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Murphy Oil Second Quarter 2020 Results; Trims Another $40MM from Capex

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   |    Thursday,August 06,2020

Murphy Oil Corp. reported its Q2 2020 results.

The company reported a net loss of $317 million, or $2.06 net loss per diluted share. Adjusted net loss, which excludes discontinued operations and other one-off items, was $110 million, or $0.71 net loss per diluted share.

Further $40MM Cut to 2020 Capex

The company's full year budget has been reduced a further $40 million at the midpoint, to a range of $680 million to $720 million.

This is more than a 50 percent reduction from original guidance.

Note that CAPEX guidance excludes Gulf of Mexico noncontrolling interest (NCI) and King's Quay floating production system (FPS) construction spending. For second quarter 2020, Murphy accrued a total $174 million of CAPEX, including approximately $33 million for the King's Quay FPS which, along with previous King's Quay expenditures, will be reimbursed at close of the transaction, which is anticipated to occur in the third quarter.

CEO Roger Jenkins commented: "This quarter, we made meaningful reductions to right-size our cost structure, capital spending and quarterly dividend. With our capital program significantly weighted towards the first half of 2020, this sets the company up to generate free cash flow, after the dividend, for the remainder of the year based on current strip prices. As I look ahead, we are in the early stages of benefiting from our new low-cost structure with the reduction in force and office closures finalized just last month, and we look forward to executing our business plans in a streamlined setting going forward."

Highlights:

  • Produced 168 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day, including 58% or 98 thousand barrels of oil per day
  • Improved average lease operating expenses by 22 percent from the first quarter 2020 to less than $9 per barrel of oil equivalent in the second quarter, or approximately $7 per barrel of oil equivalent excluding workover expenses
  • Received $109 million of cash crude oil hedge settlements for the quarter
  • Lowered expected full year G&A by approximately 40 percent to a range of $130 million to $140 million compared to full year 2019 including the impact of the previously announced office closures, restructuring and a 30 percent office headcount reduction
  • Reduced the full year 2020 capital expenditure budget an additional $40 million, to a range of $680 million to $720 million, or a more than 50 percent reduction from the original 2020 guidance
  • Initiated crude oil hedge positions for 2021, resulting in a total of 15 thousand barrels of oil per day hedged at an average price of $42.93 per barrel

Q2 Financials

The company recorded a net loss, attributable to Murphy, of $317 million, or $2.06 net loss per diluted share, for the second quarter 2020. Adjusted net loss, which excludes both the results of discontinued operations and certain other items that affect comparability of results between periods, was $110 million, or $0.71 net loss per diluted share for the same period. The adjusted loss from continuing operations excludes the following after-tax items: a $146 million non-cash mark-to-market loss on crude oil derivative contracts, a $32 million charge for restructuring expenses, a $16 million non-cash asset impairment charge, and a $12 million non-cash mark-to-market loss on liabilities associated with future contingent consideration. Details for second quarter results can be found in the attached schedules.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) from continuing operations attributable to Murphy was $125 million, or $8 per barrel of oil equivalent (BOE) sold. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization and exploration expenses (EBITDAX) from continuing operations attributable to Murphy was $154 million, or $10 per BOE sold. Details for second quarter adjusted EBITDA and EBITDAX reconciliations can be found in the attached schedules.

Second quarter production averaged 168 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (MBOEPD) with 58 percent oil and 65 percent liquids. Volumes were negatively impacted by a total of 17.5 MBOEPD for the second quarter, of which approximately 16 MBOEPD were the result of shut-ins due to market prices as previously disclosed, in addition to nearly 1.6 MBOEPD as the result of Tropical Storm Cristobal in the Gulf of Mexico. Production volumes from the shut-in wells came back online in June.

CEO Roger Jenkins said: "The second quarter was difficult not only for our industry, but also our company. As we endured the economic fallout from the global pandemic and the unprecedented oil price collapse, we made the decision to shut in wells, primarily at a single offshore facility. Absent these shut-ins, our assets performed very well and production volumes would have been essentially flat with first quarter 2020. I am proud of our team's ability to manage uptime and performance despite the unique challenges presented by recent events. Our field employees continue to follow strict safety protocols, and have kept COVID-19 absent from our operations."

