Our call is live. Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Viper Energy Partners Q4 2022 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. 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 * 1 1 on your telephone keypad. You will hear an automated message advising you your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, press * 1 1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would like to now hand the conference call over to 1 of your speakers today. That will be Mr. Adam Lawlis, Vice President of Investor Relations. Adam, please go ahead.
Thank you, Shandrolyn. Good morning and welcome to Viper Energy Partners Q4 2022 conference call. During our call today, we will reference an updated investor presentation which can be found on Viper's website. Representing Viper today are Travis Stice, CEO, and Kaes Van't Hof, President. During this conference call, the participants may make certain forward-looking statements relating to the company's financial conditions, 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 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. I'll now turn the call over to Travis Stice.
Thank you, Adam. Welcome everyone, thank you for listening to Viper Energy Partners Q4 2022 conference call. The Q4 topped off a record year for Viper, with quarterly oil production setting a company record on both an absolute and per unit basis for the 3rd consecutive quarter. Additionally, as a result of our strong production and continued best in class margins, further supported by our disciplined capital allocation approach, we were able to deliver on multiple return of capital and financial initiatives during the quarter. During the Q4 , we reduced net debt by $100 million quarter-over-quarter, repurchased roughly 1 million units, and are scheduled to pay a distribution that provides a greater than 6% annualized yield. Looking ahead to 2023, we have initiated average production guidance for the full year that implies 8% year-over-year growth.
Importantly, Viper can deliver this growth without spending a single dollar of capital and with most operators in the Permian maintaining roughly flat activity levels. This production growth, even as we generated over $100 million in proceeds from non-core asset sales during 2022, including the sale of our Eagle Ford asset, which was producing roughly 250 barrels of oil per day, or just over 1% of our current volumes. On the capital return front, Viper continued to execute on our opportunistic unit repurchase program during the Q4 , but at a slower place than during the Q3 . We are set to pay $0.49 per unit distribution, which is flat quarter-over-quarter, despite oil prices being down 10% over the same period.
Our combined base plus variable distribution represents a greater than 6% yield at today's unit price. In conclusion, the Q4 was an outstanding quarter for Viper, and the forward outlook continues to improve as our high quality asset base continues to attract outsized activity levels. Viper remains differentially positioned to grow production without having to spend a single dollar of development of acquisition capital. With only limited operating costs, we will be mostly insulated from continued inflationary cost pressures. Given the midpoint of our 2023 production guidance and assuming $75 WTI, we are expected to deliver almost 10% annualized free cash flow yield. Operator, please open the line for questions.
Thank you. At this time, we will conduct a question and answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press * 1 1 on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press * 1 1 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our 1st question comes from the line of Mr. Neal Dingmann with Truist. Neal?
Morning, guys. Kaes or Travis, my 1st question just on shareholder distribution, specifically, given now the low debt level and, you know, your current unit price, do you all think today any differently about unit buybacks going forward than you have in recent quarters? You know, it continues to be a nice mix. I'm just wondering sort of how you think about today about buybacks versus the, you know, the yield, the distribution out there.
Neal, good question. You know, it really comes down to, you know, can we buy minerals in the market cheaper than we can buy minerals in the, you know, the private market where we do deals? It still seems that, you know, buying back units at a price per net acre that is competitive with lower quality assets that are for sale in the basin, you know, seems like a good use of capital. You know, we've been
Pretty aggressive since converting our capital return plan to more buybacks, particularly in Q3, a little less so in Q4. I think that kind of mimics how we're thinking about things where, you know, in a time period like today, or over the last couple weeks, we've had a sell-off, and that's when the buyback kicks in. Fundamentally, you know, we run an NAV at Viper. We also look at what, you know, deals are trading for in the market versus what Viper's trading at. Quite frankly, we believe we have a far superior asset base that's trading, you know, lower on a net net acre basis than some of the stuff we've seen trade out in the market.
T hat makes sense. Then just a quick follow-up, just on that small Eagle Ford, I assume, you know, again, just you didn't see the growth there and you have better, you know, I don't know, maybe call it better prospects for continued growth in the Permian. Is that the sort of rationale? You know, would Is there any Could we assume any upcoming non-core small Permian sales? Just maybe talk about that a little bit, Casey.
You know, we've sold some non-core Permian assets and it's usually from an operator that is going to develop those minerals very quickly, so they're paying a number where, you know, it's higher than our hold case because they're. If they get the deal, they're going to develop the asset faster. That's kind of what's happening in the Permian. I would call that the exception versus the norm. You know, with the Eagle Ford sale, we bought that deal in 2016, 2017. You know, it's been a good deal for us. You know, unfortunately, there's not as much growth there as there was, you know, in years past. We just thought that that would be a very good use of proceeds to fund Permian acquisitions.
you know, I think generally, you know, being able to sell that, losing 250-300 barrels of oil a day and still, you know, hit numbers in 2023 that we expected prior, just shows that, you know, we didn't need that asset in the portfolio, and instead we're moving to 100% Permian and higher growth as, you know, we pointed out in Travis Stice's prepared remarks, right? This business, even though Diamondback or other operators in the basin aren't growing like they used to, the benefit of the mineral business is it can grow despite the parent company or other companies not growing as much.
