. The turnover of assets in southern Saskatchewan from larger operators to smaller companies is resulting in increased activity as a number of these new, smaller, private, and public operators are targeting more ambitious growth objectives than predecessor operators have in recent years. In addition, the application of open-hole multilateral drilling techniques, along with improving heavy oil pricing, has resulted in increased activity in the Sparky and Manville plays in the broader Lloydminster Oil Fairway.
In the U.S., 174 gross wells were drilled in the first quarter, up 12% over the previous quarter and an increase of 74% from a year ago as industry activity remained robust and acreage was added to our portfolio in 2022. In total, 0.8 net wells were drilled in Q1 on our U.S. land, with a typical U.S. well having 10x the initial productivity of our average Canadian well. Drilling continued to be focused on light oil prospects in the Eagle Ford and Permian Basins. While total rigs in North America were in decline for much of the quarter, the rig count on our lands remained robust, with average rigs for Q1 2023 increasing over Q4.
With spring breakup occurring in Canada, activity is expected to remain strong, in the U.S., a benefit of our North American land base. Looking forward, leasing activity has been very active in 2023 year to date, with 44 leases executed across 16 counterparties, which compares to 83 leases executed in the full year 2022. We continue to benefit from the premium pricing of our U.S. assets with U.S. oil realized pricing per barrel 26% higher than Canadian pricing.
Our first quarter revenue of CAD 77 million and Funds from Operations of CAD 59 million remain in line with expectations, and we reiterate our production guidance of 14,500-15,500 BOE per day for 2023 and Funds from Operations of CAD 250 million-CAD 280 million based on an average oil price of $80 per barrel WTI. With the current wildfire activity in Alberta and BC, we do expect some impact on our Q2 production numbers, although too early to tell at this point how that may play out. Our dividend payout for the quarter totaled 69%. Royalties remain a high-margin asset class, enabling Freehold the ability to maintain our current dividend level, even if the payout ratio is above our 60% guidance range for multiple quarters.
After completing approximately CAD 190 million in acquisitions in 2022, we've been able to maintain a conservative balance sheet, exiting the quarter at 0.4x net debt to trailing Funds from Operations. This considerable financial flexibility allows Freehold the opportunity to continue to pursue value-enhancing acquisitions on both sides of the border and also contributes to dividend sustainability.
Looking forward, our portfolio remains well positioned to deliver value for our shareholders. We continue to reiterate our asset base has improved considerably through our North American expansion, with ownership in broader range of quality oil-weighted plays, a deeper roster of well-financed top-tier payers, broader exposure to commodity pricing and sales points, and overall scale improvements ensuring sustainability for our shareholders. As commodity prices have come under some recent weakness, we highlight the strong margins associated with royalties as an asset class, not subject to the margin compression we have seen in other business models associated with recent inflationary pressures. We'd like to now turn the call over for questions.
Thank you. We will now take questions from the telephone lines. If you have a question and you're using a speakerphone, please lift your handset before making your selection. If you have a question, please press star one on your device's keypad. You also can cancel the question at any time by pressing star two. Please press star one at this time if you have a question. There will be a brief pause while the participants register. Thank you for your patience. Thank you. The first question is from Luke Davis from RBC. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hey, good morning, guys. Your U.S. volumes were a little bit lighter than what I would have expected, just given the Q4 run rate. Hoping that you can frame out what's implied in your guidance on a quarterly basis between Canada and the U.S.
Sure. Hi, Luke. It's Rob here. You know, in terms of why maybe the volumes, you know, came down, you know, between Q4 and Q1, that was, you know, at least from our perspective, very much in line with what our expectations were. You know, Q4, we actually saw a number of both a number of gross wells and a number of higher net wells in our Eagle Ford assets come on, which was, you know, great to get that flush production. You know, they obviously decline, you know, at the rates that they do. That sort of fed into fed into what we thought with Q1 would be a, you know, a bit less volume relative to Q4.
