Good morning. Welcome everyone to the Tamarack Valley Energy Ltd conference call and webcast on October 28th, discussing the Tamarack Valley Energy Ltd Q3 2022 results. Today's call is being recorded. I would like to introduce today's speaker, Mr. Brian Schmidt, President and CEO, and Mr. Steve Buytels, Vice President, Finance and CFO. If you would like to ask a question during today's call, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. Mr. Schmidt, you may begin your conference.
Good morning. We're pleased to announce our third quarter financial results. Q3 was an outstanding quarter for Tamarack as funds flow generation and production continued to trend ahead of plan. We successfully closed the previously announced Viking disposition and announced the CAD 1.4 billion acquisition of Deltastream. This has solidly positioned Tamarack as the largest producer in the Clearwater, which is recognized as the most economic play in North America. With Deltastream deal having closed on October 13th, Tamarack is focused on asset development, funds flow generation, and debt reduction in order to position the company for future enhanced returns as part of our return of capital framework. I'll pass it on to Steve Buytels, CFO, to run through our financial highlights.
Thanks, Brian. Tamarack delivered adjusted funds flow of CAD 177.8 million and free funds flow of CAD 79.4 million during the quarter. We exited the quarter with CAD 286.8 million of net debt, which includes the proceeds from the equity financing completed in conjunction with the Deltastream acquisition in September. The equity financing represented the first material Canadian E&P bought deal financing since the first quarter of 2021, ahead of the acquisition which closed in October. During the third quarter, we invested CAD 98.5 million in capital expenditures to advance development in both our Clearwater and Charlie Lake plays, where results continue to meet or exceed expectations. I will pass it over to Brian for an operations rundown.
Tamarack delivered production levels of 43,476 BOE per day during the quarter, despite forecasted third-party downtime in the Charlie Lake area, which impacted volumes of approximately 1,500 bbl BOE per day. Production has since been restored and is trending in line with our corporate forecast. We are also advancing plans to construct a new owned and operated gas plant in the region with engineering and design work underway. Phase 1 will add about 15 million-20 million standard cu ft of processing capacity and is forecasted to be on stream the second quarter of 2023. Our Charlie Lake's results continue to impress with the 15-24 wells drilled during the quarter, achieving IP30 rate of over 1,300 BOE per day. The Clearwater continues to deliver robust results as we advance development and exploration across our properties.
In South Clearwater, year-over-year production has increased by over 6,500 bbl of oil per day, reflecting our acquisitions to date and ongoing drilling program. Development has been focused at extensions in Prairie Vale, with the results exceeding type curve. We have rig released 39 wells in 2022, with 36 of those now on stream across the southern Alberta, Southern Clearwater asset base and an additional six wells remaining to be drilled prior to year-end. At West Marten Hills, we rig released four wells, including the Nipisi A sand test. Two of the four wells are on production, with the Clearwater A sand exhibiting rates of over 200 bbl of oil per day. This opens up an additional 50 locations across our land base and is additive to the development inventory in our location count.
Tamarack's strategy at West Nipisi is focused on optimizing our waterflood development moving forward. The company has rig released 15 of 17 wells planned from four different pad sites, all of which are being developed under Tamarack's Nipisi Clearwater waterflood configuration. We would note that the initial rate on our six-well pad in this area is exceeding expectations with current pad production of over 2,000 bbl of oil per day. With respect to our Peavine-Seal Clearwater lands, Tamarack has licensed our first eight-leg multilateral well. Surface construction is ongoing with plans to spud this well in mid-November. At Seal, we are on track to spud our first three-well pad in early December, which will test three separate Clearwater sands. With the Deltastream acquisition now closed, we are currently running three rigs on Deltastream lands with activity ongoing through year-end.
We've allocated CAD 50 million of capital in Q4 that is expected to drill 22 100% working interest wells and includes the costs associated with ongoing pipe facility and surface construction projects. Total production from the Deltastream assets averaged 20,400 BOE per day through the first three weeks of October, with 13,300 bbl a day coming from Marten Hills and 5,300 bbl of oil BOE per day from the Nipisi area. I'll pass it over to Steve to run through our updated pro forma fourth quarter guidance.
To reflect the acquisition of Deltastream, we have provided updated Q4 guidance with capital expenditures expected to be in the range of CAD 125 million-CAD 135 million, and production expected to average between 62,000 and 64,000 BOE a day. Looking ahead to next year, we plan to release Tamarack's 2023 full year budget guidance in early December. The company remains committed to balancing long-term sustainable free funds flow growth with returning capital to shareholders. Previously disclosed with the Deltastream acquisition, the company further refined its return on capital framework to balance debt repayment, enable future strategic acquisitions that bolster long-term inventory resiliency and increase clarity around delivering enhanced returns to shareholders through opportunistic share buybacks and or enhanced dividends.
Accordingly, Tamarack is in the process of applying to the TSX to renew the NCIB for November 2022 through October 2023. As previously announced, the company will increase the base dividend by 25% to CAD 0.15 per share annually for the upcoming November dividend declaration payable in December. In total, Tamarack has increased its annual base dividend by 50% year to date from CAD 0.10 per share to CAD 0.15 per share annually. The increase in the base dividend is driven by the enhanced sustainable free funds flow achieved in conjunction with the success of our 2022 capital program and strategic Clearwater acquisitions, which are accretive to the five-year plan at flat pricing of $55 per bbl WTI and CAD 2.50 per GJ AECO. I'll pass it back to Brian for some final comments.
