Diamondback Energy, Inc. (FANG)
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Earnings Call: Q1 2017

May 3, 2017

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Diamondback Energy first quarter 2017's earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will follow at that time. If anyone should require assistance during the conference, please press star then zero on your touch-tone telephone. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Mr. Adam Lawlis, Director of Investor Relations. Sir, go ahead.

Adam Lawlis
Director of Investor Relations, Diamondback Energy

Thank you, Bruce. Good morning. Welcome to Diamondback Energy's first quarter 2017 conference call. During our call today, we will reference an updated investor presentation which can be found on Diamondback's website. Representing Diamondback today are Travis Stice, CEO, Mike Hollis, President and COO, and Tracy Dick, CFO. During this conference call, the participants may make certain forward-looking statements relating to the company's financial condition, results of operations, plans, objectives, future performance and businesses. We caution you that actual results could differ materially from those that are indicated in these forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors. Information concerning these factors can be found in the company's filings with the SEC. In addition, we will make reference to certain non-GAAP measures. The reconciliations with the appropriate GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release issued yesterday afternoon.

As a reminder, Viper Energy Partners, a subsidiary of Diamondback, will be hosting its conference call at 10:00 A.M. Central today. Dial-in details can be found on Viper's release issued yesterday afternoon. I'll now turn the call over to Travis Stice.

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

Thank you, Adam. Welcome everyone. Thank you for listening to Diamondback's first quarter 2017 conference call. Diamondback has continued the momentum from the second half of 2016 into the first quarter of 2017. Production continues to rise up 19% quarter-over-quarter to over 61,000 BOEs a day. Well results continue to improve across our asset base. We have begun operations in the Southern Delaware Basin after closing two transformative acquisitions in the last three quarters and more than doubling our acreage footprint of Tier 1 inventory. We're excited about the well results announced from our first operated wells in the Southern Delaware Basin in this quarter's release, and I'm proud of the organization for the seamless integration of these assets in a short period of time.

We are operating eight rigs today, six in the Midland Basin and two in the Southern Delaware Basin, with plans to move to five rigs in the Midland Basin and three in the Delaware Basin later this month. Diamondback is currently operating three frac spreads, with one of those operating in the Delaware Basin. We could potentially increase our operated rig count to nine or 10 rigs in the back half of the year should commodity prices improve from current levels. Put simply, if returns to our investors go up, we will increase our activity to take advantage of those returns with a current asset base capable of running up to 20 rigs as operating cash flow allows. If returns to our investors pull back, we have the operational and financial flexibility to respond accordingly.

Our full year 2017 production guidance remains unchanged with over 65% annual production growth at the midpoint. Diamondback continues to deliver on its corporate mission of best-in-class execution and low-cost operations with cash operating costs of $9.31 per BOE and well costs essentially flat compared to Q4 2016 due to increased efficiencies and service cost control. We have hired many more exceptional employees over the last several months to help us continue to execute as we increase activity on our larger asset base. We also continue to be pleased with the strength of our well results across our acreage, which Mike will elaborate upon later. As shown on slide four, we have accumulated a strong inventory with six core areas capable of million barrel plus EURs.

In each of these areas, we are focused on long lateral development with more than 85% of our locations having 7,500 foot or longer laterals. We've now built an organization with an inventory that we expect will, at current strip prices, allow us to grow at best-in-class rates within cash flow for many years to come. I'll now turn the call over to Mike.

Michael Hollis
President and COO, Diamondback Energy

Thank you, Travis. Diamondback continues to post encouraging results and achieve new company execution milestones. Turning to slide seven, we have new data from our first operated completions in the Southern Delaware Basin. In Ward County, the Coldblood well, a 7,500 foot lateral targeting the Wolfcamp A, completed in early April, has produced 210 BOE per 1,000 foot of lateral for its first 15 days with an 88% oil cut. Our first operated completions in Pecos County, the two McIntyre State wells, produced an average 30-day IP rate of 158 BOE per 1,000 foot of lateral with an 89% oil cut. Additionally, on the Pecos/Reeves County line, we completed the State McGary well that achieved a 24-hour IP rate of 243 BOE per 1,000 foot of completed lateral with an 85% oil cut.

