MTDR 2024Q3

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Third Quarter 2024 Matador Resources Company Earnings Conference Call. My name is Gigi, and I'll be serving as the operator for today. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes, and the replay will be available on the company's website for one year as discussed in the company's earnings press release issued yesterday. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Mac Schmitz, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations for Matador. Mr. Schmitz, you may proceed.

Thank you, Gigi. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Matador's third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Some of the presenters today will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures regularly used by Matador Resources in measuring the company's financial performance. Reconciliations of such non-GAAP financial measures with the comparable financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP are contained at the end of the company's earnings press release. As a reminder, certain statements included in this morning's presentation may be forward-looking and reflect the company's current expectations or forecasts of future events based on the information that is now available. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially is contained in the company's earnings release and its most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. In addition to our earnings press release issued yesterday, I would like to remind everyone that you can find a slide presentation in connection with the third quarter 2024 earnings release under the Investor Relations tab on our website. And with that, I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Joe Foran, our Founder, Chairman, and CEO. Joe?

Thank you, Mac. It's wonderful to be with everyone again for this question-and-answer session. We want to ensure that we address the topics that matter most to you. I want to highlight that we have received numerous inquiries about the Ameredev acquisition. It is being smoothly integrated, ahead of schedule, and performing better than we anticipated. This positive trend is evident across the entire company, with teams in various areas contributing to our strong performance this quarter. I am very proud and pleased with the collaboration among everyone, as each department works together rather than in isolation. It may sound cliché, but it is truly encouraging to witness such teamwork as events develop. This quarter has been significant for us; we completed the Ameredev acquisition, executed two bond offerings, and conducted a stock offering. Additionally, we have drilled some promising wells that we believe will set the stage for 2025. In summary, if you were pleased with this quarter, I believe you will find the fourth quarter even more impressive. Now, I’ll turn it back to you, Gigi, to take the first question.

Thank you. One moment for our next question. First question is from the line of Neal Dingmann from Truist. Your line is now open.

Good morning, Joe and team. Nice quarter. Joe, I can't help but notice, I would say it's very commendable how actively you and the team continue to add shares in the open market, unlike what we're seeing from a lot of other companies like that slide that you put out highlighting this. And I'm just wondering, these open market purchases, to me, demonstrate how cheap you think the shares continue to be. And I'm just wondering given this continued discount, would you all consider stock repurchases as a larger part of your shareholder return going forward, especially once you get that leverage quickly back under one times?

Thanks, Neal. Thanks for noting the active buying, not just from Form 4, but from the whole staff is that I think that's the most gratifying compliment that the Board and the Management group can have is to enjoy the confidence and the support of the staff. And I really think they're knocking it out of the park and try to get better every day. And so it's fun to come to work. Now we believe they can see the future and that this buying by us, and we've never sold a share of stock too, is that our best years are still ahead of us. Now to your specific question about buybacks, yes, we consider them and we talk with other companies that have implemented them. And so far, we think the fixed dividend is the most effective way to return value to our long-term shareholders. This problem I have with buybacks is sometimes you're just exiting your short-term shareholders. They are taking advantage of the jump. But we are open-minded about it, and we'll continue to study it. And that fixed dividend, I'm really pleased to get it to $1. And as that dividend grows, then buybacks may be considered more appropriate. But at present, the shareholders seem to like keeping the fixed dividend growing. And the second factor is that debt with dividends doesn't require us to go into debt. We're able to do that from our free cash flow. So when we get our debt down, things like buybacks can be given extra consideration. The last thing that I'd like to say is that at our annual meeting, we generally have 200 or more attend, and there, your rake and can file long-term shareholders, and it hadn't been expressed to us to do buybacks. They have overwhelmingly indicated that preferred dividend raises than buybacks because that moves them out and they don't get to enjoy the upside that we believe Matador offers. But we don't rule anything out, and the one thing we feel also gratified is that these variable dividends haven't worked out that much, and you see companies moving away from them. So to me, it's down to fixed dividends or buybacks. And at present, we think the fixed dividend helps all the shareholders. And it seems to be the best received by our particular shareholder group. I hope that answers your question, Neil. It's a good one.

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Scott Hanold from RBC Capital Markets.

