Good morning, and welcome to the Texas Pacific Land Corporation's First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. This conference is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's call, Shawn Amini, Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you for joining us today for Texas Pacific Land Corporation's First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. Yesterday afternoon, the company released its financial results and filed its Form 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is available on the investors section of the company's website at www.texaspacific.com. As a reminder, remarks made on today's conference call may include forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed today. We do not undertake any obligation to update our forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. For a more detailed discussion of the factors that may affect the company's results, please refer to our earnings release for this quarter and to our most recent SEC filings. During this call, we'll also be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures.
More information and reconciliations about these non-GAAP financial measures are contained in our earnings release and SEC filings. Please also note we may at times refer to our company by its stock ticker, TPL. This morning's conference call is hosted by TPL's Chief Executive Officer, Tyler Glover, and Chief Financial Officer, Chris Steddum. Management will make some prepared comments, after which we'll open the call for questions. Now I'll turn the call over to Tyler.
Thanks, Shawn. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Yesterday, we announced a special dividend of $20 per share, and this special dividend is incremental to the $100 million share repurchase plan that we announced in March. We're excited that our shareholders will benefit from this increased return of capital driven by strong Permian activity, commodity prices that are some of the best we've seen in a decade, and a balance sheet that is debt-free. Looking forward to the rest of 2022, we're bullish that our underlying business fundamentals will remain constructive. We're seeing more rigs added onto our surface, and looking at our water sales schedule, we can see that producers are intent on maintaining and growing completions pacing throughout the year.
In our surface leases, easements, and materials business, which we refer to as SLIM, we are seeing a noticeable uptick for requests for new infrastructure and well pads, especially in the Northern Delaware. All of these signs are a good leading indicator for future development activity. As we look at our well inventory, we have yet more reasons to be encouraged. Permitting activity and drilling activity have moved higher. For the first quarter of 2022, our data indicates that we had 200 gross spuds on our royalty acreage, which is the highest level since the pandemic. Although some of the increased drilling can be attributed to the fact that operators have less inventory of DUCs to complete, we also continue to see strong overall completions as well. In particular, we're seeing a nice ramp in activity in Loving County.
Overall, it was a solid quarter for the water segment. We did have a couple of frack jobs get deferred where we had source water sales lined up, with the deferrals mostly related to operator struggles with procuring frack sand. The outlook for water on both the sourced and produced side remains strong, and we expect volumes to increase throughout the year, though maybe not without a few hiccups here and there as operators navigate various supply chain and labor constraints. We're also excited about our updated alliance with Aris, which we announced last month. We've worked with Aris for a long time, and we consider them to be a great partner.
With our expanded agreement, we believe that we'll be able to serve operators more efficiently and effectively as we can leverage our combined competencies and assets to provide operators supply assurances on the source side and also have readily available solutions on the produced water side so that we can help keep operators' oil and gas development moving along. We have a lot of exciting projects in the next gen pipeline as well. In fact, just recently, we signed an agreement with Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp to put a behind-the-meter solar project on our surface in Culberson County. The project will support oil and gas development for a large energy multinational company operating in the region. This project does not require any capital from us, and we will receive annual payments with inflation escalators.
We continue to have numerous constructive conversations for similar behind-the-meter solar projects with producers that are on our surface, and we're excited to participate as the domestic oil and gas industry continues to evolve its best practices and show leadership in minimizing Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions associated with development. We are also advancing discussions on utility-scale renewable projects, Bitcoin mining, carbon capture, and many other innovative and unique opportunities. We'll share updates and details as we get things signed up, and I'm hopeful we'll be able to cross the finish line on some of these projects in the near term. A few weeks ago, we issued a press release and an 8-K with an update on our board of directors and the evaluation of the declassification process. I'm excited to welcome Rhys J. Best and Karl F. Kurz as new board members.