We are currently running two rigs in the Southern Delaware Basin with one dedicated completion crew and plan to move a third operated rig from the Midland Basin to the Delaware Basin this month. We continue to optimize our completion design for the Southern Delaware Basin with a focus on maximizing NPV and rate of return. Slide eight lays out the recent developments discussed earlier across our Southern Delaware Basin position. We look forward to developing these assets with wells landed, drilled, and completed by Diamondback throughout 2017. Slide nine goes into further detail on our development plans for the Wolfcamp A in the Southern Delaware Basin. Our primary landing target is within the upper portion of the Wolfcamp A. As you can see from these well results posted on this page, these wells have a much flatter decline profile than what we have typically seen in the Midland Basin.

Turning to the Midland Basin, Slide 11 shows our continued strong well results across the basin. To note, Howard County continues to outperform expectations, and each pad has had better well results than the prior pad, again, led by the Wolfcamp A. In Midland County, we highlight the Wolfcamp A well results, which places this zone in a close second to the Lower Spraberry from a returns perspective. On the lower right portion of the page, we show well results from two child wells targeting the Lower Spraberry in Andrews County using our high-density near wellbore frack design. The early results show these two wells are outperforming their parent wells, a positive indicator for the targeted goal of increasing recoveries from a smaller stimulated rock volume.

Turning to operations and execution, Slide 12 showcases our continued track record of execution as DC&E costs are down 44% from 2014 and down 5% when compared to fourth quarter 2016. We have forecasted service cost inflation in our 2017 CapEx budget, primarily from completions. Diamondback is proactively mitigating these costs where appropriate. For instance, we're looking at deep bundling services on the completion side of the business and have a large percentage of tubular goods forward purchased. Slide 13 demonstrates our ability to effectively convert resource into cash flow. At $50 oil, the Lower Spraberry in the Midland Basin and the Wolfcamp A in the Southern Delaware Basin have economics that pay back 80% of capital costs in year one. We have other zones throughout both basins that will compete for capital.

These two zones will be the foundation for our multi-year production growth expectations, even in a sub-$50 oil world. Slide 14 reflects our spacing assumptions relative to our peers, leaving considerable upside from down spacing potential. Over 85% of our locations have lateral lengths of 7,500 feet or longer. Diamondback has continued to have success bolting on acreage and trading with other operators to block up our position. The capital efficiency of longer laterals is well recognized, and we have now completed up to-

Tracy Dick
EVP and CFO, Diamondback Energy

Per diluted share. Diamondback's first quarter 2017 net income adjusted for non-cash derivatives was $97 million, or $1.04 per diluted share. Our adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $175 million, up 27% from Q4 2016 due to increased production and realized pricing. Diamondback's average realized price per BOE, including hedges for the first quarter of 2017, was $41.63. During the quarter, our cash G&A costs were $1.20 per BOE, while non-cash G&A was $1.28. During the quarter, Diamondback spent $100 million on drilling and completion and $16 million on infrastructure and non-op properties. We continue to expect to spend within our annual CapEx guidance of $800 million-$1 billion as we maintain our April activity levels and begin our infrastructure investments. As shown on slide 17, Diamondback ended the first quarter of 2017 with a net debt to Q1 annualized adjusted EBITDA ratio of 1.4 times.

Our lead bank recently recommended increasing our borrowing base to $1.5 billion-$1 billion previously. We plan to increase our elected commitment to $750 million-$500 million previously. Our full year 2017 guidance, presented on slide 18, remains unchanged for the year, with the exception of the introduction of corporate tax rate guidance of 0%-5% and lower full-year interest expense per BOE. At current strip prices, we expect to deliver annualized production growth of over 65% at or near break-even cash flow. I'll now turn the call back over to Travis.

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

Thank you, Tracy. Diamondback was able to deliver another strong quarter because of our commitment to execution and low-cost operations. Our production was up as a result of continued outstanding well performance. Our track record of acquiring properties and subsequently executing above acquisition model expectations gives me confidence we have the organization in place to transfer our best-in-class execution and cost control from the Midland Basin to our over 100,000 net acres in the Delaware Basin and to drive growth at or near cash flow for many years to come. Operator, please open the line for questions.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, if you have a question, please press star then one on your touchtone telephone. If your question has been answered, or you wish to remove yourself from the queue, press the pound key. Again, to ask a question, press star, then one. Our first question comes from Michael Witte from JPMorgan. Your line is now open.