Thanks, Steve. 2022 has been an exciting pivotal year for Tamarack, and we're on track to deliver record production and funds flow while also balancing and delivering our commitment on return of cash to shareholders. I'd like to thank our board, staff, and shareholders and stakeholders for your ongoing support. Tamarack has established ourselves as a Clearwater leader in the Clearwater, and we're excited to be advancing our Charlie Lake in order to further enhance returns and future upside for our investors. I'll pass it over to the moderator for questions.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. Again, please press star one to ask a question. We'll pause for just a moment to allow everyone an opportunity to signal for questions. Our first question comes from Trevor Reynolds with Acumen Capital. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys. I was wondering if you could go through what you're seeing in terms of cost inflation.
Yeah, we'd had a pretty thorough review with the board yesterday on that. If you kinda look at the big picture, relative to what we had budgeted in January, we're up around 15%. I think we put in about. If I go back the year before, we probably put in an additional 5% the year before. We're probably rolling in that 18%-20%. Now, in terms of going forward, you know, it's always a question of, well, where do you think, you know, costs are going? I think we're probably gonna budget for a little bit more, but not very much. I think we've probably seen a point where we're getting some efficiencies. We're getting some labor back in the market.
Supply chain issues aren't quite as tight as they were before. I think we're kinda seeing our way to a plateau, but we're not quite there yet.
Got it. Thanks. Just in terms of CapEx for Q4, up a little bit, I think, relative to where expectations were. Maybe you can just kinda break down where that additional spending's going.
Yeah. Trevor, it's Steve Buytels. Thanks. You know, when you look at it, we underspent relative to where we would have guided for Q3, you know, roughly by, on the E&D side by, you know, call it CAD 8 million- CAD 10 million. That was really just a timing event where some of that got pushed into early Q4 into October here. When you look through it, we're actually bang on with respect to where we're gonna come in for the year Tamarack standalone.
Then the fact that we closed the Deltastream acquisition, you know, approximately 18 days earlier than we had previously expected, you know, we brought in a little bit more capital into the Tamarack model as a result of that, where, you know, we would have probably about CAD 5 million-CAD 7 million that would have come in, again, just from a timing of closing the acquisition earlier with respect to Deltastream CapEx. Net-net, you know, the CAD 125 million-CAD 135 million that we have released for Q4 should have been in line with our standalone plus just the adjustment for the earlier close on Deltastream to the extent of about CAD 5 million.
Now the one thing on cost I'll just add with the larger asset base and combined properties, especially in the Nipisi area, we're expecting some significant reductions on infrastructure costs that get allocated on a per well basis. Larger pad design size. We brought in some guys that are pretty good at pad drilling and moving rigs efficiently on lease. While you might see, you know, some inflation on rates, I actually think that our capital efficiency should improve as we digest these assets.
Great. Thanks, guys. I'll pass the line back to someone else.
Thanks, Trevor.
Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one. Our next question comes from Jamie Kubik with CIBC. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning and thanks, guys. Maybe just on a bit of Trevor's question there. I know you've already put out a outlook for 2023, and then we'll finalize that beginning of December. Should we think about additional inflation possibly passing through that budget based on what you're seeing in the field?
Yeah. Hey, thanks, Jamie. It's Steve here. You know what? I do. You know, we're looking at it and trying now with the Deltastream assets coming in to just understand what that program looks like for 2023. I think we have a pretty good handle of where Tamarack standalone is gonna be. Yeah, you know, again, like Brian mentioned, I'd say the biggest unknown right now still is probably the labor component of the inflation. You know, we'll see as we firm things up early into December.
Again, as we highlighted, you know, we'll give you guys a number, and we do think there's gonna be some decent synergy from a capital perspective moving forward here that we'll be able to drive lower costs just on having more scale and scope in the Marten Hills and Nipisi areas. Again, you know, we'll hopefully be able to bring some further clarification to that as we move through, you know, the first part of 2023 and get some execution pro forma, all of the assets under our belt.
Got it. Okay. With spend on the Deltastream assets in Q4, where do you think those assets exit the year at? I know you guided to about 23,000 from Deltastream in 2023. How do you think, you know, the number of wells going into that property through Q4 sets it up for next year?
Yeah. No, great question. You know, I think when you look at the way we've modeled out the program that the 22 wells that we've talked about, the majority just given their bigger pads, the way they're coming on, it really hits you kinda really late December and then into January. You know, I would say we're still in that, you know, probably 20,500-21,000 BOE a day. That would be really a good Q4 number. Then that, you know, will climb in through Q1 exit up closer to that 23,000 bbl a day as all of that winter program comes on. You know, that's how we forecasted it based on our risk rates.
I think you can see, though, you know, the magnitude of what that asset can deliver. You know, Marten Hills, everybody knows about and knows, you know, that's obviously the crème de la crème of the Clearwater. When you look at Nipisi, that 3.25 sections, where they have, you know, they drilled the three pads, that's still doing 4,000 bbl a day off those 3.25 sections after six months. That shows you what we see in terms of potential upside there at Nipisi. You know, we've drilled that West Nipisi pad that, you know, is a six-well pad that, you know, is doing 2,000 bbl a day.
I think at Nipisi, you know, there's the opportunity for us to hopefully, you know, deliver something a little bit better than, you know, what we've allocated as a risked production estimate off of those assets.
Okay, great. Maybe last one from me is on the Peavine well that you have in the schedule for mid-November. When do you think you might talk about rates from that well based on the current timeframe that you have? Are you willing to share sort of what a successful well would look like for you in terms of rates?
Yeah. By the time we get that drilled and get your 30 days, you're talking Q1 that we get some results on that. You know, just so we're clear, we're not expecting a Baytex, you know, some of those great wells those guys are drilling in this particular area. It'll be more what you'd expect from Clearwater in that, you know, 150 bbl a day range.
Okay, excellent. That's it for me. Thanks, guys.
Thank you.
Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one. Ladies and gentlemen, there are no more questions. This concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.