Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. PrairieSky Royalty Ltd. announces their third quarter 2023 financial results. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Andrew Phillips, President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Michelle, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for dialing into the PrairieSky Q3 2023 earnings call. On the call from PSK are Pam Kazeil, CFO, Dan Bertram, CCO, and myself, Andrew Phillips. There's certain forward-looking information in my commentary today, so I would ask investors to review the forward-looking statements qualifier in our press release in MD&A. PrairieSky achieved its highest total production in the third quarter since our IPO at 25,469 Boe per day. This included 12,084 barrels per day of crude oil royalties, up 6% from the same quarter in 2022. Natural gas volumes were positively impacted by the return of shut-in volumes from wildfires and a significant well pad at Wembley placed on production.
246 spuds occurred on PrairieSky lands over Q3 at an average royalty rate of 7.1%. Forty-five of these were Clearwater oil wells, and 92 of the total were Viking oil wells. 35 Mannville Stack, multilateral and fishbone wells were drilled, which is on pace with our record 37 wells in Q3 2022. Leasing activity remains very strong, as it has for the last two years, and we entered into 46 new leasing arrangements with 40 different counterparties. Leasing was spread across the entire basin with a focus on oil. Our team executed on CAD 15.6 million in acquisitions throughout the quarter, focused on the Mannville Stack play in the heavy oil fairway. These lands will see immediate activity and provide strong returns, allowing us to compound at a faster rate.
Given our fee simple mineral title, seismic and relationships with top-tier developers, we expect to remain active, adding to this opportunity set. These lands will provide decades of inventory to an already industry-leading opportunity set. PrairieSky will review its capital allocation priorities in February and make its decision on the dividend at that time. Using strip pricing, we will be in a net cash position in 18 months. After achieving 22% oil growth in 2022 and 6% year to date, we are confident that our strong organic growth rates will continue in this pricing environment. The transformation of the primary heavy oil region in Western Canada with new drilling techniques will benefit our shareholders for years to come. I will now turn the call over to Pam to walk through the financials.
Thank you, Andrew. Good morning, everyone. There are certain forward-looking information in the notes today, so I would remind investors to review the forward-looking statements qualifier in our press release in MD&A for Q3 2023. As Andrew mentioned, this was a record Q3 for PrairieSky Royalty volumes, which totaled 25,469 Boe per day. Oil royalty production volumes averaged 12,084 barrels per day, a decrease from Q2 2023, which was expected as fewer new wells come on stream following spring breakup. Oil royalty production increased 6% over Q3 2022, with strong production growth in the Clearwater and Mannville Stack. We anticipate higher oil royalty volumes into Q4 in 2024 due to the level of activity on our lands.
PrairieSky generated CAD 102.8 million of oil royalty revenue in the quarter at a realized price of CAD 92.53 per barrel. Natural gas royalty volumes averaged 64.1 million a day, and NGL royalty volumes averaged 2,702 barrels per day. As shut-in volumes related to Q2 wildfires and operational downtime came back on production, the overpayment recognized in Q2 was not repeated in the quarter, and new Montney wells came on stream. PrairieSky generated CAD 11.6 million of natural gas revenue and CAD 13 million of NGL revenue in the quarter, bringing total royalty production revenue to CAD 127.4 million. Other revenue totaled CAD 5.7 million and included CAD 3.6 million of bonus consideration for entering into 46 new leases with 40 different counterparties.
In addition, CAD 1 million in lease rentals and CAD 1.1 million of other income. Cash administrative expenses totaled CAD 17.9 million in the quarter and included a CAD 13.3 million one-time payment. This was a cash outflow for the period, but had a lesser impact on net income, as CAD 10.5 million of the payment had been accrued over the past four years until payout, primarily in stock-based compensation. PrairieSky recorded a current tax expense of CAD 14.9 million in the quarter. Entering the year, PrairieSky had CAD 1.55 billion of tax pools to offset future taxable income. So in 2023, the first 155 million of cash flow is tax-free, with the remainder taxed at our statutory tax rate of approximately 23.5%.