You know, it's kinda that sawtooth that we sort of talked about, where we have these, you know, significant volumes that come on with the combination of the high productivity of a number of the wells, but also just the, you know, the size of some of these pads, you know, that we're observing in our assets. As an example, in the, in the Permian, in the Q4, late Q4, we had a 19-well pad of CrownQuest come on, you know, on our Midland Basin assets. When volumes of that amount, you know, kinda come on, you get this great flush production that does then, you know, decline, you know, thereafter. That's kinda as I said, sort of in line with our expectations.
I think where it's probably on the Eagle Ford side, you know, we did see some weather-related impacts. You know, I think it's not quite the freeze-offs that we saw in Canada, you know, in December timeframe, but we do know, talking to a couple of the Eagle Ford producers, that they had, you know, some production challenges in January-February timeframe with colder weather, you know, in Texas.
That's helpful. Thanks. Do you have a sense for how you expect specifically the U.S. volumes to shape up through the balance of the year?
Yeah. I mean, it'll be generally sort of, you know, flat to modestly up over the course of the balance of this year. I think again, we're expecting that, you know, that sawtooth thing that we talked about, where there's going to be some, you know, interquarter volatility, but, you know, the general trend will be flat.
Gotcha. Just one more for me related to Alberta wildfires. I know you provided some commentary in the release. Still pretty early, but sounds like a lot of those issues have largely been resolved. So I imagine limited impact to your production volumes and guidance. Any incremental detail that you can provide there?
I don't know if we have a whole lot of incremental detail there. I mean, the only other one I can comment on is that it's probably more of our, you know, gas volumes, natural gas volumes that, you know, have been impacted so far. While it may have a, you know, I'm not sure if meaningful is the right word, but, you know, an impact from a volume perspective, our expectation, it'll have a more muted cash flow perspective.
That's great. Thanks for that.
Thank you. The next question is from Patrick O'Rourke from ATB Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Maybe just to add sort of another angle to the questions from Luke there with respect to U.S. volumes. I know they're fairly chunky here or sawtooth, as you've articulated. The high level of spot activity, I think it was 174 gross wells in Q1. How does that sort of compare to what your expectations would have been for the quarter? Sort of what are the sort of early cues that you're seeing for Q2 and Q3 in terms of planning on that front?
I mean, I would say in terms of the spot activity, the 174 gross wells, very much in line with expectations. Gross activity, you know, has sort of, as I say, continued to be in line. What we have seen is sort of the net wells. You know, we've had some lower NRI, net royalty interest wells, you know, that have been drilled. We'll see how that, you know, how that impacts the portfolio over the next, you know, six or nine months or so. You know, as you know, that often can be the lag factor that we see, you know, on the U.S., you know, in terms of drilling in Q1 leads to, you know, Q3, Q4 production.
We certainly saw that in 22. Maybe to just shift gears a little bit here. I thought you guys did a really good job in terms of contextualizing the opportunity in the royalty market yesterday at the AGM when you discussed, you know, sort of it being a CAD 1 trillion market. Just wondering if you could give us sort of, with all the moving parts, with interest rates, with commodity, sort of your outlook in terms of M&A. Then with, you know, the Permian and some of these U.S. resource basins reaching a more mature phase in terms of type curves and inventory development, how you're sort of taking that into your risking of your approach to these acquisitions right now.
Yeah. You know, in the first one, in terms of the level of activity, you know, I think our Q1 deal flow has been pretty consistent with what we saw in 2022 and in 2021. You know, when I look at the number of confidentiality agreements that we signed, you know, on the U.S. so far, it's basically in line with what we signed in 2022 and 2021 at the same time period. You know, so from the activity, it feels the same, but it does feel slower.
You know, I think one of the other parts that we are seeing is, you know, it's always a competitive space, but, you know, it's one with the backwardated curve the way that we are, the bid-ask spread has probably widened a bit. We've certainly seen, you know, several of our competitors willing to accept lower returns than what Freehold's willing to take. We're still holding that quality bar, you know, really high. I think what the encouraging sign is there does feel to still be, you know, continued deal flow, and, you know, we'll sort of see how that, how that plays out, you know, for the balance of this year.
