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Magnolia Oil & Gas Third Quarter 2020 Results

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Magnolia Oil & Gas Corp. announced its financial and operational results for the third quarter of 2020.

Third Quarter 2020 Highlights:

• Magnolia reported third quarter 2020 net income attributable to Class A Common Stock of $9.1 million, or $0.05 per share. Third quarter 2020 total net income was $13.7 million and adjusted net income was $15.6 million, or $0.06 per share.
• Third quarter 2020 production averaged 54.3 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (“Mboe/d”). As expected, Magnolia did not complete any operated wells during the third quarter. Quarterly volumes were negatively impacted by 2 Mboe/d due to the delays of non-operated wells in Karnes until the fourth quarter and some unplanned downtime at a Karnes processing facility.
• Adjusted EBITDAX during the third quarter of 2020 was $76.4 million. Drilling and completion costs (“D&C”) for the quarter were $27.4 million or just 36% of adjusted EBITDAX, and better than our earlier guidance. We continue to target D&C spending during 2020 of approximately 60 percent of adjusted EBITDAX, and inline with our strategy and business plan.
• We began completing wells in Giddings at the end of the third quarter with several wells coming online during October. Progress continues in reducing our well costs in Giddings, with current total well costs averaging $6.5 million (including costs for drilling, completion, and facilities), representing a 45 percent improvement in total costs per lateral foot compared to 2019 levels.
• We purchased 1.2 million shares of Class A Common Stock for $7 million during the third quarter as part of our active share repurchase program. Year-to-date, we have repurchased 2.2 million shares and currently have 6.8 million shares remaining under our current authorization.⁽¹⁾
• Magnolia ended the quarter with approximately $148.5 million of cash on its balance sheet and remains undrawn on its recently reaffirmed $450.0 million revolving credit facility. The Company has no debt maturities until 2026 and has no plans to increase its debt levels.

Magnolia Chairman, President, and CEO, Steve Chazen said: "Magnolia is in a strong position with an attractive, high-margin asset base and a business model that generates consistent free cash flow with low levels of debt. We generated $46 million of free cash flow after capital outlays during the quarter, ending the period with $149 million of cash and after allocating $10 million toward buying back our stock and for a small bolt-on acquisition. This general framework of organic investment in our business and small bolt-on acquisitions that generate moderate growth, while returning excess cash to shareholders, is expected to continue into next year.

“As we had previously indicated, the third quarter marked a trough period for the Company’s production as we had not completed any wells since February. Production volumes are expected to rebound in the fourth quarter by 7 to 10 percent, particularly in Giddings, where we started bringing on new well completions last month. While still early, we remain very optimistic on Giddings as the results of the initial batch of wells brought on last month are better than the average of the 14 wells we drilled in this area and laid out last quarter. Our initial core area of development in Giddings continues to outperform our expectations providing us with longer term confidence in this opportunity.”

Operational Update

Third quarter total company production averaged 54.3 Mboe/d, with oil production representing half of our total volumes. Production from Karnes and Giddings and other averaged 33.9 Mboe/d and 20.4 Mboe/d, respectively, during the third quarter 2020. As per our scheduled plan, Magnolia did not complete or turn on any operated wells during the third quarter. The delay of several non-operated wells in Karnes, previously expected to come online in the third quarter, negatively impacted our production during the period, and these wells have since come online in the fourth quarter.

Magnolia is currently operating one rig in Giddings that continues to drill multi-well pads in our initial core developmental area. We ended the third quarter with 8 drilled but uncompleted wells in Giddings which are expected to be brought online during the fourth quarter. The first 3-well pad was brought online in mid-October and early results indicate that the performance of these wells exceeds the average of the wells that we have drilled thus far within the initial 70,000-acre core area. We are not planning any operated activity in Karnes during the fourth quarter.

Our total cost per well at Giddings continues to improve with recent well costs averaging $6.5 million. Drilling times are continuing to set new company records providing further confidence that well costs should experience additional declines. Drilling costs per lateral foot have declined nearly 55 percent and completion costs per lateral foot have decreased 50 percent compared to 2019 levels. These operational efficiencies have resulted in a 45 percent improvement in the total costs per lateral foot (including costs for drilling and completion, and facilities). Magnolia anticipates well costs in Giddings to decline toward $6 million per well in our development area driven by continued efficiencies.

Guidance

Our total capital spending for drilling, completions, and facilities is expected to be approximately 55 percent of our adjusted EBITDAX in the fourth quarter. Fourth quarter production is expected to increase 7 to 10 percent sequentially. The increase in our overall volumes is expected to be driven by several multi-well pads in Giddings to be turned in line throughout the current quarter in addition to several non-operated wells in Karnes. Overall, we continue to run one operated rig in Giddings where our development drilling program is expected to continue through the fourth quarter.

Oil price differentials are anticipated to be a roughly $3 per barrel discount to Magellan East Houston (“MEH”) during the fourth quarter, which is in line with historical levels. During the third quarter, Magnolia hedged 50,000 million British thermal units (“MMbtu”) per day of natural gas production (just under half our total natural gas production) using costless collars with a weighted average floor price of $2.31 per MMbtu and a weighted average ceiling price of $3.00 per MMbtu, from September 2020 through August of 2021.

Looking into 2021, we plan to invest approximately 60 percent of our adjusted EBITDAX on drilling and completing wells consistent with the capital discipline that has supported our business model since our inception. At current product prices, Magnolia plans to operate one rig focused on pad drilling in the Giddings initial core area. Based on current drill times in Giddings, we estimate a one rig drilling program is on pace to drill approximately 20 wells per year.