Michael Witte
Analyst, JPMorgan

Morning.

Morning

Given the volatility in the oil market, could you talk a little bit about capital flexibility? Kind of at what price point would you look to slow down and where would you do it?

Michael Hollis
President and COO, Diamondback Energy

Yeah. We can talk directionally. I always hesitate to give a precise oil price. Directionally, if we're in that

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

That $45-$50 range, I think we're very comfortable, and we have the balance sheet to be able to execute with our current activity levels. I think if it starts dropping below somewhere between $40 and $45 a barrel, we'll probably take a pause and see exactly what our future plans need to look like. Then I think on the other end of the spectrum, if it's $50-$55, something like that, we'll look at a potential increase in activity in the back half of the year.

I think, Michael, one of the reasons that we were hesitant in trying to change guidance at this point of the year is I think there's still a lot of uncertainty in the oil markets. We want to make sure we preserve the optionality to drive the best returns to our investors. We will do so just like we've done in the past.

Michael Witte
Analyst, JPMorgan

Got it. Just high level on the Pecos County assets, how has your view on the acreage changed since you announced the acquisition last year? Any positive surprises?

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

Well, I think if you just look at the well results we've put in this release, on the Reward acreage, we knew that acreage was going to be good, particularly in the Wolfcamp A, and the Third Bone Spring. We're really pleased with what we've seen in that Cold Blood well, at over a really good 15-day rate. I think the McGary well which was a well that's landed in the Upper Wolfcamp A, which is what we underpinned the acquisition at, that's been a nice surprise. The McIntyre wells that were landed in the Lower Wolfcamp A, those are still at our acquisition type curve. Even though it wasn't in necessarily the zone that we think are going to be the dominant development zone, even those wells are at our acquisition type curve. We feel pretty confident across the asset base.

Of course, we continue to watch industry activity, not only for well results, but also for continued optimization on the completion side. All in all, we're really encouraged with what we've seen at these early times. Keep in mind, we took over operations March 1st. It's still early in the game, but we're really pleased with what we've seen.

Michael Witte
Analyst, JPMorgan

Got it. Just maybe one more on Pecos County. As you ramp up your operated program, could you talk about your latest thinking on landing zones and completion design?

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

Yes. In Pecos County, what we've talked about even at acquisition time was sort of that Gen 3, Gen 4 level, where we're somewhere around 2,000 pounds to 2,500 pounds per foot. We think in Pecos County, the Upper Wolfcamp A, which is where the McGary well was landed, is going to be the dominant zone. So far with good IP 24 and a week or so of production, that really looks good. We're monitoring the things that are going on out in the Delaware, just like we always do. We're fast followers. We'll continue to experiment with diverters and sand loadings until we find the optimal balance of sand, fluid, and rate of return in net present value.

Michael Witte
Analyst, JPMorgan

Got it. Thank you very much.

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

You bet, Michael. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from Neal Dingmann from SunTrust. Your line is now open.

Neal Dingmann
Analyst, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey

Morning, guys. Travis, a question around the Delaware acres, particularly the Brigham acreage. With that, you brought in a fair amount of minerals. I'm just wondering on what you'll be drilling there in the nearer term is, I know you've got some older slides that shows the upside in Viper to what it does in some of the other Midland acres, and I'm just wondering, when it looks at the Delaware, two questions. One, will a good bit of that be drilled where you have the mineral fee acres as well? Then number 2, does that upside, is that proportionally about the same as what it's been for the other Viper units?

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

I'll let Kaes answer the question specifically, but I'll tell you just in a general sense from the Viper side, every time we have a drill schedule meeting on 2:00 on Thursdays and a well gets proposed to the executive team, the first question is, do we have minerals underneath that well location? We always try to push activity towards our ownership in minerals. Kaes, you want to answer this?

Kaes Van't Hof
SVP, Strategy and Corporate Development, Diamondback Energy

Yeah. I'll also add that with the two or three rigs that we're going to be operating in that area, primarily we're going to focus on holding leases, and then outside of that, those rigs will be drilling on Viper minerals and getting the cash flow up on those assets for the right time to drop those minerals down. Had a lot of success buying more minerals in that area, and I think it's a good sign for Viper as well.