PrairieSky generated quarterly funds from operations of CAD 93.8 million, or CAD 0.39 per common share, and declared dividends of CAD 57.3 million, or CAD 0.24 per share, with a resulting payout ratio of 61%. Excess funds from operations above the dividend and our CAD 15.6 million in acquisitions were used to retire bank debt. Net debt at September 30th, 2023, was CAD 253.7 million, a decrease of 19% since December 31st, 2022. PrairieSky has generated approximately CAD 2.5 billion in funds from operations and returned CAD 1.8 billion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks, buybacks since our IPO. We will now turn it over to the moderator to proceed with the Q&A.
As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. The first question comes from Aaron Bilkoski with TD Cowen. Your line is open.
Good morning. I would be interested to know who the most active drillers are on your Mannville Stack acreage. And I guess a follow-up question to that is, where do you see industry activity levels on your land, specifically in the Mannville Stack next year?
Thanks for the question. Good morning, Aaron. The two most active drillers on our lands are Canadian Natural Resources and Caltx Energy , which is a newly formed private company. It was formed actually about a year and a half ago, but they've been quite active. They did a large leasing arrangement with us on our fee and then have added lands in between throughout that period. But I think they're about just over 2,000 barrels a day and likely exit close to 5,000, so it's a pretty substantial growth rate. And then Canadian Natural, through their Devon Canada acquisition, acquired the largest position in the area. So they were our incumbent largest royalty payer going into this new technological advancement in the play.
And then to answer your second question, in terms of activity, we expect that there'll be a significant uplift in activity on this kind of Mannville Stack play next year. I'm not sure that it'll outpace the Clearwater next year, but it'll be—it's gonna start to get close, just given all the leasing arrangements we've entered into in the play, and it's very good economics into these prices.
Thanks, Andrew. I also have a follow-up question for, I guess, probably Pam is best suited to answer this. How should I be thinking about G&A in the first half of 2024, given, you know, long-term incentive plan payments in Q1 and potentially DSUs held by the retiring board members coming in Q2?
So thanks for the question, Aaron. In Q1, we will give guidance, I guess, in February with our year-end call. But we would expect, just given the increase in our share price compared to when some of the long-term incentive grants were granted to the executive to be higher than Q1 of last year. And then with retiring board members, you know, all of the deferred share units for all of our board members sit in accounts payable, so they are in our net debt number. So we would anticipate paying out some of those next year. But of course, directors do have the opportunity to hold on to their DSUs for 18 months following departure.
So, you know, the timing of those payments will be dependent upon when the directors decide to exercise those DSUs.
That's very helpful. Thanks, Pam.
Please stand by for our next question. The next question comes from Jamie Kubik with CIBC. Your line is open.
Yep, good morning, and thanks for taking my question here. You did have a smaller acquisition in the quarter, but in the disclosures indicated it was on producing and non-producing properties. Can you just talk a little bit more about what that acquisition entails and how we should think about it going forward?
You bet, Jamie. Thanks for the question. And it entails over 50 sections of oil sands, right? So it's primarily undeveloped, almost exclusively undeveloped. There's a small producing property that the operator will take along with it, but that's a very minor royalty. We do expect immediate activity on it. On the one acquisition that totaled CAD 10 million, they're right now acquiring surface leases, and they expect to run a rig all of next year on those lands. So should be a pretty significant IRR for the company, just given the immediate activity and the multi-zone nature of the land.
So it's a unique area because it's within that Oil Sands tenure, so you get 15 years on the leases, and then upon reaching a minimum amount of production, it's held in perpetuity, effectively. So we're expecting immediate activity on those lands and should be some positive growth rates on those newly acquired lands in 2024.
Okay, great. And then in your remarks, did talk about, you know, looking at the dividend in 2024. Can you, can you just talk about capital allocation, how you're thinking about the NCIB and what you would need to see for, potential dividend increase? Just things around that nature, Andrew and Pam.