A greed. I love the per unit growth, obviously, with the buybacks and the production growth. Nice job, guys. Thanks.
Thank you.
Thanks, Nick.
Our next call comes from the line of Derrick Whitfield with Stifel. Derek, please go ahead with your question.
Good morning, all. Congrats again on a strong quarter.
Thank you, Derrick.
With regard to your 6-month and 2023 guidance, the outlook appears to imply a step-up in growth in the H2 to about the 22,000 barrel level for oil. Does that generally hit late Q2 or early Q3 based on expected Diamondback activity?
T hat's right, Derrick. It's just a lot of timing on some of these bigger Diamondback pads, you know, as they've kind of shifted to some of that large scale development, particularly in SEL and Robertson Ranch, where we've got a larger NRI. It'll just vary a little bit quarter -to- quarter as those wells or pads get turned to production. But, you know, the way that we're looking at it right now, the Q1 will be kind of flattish to where we were here, and then you'll see, you know, volumes tick up in the Q2 , kind of in the higher end of that H1 range. Y our math is right as well.
That kind of the implied number in the back half of the year will still represent some pretty significant growth from that Q2 . It's really just going to be, you know, the cadence of these net wells being turned to production.
You know, I think, you know, importantly, Derrick Whitfield, you can see these wells coming, right? I mean, like, you know, the XEPCO pad, which is gonna be 1 of the larger pads in Robertson Ranch coming on here midyear. It's not a growth on the come. You know, we know that that growth is coming and, you can visibly see it, you know, hitting the business in Q2 and Q3.
Great. Makes sense. Perhaps more long term in nature, wanted to ask how you guys are thinking about the opportunity and your exposure resulting from the deeper Wolfcamp D, Barnett, and Woodford delineation tests the industry is pursuing across the Midland Basin.
You know, I think that is, you know, 1 of the greatest benefits of the mineral business is that, you know, we underwrite minerals based on what we know. Over the course of time, you know, particularly in the Permian, you've seen more zones become economic. You've seen, you know, better recoveries. You've seen, you know, large multi-pad development. You know, a lot of that was not underwritten 5, 6, 7 years ago. You know, you own these minerals if you buy minerals versus an override, you own those minerals forever in perpetuity. That creates opportunities like, you know, some of these deeper rights in, you know, places like Spanish Trail and the western side of the basin, which is starting to get a lot of attention as it relates to deeper development. More to come.
You know, haven't signed a lot of leases yet in those deep zones, but you can bet that's gonna be a benefit to Viper and tangentially Diamondback.
Great. Thanks for your time.
Thank you, Derrick.
As a reminder, to ask a question, please dial * 1 1 on your keypad. Our next call is coming from the line of Paul Diamond with Citi. Please stand by.
Hi, good morning. Just a quick follow-up here. Looking more to the macro, I know you guys have talked about kind of the bid-asks being a bit wide for your tastes in prior quarters. Have you seen any movement on that, in either direction as far as you guys are looking at, like, potential, whether it's bolt-on or larger M&A?
G ood question, Paul. I would say versus E&P land, the bid-ask is still pretty wide in minerals. You know, minerals is unique because, you know, a lot of these mineral owners, you know, they don't pay any CapEx. They don't see the impacts of inflation on, you know, their cost structure or their checks. All they see is, you know, the months they received in July and August of last year when oil was $100 a barrel. That's kind of their new baseline. That, you know, results in a wider bid-ask spread, you know, today with crude at 75 than, you know, summer last year over 100. It's a little different in mineral land. I would say the bid-ask is still pretty wide.
You know, obviously under Diamondback we can still, you know, we still have differential information on timing so that we can pay more from a value perspective because we know exactly when those minerals are gonna get developed. You know, we'll see how it unfolds throughout the year, but right now it's pretty wide.
Understood. Thank you. Just a quick follow-up, kinda like shifting from the Diamondback acreage more to the third party. As far as, like, operational cadence, is there anything you guys have seen in the last quarter or so that surprised you as far as, their operations cadence or just kinda how they're thinking about the medium to longer term?
No, not really, Paul. I'd say growth activity levels have been pretty steady. You know, when you look at the rig count, you look at, you know, wells being spud or permits being filed across the position, I think really growth activity levels have been pretty steady for the past 6 to 9 months. When we look forward to 2023 though, you know, we're gonna get some benefit on the third party side of some of our higher NRI stuff being developed. Here today, you know, in February, it's kind of the hardest guidance we have to do for the full year in making some assumptions on, you know, what Q4 of 2023 might look like.
Right now today, you know, we've got pretty much the same visibility to total net wells being turned to production this year as we did all of last year. You know, that's pretty encouraging for us when we look at third party activity levels. I think that, you know, could continue to improve as we progress through the year.
Understood. Thanks for your time.
Thanks, Paul.
At this time, I would like to now turn the call back over to Mr. Travis Stice, CEO.
Thank you again to everyone for participating in today's call. If you've got any questions, please reach out to us using the contact information provided. Thank you.
Thank you for your participation in today's call. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.