Neal Dingmann
Analyst, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey

Okay. Guys, just one last one. Just, we continue to hear talk about OFS inflation. Just Travis, in general, what some things you all are continuing to do? Just was noticing some of your wells versus some of the peers and tends to be a bit lower for sometime the equivalent sort of frack schedule. I am just wondering some things that you all are doing. How are you doing that to keep some costs a bit lower than others?

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

Well, it's not just one or two things. It's really a systematic approach through the whole organization to trying to do things to generate the best returns at the lowest costs. That sounds a little maybe esoteric, but really it is about culturally trying to do the best we can and expend the least amount of money in order to be the low-cost operator. Specifically, the efficiency gains we continue to push on the drilling side. As Mike talked about, we've began trying to debundle some of the pressure pumping services in order to control some of those things. Like diesel, for example, we buy and supply our own diesel for the frack companies and the drilling rigs. It's just a series, Neal, of a bunch of things that we try that we're picking pennies up, and you pick up enough pennies, well, you make a dollar.

While we were proud that even while we were trying to digest $3 billion worth of acquisitions, we were able to push costs down quarter-over-quarter. I think we said about 5% quarter-over-quarter. We know that trend won't continue if commodity prices continue to strengthen through the rest of this year, but we're real comfortable with where our CapEx guidance is, with a 10% overall increase in well cost throughout the full year. As we reported, we really didn't see that in the first quarter. I'm confident that our business partners are aware of what's going on the service side, are aware of what's going on in the commodity price world. I'm confident that our organization has the ability to execute differentially to control cost as well as activity levels pick up.

Neal Dingmann
Analyst, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey

Perfect. Guys, thanks for the details.

Operator

Our next question comes from Drew Winkler from Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open.

Drew Winkler
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Morning, everyone. I was hoping on the Southern Delaware, you could talk about the plans in Pecos County, sounds like you're focusing on the central acreage block, but I'm just curious how much other testing you'll be doing in the other parts of Pecos this year.

Russell Pantermuehl
EVP, Reservoir Engineering, Diamondback Energy

Right now, as Kaes mentioned, we're primarily focused on near-term leasehold wells, which the biggest piece of those is on the eastern block of the acreage where we've seen good well results previously. We've got scattered obligations across the acreage, and we'll continue to drill those as well. You'll see a mix, and as we bring in that third rig, we'll also do some other testing as well.

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

Drew, just to clarify that, when Russell mentions the eastern side of the acreage, we're talking about that central block, not that portion of the acreage that's down on the southeast, the far southeast.

Drew Winkler
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Right.

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

It's where we've got a bunch of good wells, in that big central block. He's talking about the eastern edge of that.

Drew Winkler
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Okay. Thanks for that. Then across the entire Southern Delaware, how much experimentation would you expect with the completion design? Because you talked about going back to the Gen 3 completion, just not sure how much you think that might need to be changed there. How much additional proppant loading you'll be testing this year?

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

Well, Drew, we've never stopped tweaking and changing our completion recipe since the very beginning. We believe that in an organization that demonstrates excellence, you've got to always look for continuous improvement, and that's what we're trying to do. We do so with our own testing, with proppant loading, as well as following what the industry's doing as well. I'll tell you one thing that I think is a little bit different about Diamondback is that most of the testing that we do, not most, all the testing we do, we always underpin with what's the corresponding rate of return and net present value impact for that decision. I think right now we're going to stay in that proppant loading of around 2,000-2,500 pounds per foot. We'll probably continue to experiment with the cluster spacing and stage spacing.

Again, we understand that the Delaware Basin is new not only for Diamondback, but it's still relatively new for the industry. We're going to watch what goes on very closely with other operators in the Delaware, and if we feel like we can generate differential returns to our investors, we'll modify the completion or the drilling or any of the things that we think will drive better returns for our investors.

Drew Winkler
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Makes sense. Thanks.

Operator

Our next question comes from Gordon Douthat from Wells Fargo. Your line is now open.

Gordon Douthat
Analyst, Wells Fargo

Thanks. Good morning, everybody. Just a question on the downspacing. Looked like the initial data looked promising, I guess, in Andrews County. My question is, to what extent have you tested downspacing elsewhere across your acreage? From what I can tell, it looks like it's just in the Lower Spraberry here in Andrews. Have you done any downspacing in any of the other zones as well?