Good morning to you all. Nice quarter. My question, and Joe, you all provided some framework on 2025, and I was hoping maybe to get a little bit more context and color if you can give us a sense of how you're thinking about capital allocation in '25 to your respective areas, especially in light of, obviously, these new Ameredev assets that are performing really strongly out of the box. And what does that mean in terms of like when you think about nine rigs, how much capital would that potentially utilize for next year?

Well, Scott, let me address your question in segments and share some insights with Brian Willey and Chris Calvert, our Chief Operating Officer. First and foremost, we believe that profitable growth at a steady pace is the most effective approach. You've likely heard this before; it may sound cliché, but we emphasize it frequently. It's important to note that Matador's culture has always been about growth. Since 1983, when we started with $270,000, we've aimed for year-on-year growth. Over the past 40 years, we've averaged a 20% annual growth rate. As we reach certain scales and now exceed $11 billion in assets, we recognize that 20% may be more ambitious than ideal, and we will adjust our targets as we develop. Nonetheless, we expect to grow. We are fortunate that our teams in geology, engineering, and land have collaborated successfully to identify a substantial inventory of 2,000 locations, all projected to yield an average rate of return exceeding 50%. With such favorable returns available, we see it as vital to remain active in this area. We'll also be on the lookout for acquisition opportunities. Historically, the acquisitions we've made over the last 15 years have proven successful, thanks to the contributions from our team, including Tom Elsener and our engineers. Tanna has excelled in evaluating opportunities, while Ned and Glenn have focused on discovering new zones and enhancing fracking methods to boost reserves. Our current strategy is working, but we remain open to exploring new approaches and making necessary adjustments throughout the year to maximize growth and shareholder returns. Our planning is not rigid; we do not simply follow a five-year roadmap. Instead, we adapt based on where opportunities arise, remaining flexible and ready to seize those special chances.

Yes. And Joe, this is Brian Willey, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. As Joe mentioned, profitable growth at a measured pace. And Scott, you made reference to it, but didn't exactly put out the number, but we do expect to have over 200,000 BOE per day next year. And if you look on Slide M, you can see that we're really excited about those opportunities, as Joe mentioned. From a capital perspective, Scott, for your question, I think you mentioned the nine rigs we were running nine super-spec great rigs. We like those rigs and hope to be able to keep them throughout the year next year. This year, we only had nine rigs for half the year, and so we expect to have a little bit more CapEx next year and having those nine rigs a full year. And then you had also mentioned the Ameredev properties, and we are very excited about those properties already performing better than our expectations. And we've mentioned in the past that those have a high working interest, over 85%. And so we'd expect that between the high working interest from some of the Ameredev wells and the nine rigs for the full year. But directionally, CapEx will be a little bit higher than it was this year, $1.25 billion this year. It's a little bit higher than that, but the specifics will go into next year when we do our plan in February 2025.

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Zach Parham from JPMorgan.

Yes, thanks for taking my question. You reported a tax refund this quarter and noted that you didn't expect to be subject to AMT in 2025. Can you just give us a little color on where you expect cash taxes to be in 2025 at this point? And maybe talk about how you would expect cash taxes to trend in future years?

Hi, Zach. This is Rob Macalik. I'm the EVP and CAO. We're proud of the work we've accomplished over the past three months, and our team has been performing exceptionally well, especially with the Ameredev acquisition and on the cash tax front. As Joe mentioned earlier, I feel confident in our team's performance. As stated in the release, we have lowered our estimate of cash taxes as a percentage of pretax income, and we are confident in our outlook for 2024. Regarding the corporate alternative minimum tax for 2025, I believe this is another significant advantage for the company. Our actual cash tax rate for 2025 will largely depend on our plans and the deductions available to Matador that year. We will provide more details during our planning session in February.

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of John Freeman from Raymond James.

Thanks, guys.

John. Hi.

What I'm trying to think about is what leverage you all can pull next year to continue this impressive run on the further efficiency gains to keep lowering that D&C per foot. Obviously, expanding the use of Trimul-Frac seems pretty clear. Would another option possibly be shifting from kind of dual fuel to e-fleets, and if that's something you've looked at just any sort of color on that topic, potential savings, et cetera?