You bet. So right now, the dividend is CAD 229 million annually or CAD 0.96 per share per year. We obviously are seeing organic growth in the business. And you know, when we look into February, there's a good opportunity, I think, for a dividend increase. But I think when we look out over the next 10 years, we should be able to increase it annually, more ratably, alongside the growth of the business and still have a lot of excess free cash flow. So given that the business will be in a debt-free position within the next 18 months, I think it's reasonable to expect a dividend increase.
But we'll evaluate it in February when we look at strip pricing, current activity levels on the land, and the opportunities set in front of us.
Okay, thanks. And maybe last one from me. Can you just talk about the M&A environment? You know, PrairieSky's been fairly quiet on this side over the last little while. Can you talk about how you're viewing M&A opportunities and things of that nature?
You bet. I think, you know, the interesting thing is that, ninety dollar crude, we're, we're typically fairly inactive. Almost, all the M&A we've done over the last decade has been in kind of $40-$60 price environments. So, we're typically inactive, on the larger assets at this part of the cycle. Where we've been fortunate is, unlike a few other times when there was, really good pricing, like 2014 or 2017, we've been able to find these kind of large undeveloped land packages that have significant IRRs for the company and long-term resource potential on, on this new Mannville Stack play, which is very similar to the Clearwater in terms of IPs and resource in place. So, we've been fortunate that we've been able to add a significant land position in that play.
Land prices have gone up almost fivefold since even over the last year, and almost twentyfold since we first started acquiring land in there. So we may be priced out of that play completely now, but we've got a very large land position that'll give us decades of drilling inventory. So we're quite pleased with that. It looks like that it'll be a significant growth play similar to the Clearwater. And so again, with the strong organic growth rates within the business, it's challenging to find something that's growing at a faster pace than your existing business. So for now, we're quite comfortable with the portfolio we have, and we'll continue to focus on land leasing at this higher part of the cycle.
Okay, thanks for the color. I'll turn it back.
Please stand by for our next question. The next question comes from Jeremy McCrea with Raymond James. Your line is open.
Hi, guys. This is a bit off Jamie's question here, too. When we-- you talk about a lot about the Clearwater and the Mannville growth. What would be like, the, the other kind of place to watch here that could surprise us, next year? I'm just thinking, like, is there anything in the Duvernay and the Montney, that could surprise us in terms of additional production growth or other places other than those?
No, thanks for the question. I think, you know, in the Duvernay, the East Shale Duvernay, we do expect some growth there, in the double digits. Don't know exactly where it'll land. And then in the Montney, we've seen some significant well licensing on some of our core lands. Obviously, we had a big tailwind from a large pad that went on in Wembley this previous quarter, but we have seen some licensing subsequent to the quarter end, so we do expect growth there. And then probably the other one that's kind of more under the radar is in southern Alberta, there's a light oil play in the Basal Mannville that's started to gain some momentum.
We have a huge land position in southern Alberta, and it—some of the top wells, as I know you've noted, Jeremy, have come out of that region. So that's a light oil play, with liquids-rich solution gas, and we're starting to see licensing pick up there significantly. And if you break out the Mannville drilling action in Q3, there's double digits or over 10 wells drilled in the, on that light oil play. So that's, that's one that's kind of under the radar that could provide some light oil growth as well.
Would you say the leasing that you're seeing from different operators, like that we saw for Q3, how, like, and what you've kind of maybe seen so far, like in the first month of October here, like, is it picking up more aggressively than what you saw last year, even though oil prices are down, or is it the same? Is it like, when you sign these new leases, are they for more multiple wells, or are they just for single wells? I'm just trying to get a better sense of the leasing activity numbers that were reported.
So,
Like agreements and that.
No, for sure. And it's one of the interesting things we're seeing that's different from last year, if you look at the 40 different companies that leased from us in this quarter, it's similar leasing activity levels, similar land that we're leasing and similar, I guess, total acreage numbers. What's unique is it's a lot more different companies, so there's been a lot of new capital formation in the basin this year. There's two private companies, both that have leasing arrangements with us, that were out doing financings a week ago that are. They've leased what we consider some excellent land. So there's just a lot more different companies, but similar levels of leasing in terms of total acreage, Jeremy.