Financial Position

As of June 30, 2020, Murphy had approximately $1.6 billion of liquidity, comprised of $1.4 billion undrawn under the $1.6 billion senior unsecured credit facility and approximately $146 million of cash and cash equivalents.

At the end of second quarter 2020, Murphy had outstanding debt of $2.8 billion in long-term, fixed-rate notes and $170 million drawn under its senior unsecured credit facility. The fixed-rate notes had a weighted average maturity of 7.3 years and a weighted average coupon of 5.9 percent. Overall, approximately 80 percent of total fixed-rate notes are due in 2024 or later.

Hedges

The company employs commodity derivative instruments to manage certain risks associated with commodity price volatility and underpin capital spending associated with certain assets. Subsequent to quarter-end, Murphy opportunistically layered on hedges to protect cash flow with the execution of WTI fixed prices swaps, resulting in a total 15 MBOPD hedged for full year 2021 at an average price of $42.93 per barrel.

Q3 2020 Production Outlook

With the revised capital budget, Murphy anticipates production volumes of approximately 153 MBOEPD to 163 MBOEPD for the third quarter. This guidance range is primarily impacted by two major factors - assumed storm downtime of nearly 5 MBOEPD, and repairs at Delta House facility totaling 8 MBOEPD - as well as planned maintenance at a non-operated Gulf of Mexico field, resulting in 1,200 BOEPD of third quarter downtime.

Ops Summary

North American Onshore

The North American onshore business produced approximately 90 MBOEPD in the second quarter.

Eagle Ford Shale - Production averaged 38 MBOEPD with 74 percent oil volumes in the second quarter. As planned, early in the quarter Murphy brought online 11 operated wells in Karnes, comprised of nine new wells and two refracs. The five non-operated Karnes wells scheduled to come online were delayed to the third quarter. An additional three non-operated wells are scheduled to come online, for a total of eight non-operated wells to come online in the third quarter. Drilling and completions costs have improved considerably since 2019, with the average cost reduced to approximately $5 million per well for the first half of 2020. No further operated activity is planned for 2020.

Tupper Montney - Natural gas production averaged 237 MMCFD for the quarter. No activity occurred in the second quarter, and none is planned for the remainder of 2020.

Kaybob Duvernay - Second quarter production averaged nearly 11 MBOEPD. One well was brought online during the quarter as planned, with production from the remaining four new wells deferred to the third quarter due to market pricing. No drilling and completions activity is planned for the remainder of 2020.

Placid Montney - Produced 2 MBOEPD in the second quarter through Murphy's non-operated position. As planned, six non-operated wells were brought online in April, and shut in for May and June due to low commodity prices. Production from these new wells resumed in July.

Global Offshore

The offshore business produced 78 MBOEPD for the second quarter, comprised of 80 percent oil. This excludes production from discontinued operations and noncontrolling interest. Gulf of Mexico production in the quarter averaged 72 MBOEPD, consisting of 78 percent oil. Canada offshore production averaged 6 MBOEPD, comprised of 100 percent oil.

Gulf of Mexico - The second well in the Front Runner rig program, A7 (Green Canyon 338), was completed and brought online during the second quarter. As previously disclosed, the planned third well in the program has been postponed as part of Murphy's revised capital budget due to ongoing low commodity prices.

Also in the quarter, the Dalmatian DC 134 #2 (De Soto Canyon 134) and Cascade 4 (Walker Ridge 250) well workovers were completed and the wells returned to production for total net workover costs of approximately $20 million, representing nearly 15 percent of total operating expenses for the quarter.

Murphy's operating partner in Kodiak #3 (Mississippi Canyon 727) drilled the well to total depth in the second quarter, with completion delayed until prices recover. Additionally, the non-operated St. Malo waterflood project continues to progress, and the producer well PN005 (Walker Ridge 678) was spud during the quarter.

The King's Quay FPS transaction documentation is progressing, with the logistical effects of COVID-19 delaying closing, which is now targeted for the third quarter. During the second quarter, construction on the FPS with Hyundai Heavy Industries achieved the significant milestone of 1 million man-hours with zero Lost Time Incidents.

Canada Offshore - As previously announced, non-operated Terra Nova is expected to remain offline for the year.

Exploration

Gulf of Mexico - The non-operated Mt. Ouray well (Green Canyon 767) was drilled in the second quarter for $7.8 million cost net to Murphy as 20 percent working interest owner. The well has been classified as a dry hole.


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