Yes, it's Chris Calvert, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Thank you for bringing that up. We're proud to highlight that we've reduced our drilling completion costs per lateral foot from our January estimate of $1,010 to around $930, which is an 8% decrease. While we’ve noticed some softening in the oilfield services market this year, our main focus has been on gaining capital efficiencies. Specifically, we’re seeing positive results from implementing Trimul-Frac into our operations. After successfully pilot testing it earlier this year, we completed two additional Trimul-Frac operations in the second half of the year, one of which utilized remote operations. Looking ahead to 2025, we anticipate that remote operations will play an even larger role in our strategy, allowing us to integrate more wells and achieve significant cost savings per well. This approach also strengthens our relationships with vendors since converting other well types into Trimul- or Simul-Frac batches reduces move times for service companies. Thus, optimizing these completion processes remains a priority, with a higher proportion being remote frac operations. On the drilling side, we're leveraging our MAXCOM operations center, which has processed over 300 drilling records since 2018, effectively reducing drilling times. Our U-Turn technologies have also made a significant impact; we've cut drill times by 30% on five U-turn wells expected to come online in the latter half of this year compared to our previous U-Turn wells. As we move into 2025, we expect to keep enhancing these processes. We appreciate the acknowledgment of our achievements and believe there are still opportunities for improvement. We have demonstrated our efficiency as one of the leading operators in the basin, and we’re looking forward to sharing more about our plans for 2025 in February.

Chris, I just want to add that I see Glenn wanting to speak as well. You highlighted the time savings, which are significant because saving a day translates to about $100,000. Through close collaboration with Patterson and our frac crews, everyone has played a role in achieving these time savings, which is why we can operate nine rigs without needing to scale up to 10 or 12; we’re drilling these wells more quickly, allowing us to increase our well count. Everyone has done an excellent job, but I want to emphasize that these savings aren't a result of competing vendors against each other. The approach should be to build strong relationships with your vendors, like our pipe suppliers, which pays off over the long term. I want to highlight this aspect as part of our efficiency strategies. Additionally, I'd like to recognize the MAXCOM room, as those teams work 24/7 in two shifts, providing crucial support with geologists and engineers collaborating effectively with everyone. The drilling team and the MAXCOM team, along with the finance team, have all worked together, and I'm very pleased with the progress we've made. Glenn?

John, I just wanted to pile on to what Chris and Joe were saying, too, on the use of produced water for hydraulic fracturing operations is just another cost efficiency that we see. It helps a little bit on the CapEx, but it really does help on reducing OpEx and lease operating expenses, as we use the wells produced water for frac. So it's just another place that we can see some cost efficiencies and also has the added environmental benefit as well.

Well, and the last thing, as we look at this, one thing that has helped our LOE is that we have a group of lease operators and production staff in the field that's found ways to do more work with less people. So their costs are spread over more wells, and I think they're doing a terrific job.

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Kevin MacCurdy from Pickering Energy Partners.

Thanks. Hi. Good morning, Matador team, and congratulations on a good quarter. I wanted to ask about the Ameredev assets. It looks like production from those assets has increased pretty materially since you closed the deal up to 31,000 barrels a day from 26,000 barrels a day in the third quarter. I wonder if you could talk about what drove that increase? And how are you envisioning the trajectory of production and activity on those Ameredev assets specifically over the medium term?

Hi, Kevin, this is Glenn again, EVP of Production. As you mentioned, over the last 13 days of the quarter, the Ameredev assets averaged 31,500 BOE per day. We expect that to decrease slightly in Q4 due to shut-ins associated with the fracturing operations of the 11 new Ameredev wells that were being drilled when we acquired the asset. Additionally, to address your question about the outperformance in the last 13 days compared to our expectations, much of that was due to the seven new Tea Olive wells that Ameredev brought on in the quarter prior to our acquisition, and those wells are performing very well, exceeding our projections.

Yes. Hi, Kevin, this is Ned Frost, EVP of Geoscience. I think it's worth taking a moment to commend Ameredev for putting this position together. We have always liked the eastern side of the basin, our Antelope Ridge area as we call it. If you look at Slide 24, you can see a few of the well results called out here. Our Cathy Brice wells, which are in the federal block in Eastern Antelope Ridge came on at a very strong rate. And then the Tea Olives, as Glenn mentioned, are also coming on at a strong rate. We had always been optimistic about this part of the basin, like I said, but I think these well results are really kind of confirming the quality of the rock over here. So we're really excited to keep developing this part of the basin and bring in more great wells forward in the next few years.

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Gabe Daoud from TD Cowen.