You know, in terms of the, you know, the growth expectations or how we're sort of approaching things, you know, I think the reality is capital discipline of the producers, both public and private, you know, largely, you know, certainly does continue. That's sort of factoring into how, you know, we're looking at to add opportunities, and so you know, maintaining that, you know, that growth discipline that, you know, we've seen our royalty payers largely be taking.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next question is from Christopher Jones from Haywood Securities. Please go ahead, your line is open.
Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Focusing on the bigger picture U.S. activity, you own a lot of mineral rights under majors. Just curious what you're seeing in terms of activity cadence between majors and privates, independent types. I think it's understood that privates drove much of the activity through 2022. The offset to that is perhaps they are now generally have less quality acreage and more exposed to price volatility as a result. Just curious on what you're observing from an activity perspective there.
I mean, we've, you know, but 70% of our, of our U.S. volumes by production are weighted towards the investment-grade public names. You know, and we've really sort of seen for the, for the most part, they've had a fairly steady, you know, drilling cadence and bringing wells, you know, on online, you know, sort of in that, you know, flat to modest growth that we've seen with them. You know, I think where we've had some, you know, positive surprises has been on the private side, you know, with the CrownQuest as an example. I mentioned that, you know, 19-well pad that they brought on in late, you know, late 2022. You know, that was exciting to see.
HighPeak Energy in our, in Howard County, has continued to be fairly active. They've kind of pulled back their capital program a little bit, but, you know, they've still been active on our lands.
Okay. Great. Just to add to some of the M&A questions, I think you touched on this with your prior answer. Some of the commentary coming out of the quarter from some of your U.S. royalty peers is that the private mineral market deals are going for quite lofty valuations. I think one particular company noted that it was losing deals by upwards of about 70%. Is that a trend you are seeing as well, kind of that overpricing in the market?
I mean, we're, you know, of the 30 deals that we looked at in Q1, you know, we evaluated 20, you know, kind of equally split between Canada and the U.S. We only bid on 3 of those opportunities and lost them all. You know, I don't know if we lost necessarily by that, you know, that 70% that one of our peers sort of talked about, but we certainly, it was a meaningful difference.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Matthew Weekes from iA Capital Markets. Please go ahead, your line is open.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Just on the alternatives and, you know, diversified royalty team and some of the activity going on there were, you know, kind of some disclosures this quarter. I was just wondering if you could touch on that, you know, a little bit, what kind of the opportunities you're seeing there. Is it kind of picking up? Are these, you know, kind of in advanced stages at this point? Do you think we could expect something kinda, you know, in the next, you know, in the short term or next 12 months on that front?
Yeah. Matthew, Dave Spyker here from Freehold. We've certainly seen, you know, a lot, you know, a little bit more deal flow in that space that kind of fits our kind of the parameters that we're looking for. For the most part, you know, we're really focusing on the mineral side. Really, you know, pushing our expertise that we have in you know, resource plays on the oil and gas side and, you know, seeing if we can leverage that into the, you know, kind of balance of mineral space. I think that, you know, there's a number of things that we're working pretty hard on and, with some success there. We still view that we could, you know, do a transaction this year.
I would say it's, you know, it's likely a sub CAD 50 million deal, maybe CAD 25 million-CAD 50 million, if you wanna kinda think of it that way. You know, the focus is really on, you know, balance of minerals. That, it could be anything, you know, from, you know, helium, lithium to, you know, a number of other, you know, potash, you can continue to be active in. Like those types of opportunity sets, you know, versus I think when we first got into it, we thought, you know, wind or solar. Those types of opportunities don't compete for capital with the oil and gas space. You know, leveraging our balance of minerals expertise, we think that those can drive pretty attractive returns.
Okay. Thank you. Appreciate the commentary on that. I'll turn it back. Thanks.
Thank you. There are no further questions registered at this time. I'll turn the call back to Mr. Spyker.
All right. Thanks, everybody, for participating today and for the questions. We look forward to catching up with everybody again at the end of Q2. Thank you.
Thank you. The conference has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.