Vital Energy, Inc. (NYSE:VTLE) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call May 9, 2024 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Ron Hagood – Vice President-Investor Relations
Jason Pigott – President and Chief Executive Officer
Katie Hill – Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Bryan Lemmerman – Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Kyle Coldiron – Vice President-Development and Production

Conference Call Participants

Neal Dingmann – Truist Securities
Zach Parham – JPMorgan
Derrick Whitfield – Stifel
Tim Rezvan – KeyBanc Capital Markets
Hanwen Chang – Wells Fargo
Geoff Jay – Daniel Energy Partners
Paul Diamond – Citi
Gregg Brody – Bank of America
Brian Velie – Capital One Securities

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Vital Energy’s First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. My name is John and I will be your conference operator for today. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes.

It is now my pleasure to introduce to you Mr. Ron Hagood, Vice President of Investor Relations for the company. Please go ahead.

Ron Hagood

Thank you, and good morning. Joining me today are Jason Pigott, President and Chief Executive Officer; Bryan Lemmerman, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Katie Hill, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; as well as additional members of our management team. During today’s call, we will be making forward-looking statements. These statements, including those describing our beliefs, goals, expectations, forecasts and assumptions are intended to be covered by the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Our actual results may differ from these forward-looking statements for a variety of reasons, many of which are beyond our control. In addition, we’ll be making reference to non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to GAAP financial measures are included in the press release and presentation we issued yesterday afternoon. The press release and presentation can be accessed on our website at www.vitalenergy.com.

I’ll now turn the call over to Jason Pigott, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Jason Pigott

Good morning and thank you for joining us today. First quarter results were solid as we achieved record production, exceeded adjusted free cash flow expectations, and delivered outstanding operational execution across our leasehold, again demonstrating our ability to create additional value on acquired acreage. We’ve integrated our 2023 acquisitions and we are working to optimize operations to lower capital, reduce operational costs and enhance productivity. We have already recognized significant gains on our properties versus what we underwrote, and we will continue to focus on creating additional value. As a company, we are highly focused on development that will both extend our inventory and reduce our breakevens.