Chord Energy Corp (NASDAQ:CHRD) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call May 4, 2023 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Michael Lou - CFO & EVP

Daniel Brown - President, CEO & Director

Charles Rimer - EVP & COO

Conference Call Participants

Phillips Johnston - Capital One Securities

Derrick Whitfield - Stifel, Nicolaus & Company

Scott Hanold - RBC Capital Markets

Bertrand Donnes - Truist Securities

Oliver Huang - Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.

John Abbott - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Chord Energy First Quarter 2023 Earnings Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions].

Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Michael Lou, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Michael Lou

Thank you, Danielle. Good morning, everyone. Today, we are reporting our first quarter 2023 financial and operational results. We're delighted to have you on our call. I'm joined today by Danny Brown, Chip Rimer, Richard Robuck, and other members of the team.

Please be advised that our remarks, including the answers to your questions, include statements that we believe to be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially different from those currently disclosed in our earnings releases and conference calls. Those risks include, among others, matters that we have described in our earnings releases as well as in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our annual report on Form 10-K and our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. We disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. During this conference call, we will make reference to non-GAAP measures, and reconciliations to the applicable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings releases and on our website. We may also reference our current investor presentation, which you can find on our website.

With that, I'll turn the call over to our CEO, Danny Brown.

Daniel Brown

Thanks, Michael. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining our call. Last evening, Chord reported our first quarter 2023 results and updated full year outlook. As you know, last year was a pivotal year for the organization as we announced the merger of equals transaction between Whiting and Oasis Petroleum, laid the groundwork for the integration and established how we would operate as a new organization.

In 2023, we are focused on operational execution and driving the synergies from the merger. And as you read in our press release last night, we had a strong start to the year. In the first quarter, oil volumes were significantly above expectations due to continued strong well performance and a modest acceleration of activity. As we discussed last call, January performance was negatively impacted by severe weather in late December. However, the team did a fantastic job restoring production and ramping up our drilling and completions activity quickly. We turned in line 15 wells in the quarter, which was at the upper end of our 11% to 15% range, with about half of those wells being 3-mile laterals. With the additional activity, capital was towards the high end of our range, but overall free cash generation exceeded expectations.