Thanks. Hi, good morning, everyone. Thanks for the time. A quick question. The $66 million in acquisitions this quarter, did that come in any volumes? And then the 200 MBOE/d target for next year, does that contemplate any inorganic opportunities? Thanks, guys.

Hi, this is Van Singleton. As far as the volumes go, the acquisitions came with a little bit of production. Brian, you may want to speak more to that piece of it, but it was a very small component of the kind of a brick-by-brick approach that we have done for many years and we'll continue to do.

Yes, this is Brian Willey, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. As Dan mentioned, the production from the acquisitions in the third quarter was quite limited, approximately 600 BOE per day, which we had already incorporated into our guidance for July. Therefore, it was minimal. Moving into next year, we will continue to assess closed transactions and include them in our future guidance.

Gabe, this is Joe. I want to highlight what was just mentioned. The main factors driving these deals were the inventory and the potential from undeveloped acreage. We were willing to invest for the production received, but a key question we faced throughout the year was about our inventory. Therefore, as we considered acquisition opportunities, we focused more on the inventory potential rather than solely on purchasing PDP to enhance cash flow. Our primary goal was to increase our well inventory and plan for future growth.

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Leo Mariani from ROTH. Please go ahead.

Yes, Hi guys. I wanted to ask a little bit about the midstream side of the business here. So you guys kind of specifically called out midstream value in the company of greater than $1.5 billion, in the release. And I think this has been a source of frustration for a while for the company and I wanted to see if maybe there's a plan in the works to try to unlock some of that value. And then additionally, obviously, you spoke a little bit to CapEx next year, saying that DC&E CapEx would be up a little makes sense with a slightly higher rig count. But on infrastructure CapEx, you guys have spent some capital over the last couple of years. I mean, do you think that is in maybe a position to start to come down a little bit in '25?

Yes, we're open to exploring more opportunities in midstream, and several options have been suggested. We recently welcomed Susan Ward to our Board, who brings extensive knowledge and experience from her previous role as Chief Financial Officer at Shell's midstream business. We highly value midstream for providing flow assurance since much of the existing equipment is older and may have issues. Our new equipment has been crucial, especially during Storm Uri, when most were shutting down due to freezing temperatures. We managed to keep operations running, and our team went above and beyond to maintain gas flow, which was essential for our system and external partners. Additionally, we've been working with drillers to ensure that pipes are ready when wells are completed. Our approach to water disposal and recycling produced water has minimized our use of fresh water, benefiting both the environment and our bottom line while keeping gas flowing. Our emissions are now below 2%.

Yes, that's absolutely right. Yes, just there are so many benefits to operating the midstream business and definitely want to commend the staff on a record quarter for San Mateo in terms of throughput on the water gathering side in terms of throughput on the gas gathering side, same for Pronto and resulted in record EBITDA for San Mateo, so.

We often mention that we are straightforward in our approach, and we are receptive to proposals from others who may be interested in this business. Our partnership with Five Point on the San Mateo project has been beneficial and has improved our company, and we enjoy collaborating with them. However, we are also open to other partnerships. Pronto has come at an opportune time for us. Since acquiring it, we have a second plant in operation, which underscores its value. If we need to reallocate some funds from our drilling budget to complete the system, it will be a worthwhile investment to ensure our gas continues to flow. Brian would like to add something.

Yes, Leo, that's a great question. Regarding the second part of your question and in line with what Joe mentioned, the flow assurance shows that our plant has maintained over 99% uptime. The new plant we are constructing is on schedule and within the budget for next year. As we consider our capital expenditures for the upcoming year, we will complete that plant and also allocate funds for additional system development. This year, we spent approximately $225 million on capital expenditures in the midstream sector. I anticipate that our maintenance capital expenditure will likely be between $50 million and $75 million. We're not quite there yet, but I believe next year we will fall somewhere between that maintenance range and the $225 million we expended this year, though it should be less than this year. By 2026, once the system is fully operational, we expect to shift to a maintenance capital model, assuming there are no significant new projects. We are always on the lookout for new opportunities, and our team excels at working with third parties. However, barring those opportunities in 2026, we anticipate being more aligned with a maintenance capital approach.

