Chord Energy's Q4 2024 Earnings Call Highlights: A Year of Transformation and Strong Performance
The latest conference call transcript from Chord Energy's Q4 2024 earnings report has revealed a year of significant transformation and strong performance for the company. In his opening remarks, CEO Danny Brown reflected on the past year, highlighting key accomplishments and looking ahead to the future.
According to Brown, last year was a "transformational year" for Chord Energy, marked by its combination with Enerplus in May 2024. The integration of both organizations allowed the company to capture substantial operational and corporate synergies, while maintaining its commitment to balance sheet strength, capital discipline, and peer-leading return of capital.
Brown emphasized that this strategic move has placed Chord Energy in a strong position, with improved scale driving a highly efficient program capable of generating flat to slight volume growth with low maintenance capital. This has resulted in high amounts of sustainable free cash flow and enhanced economics through the adoption of leading-edge practices such as long laterals and conservative spacing.
The company's substantial low-cost inventory generates attractive economics, allowing for continued low reinvestment rates, robust free cash flow, and attractive return of capital. Brown noted that Chord Energy has demonstrated consistent delivery for shareholders and has additional catalysts for future upside.
One notable example of this performance is the company's ability to generate strong free cash generation in 2024, with a significant portion returned to shareholders. On a pro forma basis, Chord Energy returned $944 million to shareholders last year, with share repurchases accounting for a larger portion of this return.
Since closing the Enerplus transaction, Chord Energy has repurchased greater than 5% of its shares outstanding, and the company expects to continue this focus on share repurchases in the current environment. This should yield per share growth across all key metrics, with one example being a 12% compounded annual growth rate in oil production per share over the last three years.
Overall, Chord Energy's Q4 2024 earnings call highlights a year of transformation and strong performance for the company, with continued focus on shareholder value and attractive return of capital.
