Vermilion Energy Inc. (NYSE:VET) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call August 3, 2023 11:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Dion Hatcher - President & Chief Executive Officer
Lars Glemser - Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Darcy Kerwin - Vice President, International & Health Safety & Environment
Conference Call Participants
Amir Arif - ATB Capital
Operator
Good morning. My name is Julie, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Vermilion Energy Q2 Conference Call. All lines that in place don't mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Thank you.
Mr. Dion Hatcher, you may begin your conference.
Dion Hatcher
Well, thank you, Julie. Well, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us. I'm Don Hatcher, President and CEO of Vermilion Energy. With me today are Lars Glemser, Vice President and CFO; Darcy Kerwin, Vice President, International and HSE; Bryce Kremnica, Vice President of North America; Jenson Tan, Vice President, Business Development; and Kyle Preston, Vice President of Investor Relations.
We'll be referencing a PowerPoint presentation to discuss our Q2 2023 results. Presentation can be found on our website under Invest with Us and Events & Presentations. Please refer to our advisory and forward-looking statements at the end of the presentation. It describes forward-looking information, non-GAAP measures and oil and gas terms used today, and it relies to risk factors and assumptions relevant to this discussion.
Production during the second quarter averaged 83,152 BOEs per day, which was at the top end of our Q2 guidance range of 80,000 to 83,000. We revised our Q2 production guidance in mid-May to reflect the temporary shut-in of approximately 30,000 BOEs a day in West Central Alberta due to forest fires, defined impact of Q2 volumes from the wildfires and -- the Australia downtime was approximately 8,000 BOEs per day.
Our team was quick to respond to the fire situation in Alberta and was able to safely restore all of the production within weeks of the initial shut-in, which minimized the impact of the fire.
In addition, we achieved strong operational performance across many of our other assets. We generated $247 million of fund flows and invested $167 million of E&D capital, resulting in $80 million of free cash flow of which we returned $40 million to shareholders via the base dividend and share buybacks, representing a return of capital payout of approximately 50%.