Antero Resources Corporation (NYSE:AR) Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call April 28, 2022 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Brendan Krueger – CFO of Midstream and Vice President, Finance, Treasurer

Paul Rady – Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Michael Kennedy – Chief Financial Officer

Justin Fowler – Senior Vice President of Gas Marketing and Transportation

Conference Call Participants

Arun Jayaram – JPMorgan Chase

Neal Dingmann – Truist Securities

Subhash Chandra – Benchmark Company

Umang Choudhary – Goldman Sachs

David Deckelbaum – Cowen

Nitin Kumar – Wells Fargo

Holly Stewart – Scotia Howard Weil

Operator

Greetings and welcome to the Antero Resources First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Brendan Krueger, CFO of Midstream and Vice President, Finance, Treasurer. Thank you. Please go ahead.

Brendan Krueger

Thank you for joining us for Antero's first quarter 2022 investor conference call. We'll spend a few minutes going through the financial and operating highlights, and then we'll open it up for Q&A. I would also like to direct you to the homepage of our website at www.anteroresources.com, where we have provided a separate earnings call presentation that will be reviewed during today's call.

Before we start our comments, I would like to first remind you that during this call, Antero management will make forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on our current judgments regarding factors that will impact the future performance of Antero and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Antero's control. Actual outcomes and results could materially differ from what is expressed, implied or forecast in such statements.

Today's call may also contain certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our earnings press release for important disclosures regarding such measures, including reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP financial measures. Joining me on the call today are Paul Rady, Chairman, President and CEO; Michael Kennedy, CFO; and Justin Fowler, Senior Vice President of Gas Marketing and Transportation.

I will now turn the call over to Paul.

Paul Rady

Thanks, Brendan. Good morning, everyone. I'd like to begin by discussing the overall macro environment and the factors that led to the recent increase in commodity prices. During the last year, 2021, that is commodity prices were strengthening, driven by a resurgence in demand as we came out of the pandemic. On the supply side, the shift towards maintenance capital plans and supply chain constraints led to moderated global supply growth. Then during the first quarter of 2022, as you all know, this bullish fundamental backdrop was further strengthened by the geopolitical events in Europe. Unlike prior commodity price spikes, these events had a large impact on the futures curve, where we saw the natural gas strip move up 45% throughout the curve all the way to calendar year 2026. As Europe looks to strengthen its energy security, it has become clear that there will be a significant call on U.S. shale gas in the coming decades.