Both Reese and Carl are highly experienced, and they will bring a lot of skills and insights to our boardroom. They're excited about the business and what we can accomplish, and I think our shareholders are going to benefit tremendously from having them on our board. On the declassification side, our board and the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee continue to work through that. I don't have specific timing to share at this time, but I know our committee is committed to working diligently and quickly on the matter, and the board and the committee will have more to share later this year as they make progress. Wrapping it all up, the business is in a great place today. We're thrilled to be returning a significant amount of cash back to shareholders through a regular dividend, through this most recent special dividend, and through our recent share buyback program.
As many of you know, we have a high margin, low capital intensity business, which means our revenues drop to free cash flow in a very efficient manner. As we progress through the year, our business will continue generating more free cash flow. There's certainly room for more dividends and buybacks beyond what we've announced up to date, and it's our priority to make sure our shareholders benefit from the constructive industry environment and the strong underlying business performance. With that, I'll turn the call over to Chris to discuss our quarterly results.
Thanks, Ty. Total revenue for the first quarter of 2022 was $147 million. On a sequential quarter basis, our revenues were about flat compared to fourth quarter of 2021. Although this most recent quarter benefited from higher oil prices, royalty production was down modestly on a sequential quarter basis. Recall, last quarter benefited from higher than normal prior period production. As Ty mentioned, our well inventory data suggests strong activity on our royalty acreage. We feel good about the growth trajectory of our royalty production for the next year and over the long term, though certain quarters will be influenced by various factors, such as the specific tracts of land each new well crosses and also timing related to when we actually receive cash royalty receipts. Our crude oil price realizations continue to be strong.
Generally, we receive $1 or $2 less than WTI Midland. Our gas realizations have improved over the last 6 months or so, and we see some of our larger operators with pricing above Henry Hub and WAHA spot prices. Overall, we've been receiving Henry Hub spot pricing or better. Our NGL price realizations tend to fluctuate between 40%-50% of WTI, though our NGL realizations this quarter were a bit weaker than normal due to some cash royalty receipts we received for NGL production associated from earlier months with lower pricing. I also want to point out that there's a new operating expense line item for ad valorem taxes, which we accrued an approximate $2 million charge.
For some background, which we also detailed in our last 10-K filing, when the company was a trust, there was a legacy agreement where the mineral estate paid ad valorem taxes associated with our NPRIs. Following our reorganization to a C-corp, there is a dispute with the mineral estate on whether they were still obligated to pay those taxes for the C-corp. Out of prudence, we began accruing for these taxes in our GAAP financial statements. Adjusted EBITDA and net income for the quarter were $130 million and $98 million, respectively. We ended the quarter with approximately $507 million of cash, though that is before the effect of the $20 per share special dividend we announced with earnings and before our previously announced $100 million share buyback program was active.
The buyback program cleared its 30-day cooling off period in early April and is currently active. With that, operator, we will now take questions.
Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star key. One moment please while we poll for questions. Thank you. Our first question comes from John Annis with Stifel. Please proceed with your question.
Good morning, all. For my first question, could you offer color on Q1 oil production and how you see overall production trends playing out for the year? On the water side of the business, could you expand on your prepared remarks and speak to the demand for source water more broadly?
Hey, good morning. This is Chris. Yeah, you know, I think like Ty kind of mentioned in his prepared remarks, when we look at the permitting activity that we saw in Q1 2022 and we look at the new DUCs that were drilled during Q1 2022, those were some of the, you know, highest activity levels for both of those that we'd seen really since pre-pandemic, probably 1Q 2020. That makes us feel pretty good about the position we're in.
I think as we'd mentioned, we in Q4 2021 had some prior period production that probably acted to increase that production a little bit above normal. I think we're at the point now where some of that's caught up, and so hopefully we'll have some normalized quarters here for the rest of the year. I might let Ty talk to some of the water activity levels.
Yeah, thanks. I would say on the source water side of the business, we had a couple things happen. First, we had, you know, like I said earlier, a few fracs get deferred. You know, and so those frac jobs got pushed on our schedule, mostly because operators were unable to procure frac sand. You know, I would say that those jobs were pushed back timing-wise, so we do expect the volumes to come to us, you know, at some point this year. Secondly, you know, the seismic response areas are definitely creating some limitations on downhole injection of produced water in some regions. You know, as we see that downhole capacity reduced, some of that incremental produced water is being recycled and competes against some of our source water for completion activity.