We'll also give a shout out to Ronnie Raines and his work on building that plant, and to Justin and Sean that are here that have worked out there and spent days in the field to make sure it goes right. So a great effort by everybody in the Jason Thibodeaux and Greg great have all. I'm sorry, my friend's job's name, but I can't express that he and Jason just do a wonderful job and has got everybody working. So again, that's just another illustration of the way there's been great collaboration between the teams to get to a good result. And Sam Thomas. And Sam is another one has been with us a long time that Sam Witten and Thomas Green have been with us a long time, and they've really contributed. So I know I've gone beyond your question and mentioned these guys, but they need to be credited with the job they've done.

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Michael Scialla from Stephens.

Hi, good morning, everybody. Chris, you mentioned you expect more Trimul-Fracs going forward and more of the remote operations. So I was just wondering if you could maybe explain the mechanics behind and maybe some of the advantages of the remote aspect of the Simul-Frac and Trimul-Fracs.

Yes, Mike, that's an excellent question. It really hinges on the collaboration and teamwork among the various teams, including the asset teams, the surface land team, and ultimately the operations team. The core idea is that when you have two surface locations that are a distance apart, say 1,000 to 2,000 feet, you can connect those two individual pads—either with surface casing or casing that is just laid on the surface—to complete the wells in a single operation using one frac fleet. This concept was piloted in 2021 on our Stateline acreage at the Voni pad, where we successfully combined two or three well pads that were not initially suitable for Simul-Frac into a six-well pad that allowed us to use Simul-Frac. This represents a significant engineering efficiency, as we’ve been able to transition over 90 wells that would have been ineligible for Simul- or Trimul-Frac into these types of completions, leading to savings exceeding $20 million. Thus, the aim is to collaborate with the teams to create well pads that can naturally accommodate Simul or Trimul operations, and in cases where that is not possible, we can link those pads together to achieve Simul or Trimul Frac completions.

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Oliver Huang from Tudor Pickering Holt & Company.

Good morning all, and thanks for taking my question. Just wanted to hit on LOE. You all point towards some trends as a result of Ameredev volumes flowing through for Q4 and into 2025. Just wanted to see how is the pending sale of your Pinyon interest being flow through within where the Q4 guidance range sits today? And also any more specifics of things that you all are planning to do in the area that would allow for you all to reduce this component on ops in the Ameredev area?

Hi, Oliver, this is Glenn. I'll take the question. So as it relates to Pinyon, that really doesn't have any effects. The sale opinion doesn't really have any effect on the OpEx for those properties. So I'll start with that. And then second, I do want to thank and express my appreciation for the professionalism of the Ameredev employees that helped us this quarter in transitioning and ensuring that we did have a smooth transition as we took over operations for those properties. As we mentioned in the release, the operating expenses for those properties are notionally higher than Matador's legacy production, base production. And so as a result, we did guide up slightly in Q4. I would say, Oliver, give us a little bit of time. We have recognized already $1 million a month in potential savings. A lot of that relates to the use of recycled produced water, as I mentioned, for hydraulic fracturing operations. And then chemical, production chemical spend is a place where there's some room for optimization, we feel and are already implementing plans to get those costs reduced and more efficient chemical usage. And then also on the personnel front, we've seen optimization there as well as we've really kind of moved their operations center from Austin out to New Mexico, where it's field-based. So there's three examples, and we're looking at other ways to improve OpEx and looking forward to telling you a little bit more about it as we continue our operations out there. We're in about a month. So give us some time, and it will be a lean machine.

Yes, we want to highlight that we don't have any issues with how Ameredev operated; however, we prefer a field-based approach over a more remote one. We're very satisfied with the quality of the work. What truly excites us about Ameredev and the advancement is the quality of the rock. Although I'm not a geologist, our geological and engineering team consistently remarks on how beneficial it is to have such rock, which aligns perfectly with our advancements and fits well with many of our properties, as does Ameredev's. This aspect supports our belief that it will be a good long-term fit for us. It’s an excellent question. I encourage everyone to reach out after the call with any follow-ups; we aim to clarify that this has been a fantastic quarter for us and positions us well for 2025. I believe we have one more question. Please go ahead.

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our last question comes from the line of Scott Hanold from RBC Capital Markets.

Hi, thanks. I have a follow-up question. The commodity market has been quite volatile recently, and you have been proactive in exploring various strategies for business development, with ground game being a significant part of that. I'm curious about the current status of the ground game. What trends are you observing from buyers and sellers? Looking ahead to 2025, do you feel confident in your ability to maintain the progress you've made so far?