Russell Pantermuehl
EVP, Reservoir Engineering, Diamondback Energy

Yeah, we've done a lot of 500-foot spacing wells in our Midland County assets in the Lower Spraberry. This Andrews County is our first test at 500-foot spacing in the Lower Spraberry there. For the most part, in our other assets on the east side of the basin, we're primarily at 660-foot spacing in the Lower Spraberry, the A and the B. We do have some offset operators in our Midland County stuff that are testing downspacing primarily in the Wolfcamp A, and so we're watching that data pretty closely as well.

Gordon Douthat
Analyst, Wells Fargo

Okay.

Russell Pantermuehl
EVP, Reservoir Engineering, Diamondback Energy

Depending on those results, we may do some additional downspacing in the Wolfcamp A.

Gordon Douthat
Analyst, Wells Fargo

Okay. Then, understanding that it takes some time to see how the wells produce and to see how the economics ultimately play out. What is that timeframe, in your view? How long does it take to make the decision, we're going to go to 500-foot spacing on a go-forward basis?

Russell Pantermuehl
EVP, Reservoir Engineering, Diamondback Energy

Yeah, it's going to take a little time, just like our Andrews County test. That's one three-well pad. We'll have to drill some additional wells there before we make a wholesale decision to go to tighter spacing across that whole area.

Gordon Douthat
Analyst, Wells Fargo

Okay. Then one last one for me. On the parent-child production.

slide that you put up there looked pretty promising. What were those wells spaced on versus where were the child wells spaced versus the parent wells?

Russell Pantermuehl
EVP, Reservoir Engineering, Diamondback Energy

All the wells were on 660-foot spacing for those four wells.

Gordon Douthat
Analyst, Wells Fargo

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from Gail Nicholson from KLR Group. Your line is now open.

Gail Nicholson
Analyst, KLR Group

Good morning. When you talk about being an asset cable or running 20 rigs, is that driven by surface acreage or is that driven by drilling inventory?

Russell Pantermuehl
EVP, Reservoir Engineering, Diamondback Energy

Gail, it's more of a function of surface acreage and how efficiently we can coordinate drilling and completion operations. It's not a function of inventory.

Gail Nicholson
Analyst, KLR Group

Okay, great. Just looking at the Delaware and the first execution of the drilling standpoint on the Reward area as well as the Pecos area, has anything surprised you in the drilling aspect? From an efficiency aspect, have you been more efficient quicker, or what's the thoughts on improving those TD days in Delaware?

Michael Hollis
President and COO, Diamondback Energy

You bet, Gail. This is Michael Hollis. The answer is yes. We've seen a lot and learned a lot, obviously as we do our research and look at what other folks are doing out there, it's really not until you get in the sandbox that you really get to learn how the rocks are going to act and talk to you. We've learned a lot in our last couple of wells, we will drive the same kind of optimization that we have in the Midland Basin side over in the Delaware side. Again, just for the depth and the pressure regimes, it should end up taking a couple of days longer on the Delaware side than the Midland side, you'll see us start migrating toward the Midland performance.

Gail Nicholson
Analyst, KLR Group

Great. Then just also from a standpoint of looking at your conservative spacing. In the Delaware, it looks like you're only assuming one zone in the Wolfcamp A. I'm assuming when you're landing them, are you landing them in the upper zone so you have the ability to go back and do the lower zone at a later date?

Russell Pantermuehl
EVP, Reservoir Engineering, Diamondback Energy

Yeah, that's just something we'll evaluate over time, and as we said, as we bring in the third rig in the Delaware, we'll probably do some pilot testing where we're testing upper and lower A together. Right now, we don't have enough data to say that we can do that, we're optimistic.

Gail Nicholson
Analyst, KLR Group

Okay, great. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from John Nelson from Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open.

John Nelson
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Good morning, and congratulations on a really, really strong quarter.

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

Thank you, John.

John Nelson
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Your oil mix came in ahead of street estimates for the quarter, and as I take a look at the ops update, your high the 90% oil wells. I'm wondering if you could just speak at a high level, how should we expect that oil mix to trend over the next couple of quarters?