You know, that being said, we can compete on the recycling side as well, especially with the rights we've secured to pull water off most of the produced water gathering infrastructure that we have on our lands. We're definitely seeing an uptick in activity in that part of the business as well. You know, we have seen some near-term disruption, but I think longer term, the water business will continue to perform very well.
Great. I appreciate the color. For my follow-up, could you share with us your thoughts on where the best opportunities lie as you balance your growth versus return of capital priorities? Even after the special dividend, and if we assume you complete the $100 million buyback, it still looks like you're going to be generating a substantial amount of free cash flow.
Yeah. Look, I mean, there's still some deals out there. We're running through some of those deals, but I would say, you know, given the current environment with $100 crude and $7, you know, gas, our willingness to transact is probably a little bit diminished at this moment. I would also say sellers are maybe a little aggressive on their ask, you know, in this kind of environment. Look, you know, we've put in place the $100 million buyback program, which is now active. Obviously, we have our regular dividend, which we raised this year, and we just did the special. I think we've got a lot of flexibility, and our intent is just to maintain that flexibility.
You know, I think we've got a nice mix of buybacks and dividends going right now. Going forward, you know, we'll continue to evaluate the market environment and the industry fundamentals and like I said, just maintaining that flexibility is the key goal.
Makes sense. Thanks for taking my questions.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Hamed Khorsand with BWS Financial. Please proceed with your question.
Good morning. The first question I had was, the drilling activity you're seeing, is there any way for you to know if this is because the producers are low on inventory or if this is price driven?
Hey, Hamed. When you say low on inventory, are you kind of referring to their inventory, and if they're just trying to?
Yeah, their inventory.
Fill some of the DUCs?
Exactly.
Yeah, I think so. I mean, you know, we definitely had seen a DUCs drawdown that had been occurring. I think, you know, one of the questions, at least on our acreage, is at some point, are they gonna kind of continue that drawdown or what's the point where they start to backfill it? Q1 definitely seemed to be a quarter where they've started to kind of backfill and increase back up that kind of current inventory that's available. You know, some of it's just timing, but I think it is probably safe to say we had seen a trend of DUCs getting drawn down over the last few quarters, and this would be one of the first quarters where they've kind of replenished that.
Okay. My other question was, given the sand sourcing issue, is that broad among your customers who pay you royalties or is this really just one-off where, you know, the producer is just not, you know, adequately ready for the lack of sand availability?
Yeah, Hamed, thanks. I would say it's, you know, it's a pretty broad issue across the basin that we're seeing. You know, I think, you know, maybe some of your smaller operators are suffering with it a little more than maybe your larger operators that have a broader supply chain team. I think it's something that everybody is struggling with a little bit at the moment. You know, when you look at the last few years and all the bankruptcies that happened in the sand market, there's just, you know, there's definitely a short supply. There's also a short supply of, you know, truckers to get that sand where it needs to go. It's an overall basin-wide problem, but I think, you know, everybody's moving in the right direction to solve that issue.
Yeah. Would this hamper the value you represent from drilling costs, and so sand's gonna take the overall cost up?
Yeah. I mean, there's definitely some issues there, but I think most operators have baked that into their guidance for the year.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Our last question comes from Chris Baker with Credit Suisse. Please proceed with your question.
Hey, good morning. I guess just maybe on the volume side. It looks like 1Q oil declined 13% versus 4Q, and you mentioned the accrual, but I'm just curious, on a run rate basis, if you back out the accrual, did the asset generate growth quarter-over-quarter?