Yes. It's an interesting point, Scott. But what I'd like to emphasize what I've seen over my 40 years is that when you have a period of time where you have a lot of M&A, it's followed by a time of rationalization, particularly the larger the transaction by the big companies, for example, built by all of these, the whole bucket full of properties. Some of those won't fit their plans, and they will rationalize them and sell them, and that creates a buying opportunity not only for us but others where they would fit. I think you'll see some of those come along, a fair amount of rationalization will lead to some. And the second is that there are some people, and then the private equity area, the private equity companies tend to turn over their assets every four, five years or some period of time. So you always have some of those coming on the market. And then you have situations where proposed wells don't fit their plan or fit their budget, and we like to try to be that company they turn to when they need a quick answer or help that they have more interest than they really want and want to lay some off. So we always try to be open to that, and it's surprising that things are going on all the time. Same way in agriculture, you have farms and ranches trading all the time. And there'll be some years where they're more, and some years where they're less. But if you have a continuing presence and keep out there making deals, and if you do a deal, and it ends on a happy note, like Advance and Ameredev, we hope that leads to other deals. We did a lot of deals last year, some were for more and some were for less, but I think our land department gives a big shout out to Van and John that they ended those happy where a lot of repeat business. Van, say that, right?

No, you did. And I'll add just a little bit to that. Scott, you've known us a long time, and we've had this program consistently over the years. The things we focus on are: one, creating situations that are a win-win for both sides, and I think that leads to keeping our pipeline of opportunities full. But also focusing on the best rock and focusing on the balance sheet and making sure that whatever deals we're looking at fit really well into what our operational plans are and again, our win-win on both sides. So with that, I think we're going to continue these relationships and continue to keep our pipeline of opportunities full and then make the decision at the time that's appropriate, whether or not it's something right for us.

Yes, this is Brian Willey. I believe this is the final question. I wanted to share a couple of insights for those building models. Regarding the gas to oil ratio, we appreciate the optimism from the market. We think it’s likely around 62% moving forward, which we value, but when we include our Haynesville assets, it probably trends closer to 60%. This leads me to my second point, which is the recent discussions around gas, whether it's related to AI or the new LNG terminals. I want to highlight that we have a substantial gas bank in the Cotton Valley, where I expect we have over 200 to 300 Bcf of gas opportunities. These are not reflected in our reserve report yet, as we don't have plans to drill them within the next five years. However, if gas prices stabilize at a higher level, we can quickly shift our focus there. Additionally, we have significant gas reserves in the Delaware Basin, which are currently over 1.4 Tcf, and we can enhance those and increase our gas production if necessary. Lastly, I want to congratulate Joe, even though he might not want me to mention this, but the CEO Magazine in Dallas has chosen him for the Legacy Award, which will be presented next week. This is a highly regarded honor, and past recipients include industry leaders like Kelcy Warren, Trevor East Jones, Scott Sheffield, and Boone Pickens. Joe’s achievements over the past 40 years place him among the best oil executives in the country. Congratulations to Joe for this well-deserved recognition as we've transformed Matador from a $270,000 venture from friends and family into a public company valued at $6.5 billion. I just wanted to acknowledge that.

Yes, many of my friends find this hard to believe and said they need to see it to accept it. I was genuinely taken aback by that, which highlights that with enough support from relatives, one can achieve anything. I appreciate you, Brian. However, I must emphasize that none of this would have been possible without the contributions of many individuals over time, including some from Mesa. We are in the Jim Upchurch room, named after Boone's top engineer, Marlin Downey. These are remarkable individuals who have made significant contributions. Jack Sleeper, the former President of DeGolyer and MacNaughton, and Marlin, who was President of both Shell and Arco, as well as other exceptional team members, have all played a part in our success. I haven't done everything myself; I consider my role more of a facilitator, guiding these talented individuals who have driven progress. This is why I believe in our future prospects. While economic conditions and commodity prices may fluctuate, the team we have is experienced and capable of making sound decisions, maintaining a collaborative process. I accept this award acknowledging that it wouldn’t have been possible without everyone's support in this room, and I sincerely thank all of you for helping me shine. I think that covers everything, Gigi, unless anyone has further questions. Thank you again, everyone. Although this is labeled as a lifetime achievement, I want to recognize that my journey is far from over.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This ends the Q&A portion of this morning's conference call. And thank you for your participation today. This concludes today's program. You may now disconnect.