Russell Pantermuehl
EVP, Reservoir Engineering, Diamondback Energy

I think it'll stay about flat. There'll be variation quarter to quarter as we've always seen. As you noted, on the Delaware side, we're in a really high oil cut area. On the Midland side, the eastern side of the Midland Basin, where we've seen really good overall results, and we'll continue with activity there. Those are a little bit gassier. I think overall, probably for the remainder of the year, we should probably stay close to that 75% oil cut level.

John Nelson
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

That's helpful. Some of your peers have noted inflationary pressures in the Delaware Basin are running a bit hotter versus the Midland Basin. Can you just comment, is that something you all are seeing as well, or any kind of quantification would just be helpful.

Michael Hollis
President and COO, Diamondback Energy

You bet, John. We see about the same inflationary pressure from both basins. Most of the inflation that we've seen has been on the pressure pumping side, and again, pressure pumping and from the sand side. When you go to the Delaware, where a lot of folks are still experimenting with really high sand loadings and large jobs, they're getting a disproportionate size of inflation that they're seeing from the Delaware side. In general, we're seeing about the same from both basins.

John Nelson
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Just one shrug. If you did add the ninth and 10th rigs in the back half of the year, is that something that was already contemplated in the 2017 capital guidance of $800 million to $1 billion, would that be something that would either require efficiency gains or for you to raise that budget?

Michael Hollis
President and COO, Diamondback Energy

John, our original budget was from six to 10 rigs, that had us from that $800 million to $1 billion price range. They were baked into the initial guidance that we'd given.

John Nelson
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

The high end of that range. Okay, perfect. That's all. Congrats again on a really strong quarter.

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

Thanks, John.

Operator

Our next question comes from Dan McSpirit from BMO Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Dan McSpirit
Analyst, BMO Capital Markets

Thank you, folks. Good morning. Can you share your view on basis differentials, asking in light of the basis swaps you've added in 2018 at less than $1 per barrel?

Kaes Van't Hof
SVP, Strategy and Corporate Development, Diamondback Energy

Yeah. Hey, Dan, this is Kaes. We're pretty happy with the basis hedges we have on at this point. We're also very encouraged by the announcements that have happened in the last quarter on greenfield expansion as well as the brownfield projects that are being expanded over this summer. We're happy where we are today, and I think you'll see that these midstream guys are looking to fund these greenfield projects given the growth they're seeing coming out of the basin. I think we're pretty happy with where our hedge position sits and where the takeaway capacity is heading out of the basin.

Dan McSpirit
Analyst, BMO Capital Markets

Great. Thank you. As a follow-up, just a question on portfolio management, if you will. If we look out nine, 12 months from now after the company has had time to, I guess, fully digest the acquisition, what basin or operation, Midland or Delaware, yields the highest return in your view? Is there anything in the portfolio that can't compete or won't compete for capital and could be a candidate for divestiture?

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

Yeah, I think the first part of that question we addressed in one of the slides. I can't remember which slide it is. We actually say that what we see in the Upper Wolfcamp A, even at the higher cost, because you have a higher EUR per foot, it's competitive with the Lower Spraberry in the Northern Midland Basin. If that premise holds true in the next 12 months, well, then you should have equal allocation to capital on both sides of the basin. The second question was, are there portions of the portfolio which don't make sense to allocate capital to initially? I think, like any company, when you look at some of the inventory that's out on the very tail end, is going to have a hard time competing for capital. Would we divest? I don't know.

We've got a lot to segregate over right now. We're focusing on trying to execute, and some of that late portfolio development assets, we'll address that sometime through the course of this year.

Dan McSpirit
Analyst, BMO Capital Markets

Very good. Thank you. Have a great day.

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

Thank you, Dan.

Operator

Our next question comes from Richard Giles from Capital One Securities. Your line is now open.

Richard Giles
Analyst, Capital One Securities

Hey, thanks. Good morning, everyone. Travis, what was the drilling completion cost for the initial FANG-operated Delaware Basin wells? Have you already achieved the completions cost referenced in the investor presentation at $550 per foot level?

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

Yeah, Richard, I'm going to let Mike address the question specifically. I will tell you that early on in the Delaware Basin, we've done some science. That science means more expense on these first couple of wells. I'll let Mike talk about them specifically.

Michael Hollis
President and COO, Diamondback Energy

Richard, on the completion specifically with your $550 question, the answer is yes. The completions have all come in at or right near our cost for the $550. Total drill complete and what we've had to do from the equip side up to this point, of course, these wells are naturally flowing right now, the equip piece is a little smaller than normal. We have, as Travis said, done some science. Ex-science, we're right in our guidance range for the wells.

