Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:CHK) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Josh Viets: So between Haynesville and Marcellus, we run €“ would intend to run around four crews if we were at our current activity levels. But as we’re dropping rigs, we do have plans to reduce the frac activity. So currently, we’re at one frac crew in the Marcellus. Again, normally, we’d be running two. So we dropped that frac crew. It will come back later in the year in the second half of the year for a period of time as we build up some inventory with the rigs that we’re running today. In the Haynesville today, we’re running two frac crews. We do expect as we work through the course of the year, that will drop the frac crew later in the second quarter. And then that frac crew would come back late in the third quarter. And so in aggregate, we do €“ we see ourselves flexing between two and four frac crews in the gas basins throughout the course of the year.

Phillips Johnston: Okay. Perfect. Makes sense. And then Slide 19, you highlight investment-grade achievement as near-term value catalysts. Obviously, you can’t directly control the timing there. But could you maybe touch on your recent conversations with the rating agencies? And what they still need to see before upgrading your ratings?

Mohit Singh: So this is Mohit. We remain actively engaged with the rating agencies. The influx of cash that we will expect at the closing of these divestitures, that’s considered positive from the rating agency perspective. Overall, what they need to see is just some more seasoning and time and financial policy and financial discipline, which we continue to demonstrate. They like all of that. It’s just more a matter of time and continued engagement. And we remain confident it’s a matter of time until we get to investment rate.

Phillips Johnston: Sounds good, guys. Thank you.

Mohit Singh: Thank you.

Operator: The final question today comes from Nicholas Pope with Seaport Research. Please go ahead.

Nicholas Pope: Good morning, everyone.

Nick Dell’Osso: Good morning, Nic.

Nicholas Pope: I was hoping you guys could talk a little bit about potential for M&A opportunities in Haynesville, Marcellus, Obviously, you’re going to have €“ if these two deals close, a fair amount of cash on hand, Gas prices are low. Just curious what the landscape looks like in both those areas, if that’s something that you are targeting, you could target? And also, on the Marcellus side, is there any limitation because of the structure of the ownership that 50% stake that limits if you being able to go out and add additional or is that not a factor?

Nick Dell’Osso: Second question first, that’s not a factor. First question, bigger question, what does the M&A landscape look like to us? It’s interesting, I guess. When prices are low, people think hard about their strategy going forward and how they participate in the upside as prices inevitably rebound. I’m sure that the industry will have plenty of chatter around M&A as it has had for the last couple of years. We think consolidation is a trend in the industry that matters. We’ve been vocal about that. We think the opportunity to allocate capital across a bigger set of assets, therefore, constantly high grading how you allocate capital. is important, and we think you optimize cost structures when you do that, and we think you generate overall better returns for shareholders.

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