Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Dan Kutz: So I just wanted to ask, any appetite for dividend increases or is the idea to use the buybacks as the flywheel for shareholder returns? What would you kind of contemplate a dividend increase or what would you need to see to do that or again, is the buyback the kind of the flywheel?

Chris Wright: Well, buyback is definitely the flywheel. Just look at the different investment opportunities we have today and some of these technologies we’ve talked about, the outlook for them is simply tremendous and buybacks are just simply tremendous opportunity today. So that’s the big dog of where capital will go. We are believers in dividend. We paid a dividend before the COVID downturn as well. But we’re a cyclical business it’s always going to be cyclical. We want to have a base dividend that barring a global pandemic that stays and gradually grows with time. So I do think you’ll see growth in our dividend, but it’s not a major swing based on market conditions or better this than that. It’s steady as she goes, but certainly the outlook we have today is likely continues to grow.

Dan Kutz: Great, thanks Chris. And then maybe just kind of a high level one, some fundamentals for the industry definitely still appear very strong. And I guess I just wanted to ask, what would you view as kind of the biggest near-term risk to your outlook? You mentioned that you think nat gas, activity declines is a relatively minor risk? But like would a deeper than anticipated recession be it demand concern or a faster supply side response, what kind of metrics would you suggest investors pay attention to and assuming they play out as expected, that would mean that your outlook remains intact?

Chris Wright: Yes, we hear a lot about the faster supply side response, but as we hit, we view that is a relatively low risk. It’s hard to grow frac fleet capacity. It’s going to grow a little bit, but it isn’t going to grow a lot. The thing that can change the market faster, as we’ve seen in the last downturns is a collapse in commodity prices. The risk – to our business is a collapse in oil prices. And so you think about financial crisis, right? We had a very large scale, very rapidly unfolding collapse with the financial crisis. And it took a tight oil market with oil prices over $100, and it crashed than to $30. And it actually made two or three not great quarters for the industry and things came right back because going into that recession, supply and demand was tight.

And supply and demand is probably at least as tight probably a little bit tighter today than it was then. So I think a huge rapid economic contraction would certainly soften the industry, but even then probably not for too long. So it’s really oil demand. So watch oil prices. If oil prices go to $40, activity is going to drop.

Dan Kutz: Great, thanks a lot of Chris and team. I’ll turn it back.

Chris Wright: Thank you.

Operator: The next question is from Sean Mitchell with Daniel Energy Partners. Please go ahead.

Sean Mitchell: Hi guys, thanks for working me in here. I know we’re getting long in the morning. But just really quick, one of the questions earlier was around diesel versus electric frac. Maybe I’m going to frame the question a little different. What’s the optimal mix of digiFrac in the Liberty portfolio, I guess, number one? And then number two, remind us what the average expected life of the digiFrac unit is versus a traditional unit?

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