Okay. Okay, perfect. Thanks, guys.
As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. Our next question comes from Patrick O'Rourke with ATB Capital Markets. Your line is open.
Hey, good morning, guys. Hopefully, I'm not flogging a bit of a dead horse here because we've talked a lot about the Mannville so far, but I'm just kind of curious, and you got a bit into the leasing activity. Like, where, where do you think you are in terms of the leasing cycle, in terms of the asset quality that's left? I know, you know, you've had well-capitalized incumbents. You mentioned new capital formation juniors there. Guys have been working this fairway, and it's become extremely competitive. So, what sort of diamonds are left in the rough, and how does this sort of play out over the next couple of years? Or does it start to kind of tail off or taper off?
Yes, it's a good question. And thanks for the question, Patrick. One of the interesting things about it is, you know, the original play was kind of the Sparky, and then now we have the Waseca, the Rex, the Cummings. There's people trying kind of the fan wells or Fishbone wells in less consolidated reservoirs. So as you move into the Saskatchewan side, there's actually quite a significant resource there as well. And we've actually just started to do some leasing on the Saskatchewan side for similar type plays. So I think what's unique is the Mannville, obviously the biggest producing formation in Alberta, the world's fourth largest oil producer. It's a massive resource, and people are testing this play in a number of different zones.
So I think because it's zonal, there we believe there'll be still a few years ahead of people uncovering new opportunities in different places where it'll work. And we've actually seen some leasing on a light oil play for a similar type of technology where they're gonna try multilateral. So again, I do think there's still years ahead of opportunities. And there was one operator that was Baytex, which made a discovery, and they announced it, called Morinville. That's about 1,000 meters, so everyone's kind of targeted between 400 and 600 meters, and that whole fairway is pretty active, but they jumped a little further west, and it seemed to work there. Sometimes where you have slightly better oil quality, you can handle smaller grain size.
So we believe there's some pretty significant potential between 600 and 1,000 meters as well. So it's a pretty significant formation in Alberta, and we think this technology can unlock quite a bit more oil potential. So hopefully that answers your question.
No, that's terrific. And then, you know, sort of, just moving over, there's been a little bit of volatility in terms of the oil and NGL, you know, gas, oil ratios, gas, liquids ratios over the last couple of quarters. You have wildfires here. Most of the, or almost all of the new drilling that you're seeing on your land is targeting oil formations. Just wondering sort of how you envision the rate of change in that gas, oil ratio over the next couple of years.
We do. Just given the significant amount of oil drilling, we do expect the oil drilling to continue to become a bigger part of the mix. I think if you go all the way back to our IPO, which is almost a decade ago, we were 40% oil and liquids and 60% natural gas. Today, it's completely reversed. We're 60% oil and liquids and 40% natural gas. The one thing we have accumulated is a basket of options in the deep basin and in the Montney. So you see situations like this last quarter, where one single well pad can significantly impact the natural gas volumes.
So just given, you don't need a huge amount of drilling to impact gas volumes, it's, it'll be lumpier, as you mentioned, but, again, the oil volumes we expect to continue to grow just given the strong leasing activity. But there will always be volatility, in terms of in the short term, like in the quarters, 'cause you've got 42,800 wellbores you're collecting royalties on monthly, and then another 850 or so wells that get drilled on an annual basis. And the pace at which they come on really impacts the quarterly volumes. But if you look out, if you look out on an annual basis, it smooths out pretty well.
Okay, thank you.
And one other, just follow-up, just to, to your question. A lot of the gas volumes we've seen over the last two years have been associated gas, so a third of our gas volumes are now just associated with gas or with oil drilling. So a lot of that oil drilling is actually giving us a bit of a gas boost as well.
Thank you.
I show no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to Andrew for closing remarks.
Thank you, everyone, for dialing into the PrairieSky Q3 conference call, and please feel free to call Pam, myself, or Dan if you have any further questions. Have a great day.
Thank you for participating. This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.