Hey, Chris. You know, I'm sure as you and lots of folks know,
You know, we're always a little bit in the past when it comes to royalty, you know, revenues and production that we're seeing. I think what we probably have seen with the data that we have is, you know, obviously oil production was growing through the broad part of 2021. Fourth quarter, you know, we may have started to see a level out and, you know, this quarter, I think it's a bit early to say. The checks that have come in are really only from the first kind of month and a half. I would say that that decline that you see in the financials is probably not representative of the background, you know, real month-to-date production. I don't believe that that pullback was nearly as much as 13%.
I don't have a good number, unfortunately, to give you. It'll probably take us a few more months for some of the additional checks to come in to have a really good feel on what that trend was. You know, it'd be our belief that it was certainly not a 13% decline.
Yeah. No, that makes sense. I guess just on the $20 special, obviously a positive surprise there. Could you just maybe share some of your thinking around how you got to $20 as sort of the right number? I'm just curious if you kinda think about this relative to, you know, cash balance or, you know, maybe looking to return some percentage of cash. Obviously peers have, you know, pretty explicit targets there, but just how do you kind of frame that up as we, you know, perhaps look out to 2023 and think about, you know, what another special next year could look like?
Yeah, sure, Chris. I think you know, there's a lot of factors. I don't know that there's any one particular factor. You know, being in a business with you know, high commodity price volatility, which can lead to volatility of revenues, I think our belief is having you know, flexibility with your capital allocation plan is a good way to manage a business like this. I think you know, when we thought about returning that excess capital, you know, when we started the year, you know, oil was in a very different place. You know, I think when we started the year, we definitely felt like we had a nice, robust cash balance that would allow us to remain opportunistic and achieve some of the goals for the year.
As the year progressed, you know, we saw a pretty tremendous improvement in pricing across the board, really, oil, gas, and NGLs. As we kind of did a bit of a reset and looked at the type of cash flow generation that was gonna create, it just seemed like the right time for two reasons, like Ty said. For one, in this higher price environment, I think our desire to transact on acquisitions, especially cash acquisitions, is diminished. That being the case and also having a pretty nice buyback program, I think the logical path was to do a special.
I don't know if I can give you an exact, you know, mathematical formula as to how to calculate what a future special might be, but I think, you know, that those are some of the ways we would look at it and work with the board to kinda determine what might be an appropriate return of capital, you know, when the business is really generating strong cash flows.
Okay, great. Yeah. That makes sense. And then you touched on M&A earlier, but you know, there's obviously you know, a little bit of royalty acquisitions this quarter. Any additional detail you can share on, you know, what you bought and why that kinda made sense just in terms of, you know, the acquisition sort of punch list, if you will, whether that's cash flow accretion or you know, enhancing NRIs and you know, DSUs you already own or any color there in terms of, you know, the acquisition this quarter would be great. Thanks.
Yeah. Thanks for the question, Chris. You know, that was a really small deal. It was all Midland Basin, heavy DUCs, really good operators, really good area. You know, mostly up in Martin, Howard, Glasscock counties. We just felt like the quality was too good to pass. It was small enough that we were able to pick it up. You know, obviously wish it was a little bigger. Yeah, quality was just too good to pass up.
Okay, great. If I can just squeeze one more in, just on the Aris, you know, enhanced alliance there, is the expectation that that would help put upward pressure on water capture rates? Or I guess any, and apologize if I missed this earlier, but, any additional sort of, I guess, color on how that's gonna show up eventually in the financials?
Yeah, you know, like I said earlier, you know, we've had a relationship with Aris for a long time. They've been a really good partner. This transaction just expands that existing relationship and kinda capitalizes on the synergies that we have as partners to provide, you know, better, more efficient services for our operators. I think longer term, you know, the deal helps both Aris and TPL compete for volumes and provide better solutions for operators. Obviously, you know, that's gonna provide incremental volumes and cash flows for us. You know, it also helps us drive some efficiencies on the source water side of the business as well. You know, maybe most importantly, just ensures that our operators have both the source water and the produced water takeaway they need to keep running the drill bit.
Okay, great. Appreciate the answers, guys.
Thanks, Chris.
Thanks.
Thank you. We have reached the end of our question and answer session. This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.