Richard Giles
Analyst, Capital One Securities

All right. Thank you.

Michael Hollis
President and COO, Diamondback Energy

From the drill side.

Richard Giles
Analyst, Capital One Securities

What percentage do you expect in, say, the second half of the year of the Delaware Basin wells will be drilled on two well pads?

Michael Hollis
President and COO, Diamondback Energy

Richard, after the first four or five wells in each one of our big blocks, the Brigham piece as well as the Luxe piece, will go to pad development after that point. When we bring that third rig over, that'll obviously make it a lot easier to drill pad wells and still meet the few obligations that we have throughout the year.

Richard Giles
Analyst, Capital One Securities

All right, thank you. Travis, how's the infrastructure build-out proceeding in the Delaware Basin, and what do you expect infrastructure spending could be over, say, the next one or two years? Just your current view on maybe infrastructure being a more meaningful asset within the FANG portfolio going forward.

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

Yeah, Richard, I'm going to let Kaes answer that question. He's got his finger on that pulse pretty closely.

Kaes Van't Hof
SVP, Strategy and Corporate Development, Diamondback Energy

Yeah, Richard, the large projects are proceeding as planned. We didn't spend that much money in Q1 just because we closed Brigham at the end of February. Through the rest of this year, we still have $150 million-$175 million budgeted for infrastructure, and I would say that spend is going to be fairly even over the last three quarters of the year. On the Brigham stuff, we did acquire a gathering system on the gas side that was in place and some significant water assets that were in place. That's allowed us to seamlessly transition into that asset. In the long term, we're focused on maximizing our net backs at Diamondback, and that's why we're building these systems over the next nine to 12 months.

Richard Giles
Analyst, Capital One Securities

Okay. Just lastly, 1Q, obviously a very strong quarter for cost controls. How much more opportunity do you see at FANG for driving OPEX cost even lower or at least keeping it flattish, given you're coming out of acquiring a sizable asset there? Perhaps that presents some opportunities to keep the momentum going.

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

Yeah, Richard, you've heard me say before that we'll never quit pushing on the LOE reduction side until we can produce these wells for free. I'm not ready to say we're going to go the other way at any time. The reality is that we've got a lot of new assets we're bringing in, and it takes all of our field organization every day leaning into the brace, trying to make sure we produce these wells as efficiently and as cost-effectively as we can. Like I said, we didn't make a bullet point out of it at our earnings release, but even in the process of dialing in 100,000 new acres, our field organization lowered LOE quarter-over-quarter, which I was real proud of them for being able to do that, especially against the backdrop of acquiring new assets.

Richard Giles
Analyst, Capital One Securities

Well, that's all for me. Great quarter. Thanks a bunch.

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

Thank you, Richard.

Operator

Once again, ladies and gentlemen, at this time, if you have a question, please press star then one on your touchtone telephone. Our next question comes from John Aschenbeck from Seaport Global. Your line is now open.

John Aschenbeck
Analyst, Seaport Global

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. A lot of the good ones have already been addressed, did have a question here on timing of test of additional zones in Pecos County. I understand most of the activity this year is going to focus on Wolfcamp A, if I recall, I believe you had several Bone Spring completions scheduled for this year. I was just curious to get an update on the timing of those tests and when we should expect results. Thanks.

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

Yeah. We've got a couple of DUCs at the Brigham drill that we'll be completing that are in the Bone Springs, as we mentioned at acquisition time, they had some previous Bone Springs tests that had some nice results. Right now, we don't have any specific additional Bone Springs tests scheduled on the Brigham acreage this year, we'll just complete those DUCs and see how those results stack up with the Wolfcamp A before making a decision on a go-forward basis.

John Aschenbeck
Analyst, Seaport Global

Okay, got it. I guess just be looking for those results in the back half of the year then?

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

Correct.

John Aschenbeck
Analyst, Seaport Global

Okay, thanks. That's it for me.

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

Thanks, John.

Operator

At this time, I'm showing no further questions. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Travis Stice for any closing remarks.

Travis Stice
CEO, Diamondback Energy

Thanks again to everyone participating in today's call. If you have any questions, please contact us using the contact information provided.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may all disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.