Riley Exploration Permian, Inc. (AMEX:REPX) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

We’re going to be starting here in the spring with EOR project that increases the power load. And so overall we saw that as exciting opportunity. And then lastly, it’s very important to us to control the flaring and for the most part that’s out of our control based on midstream capacity. So where we could, we liked to be able to control that, and this is an exciting way to take that otherwise Flare Gas and create something useful with it.

Unidentified Analyst: So the power project will allow you to displace compressors in the field, which let ultimately kind of be positive from a cost standpoint?

Philip Riley: No, to clarify there, the power project will provide electrical power to the compressors that will run on electricity. And so just instead of necessarily pulling it from the grid, you’re pulling it from our onsite power generation. Now we will have backup capacity from the grid that we can pull to from and for overall operational redundancy.

Unidentified Analyst: Having the more reliable source of power, is there a greater premium on that aspect of operations as you move into the EOR project?

Philip Riley: I think that’s fair. Yes, in general, the overall load is increasing and I think that’s a fair way to put it. But for the most part, we have a large field, the pilot is one small part of it in a section and lots of different places that we need and use power.

Unidentified Analyst: Thank you.

Operator: Your next question will come from the line of David Dernick with Dernick Companies. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst: Good morning guys, and congratulations on having quite a productive year and some real interesting projects coming up. I’ve got really three questions. One addresses if you could elaborate on the response you’re seeing so far on the water and CO2 injection? And then secondly, kind a little unrelated what is your €“ how do your hedge positions look like on oil going forward? And then thirdly, on the electric generation, I think that’s a wonderful project. Congratulations on that. I’m wondering if you’ll have any excess capacity to sell back into the grid? That’s it.

Philip Riley: All right. Thank you, David. Yes, sure. We can rip through these. So the first question on the EOR, what we’d say is we’re early in the life of repressurizing the reservoir. As you may be familiar, EOR projects are very long term in nature. It takes a lot to repressurize those. We’re producing from this field or from this section, including adjacent sections. And so you’ve got a little bit of a competition for the de-pressuring and repressing there. But that’s a longer-term deal and we will be sure to update you when we have something different to say there. Let’s see. The second question, I believe involves selling power back to the grid. We do have some flexibility there to take non-dedicated gas and sell back to the grid to the degree we have excess power. So that’s certainly a consideration there and some flexibility that we’re happy about. Let’s see. The third question, remind me there.

Unidentified Analyst: On your hedge positions for oil going forward?

Philip Riley: Hedging. We disclose that both in the appendix of our presentation and in the earnings release. I’d note that there’s a slight difference. We show some in the 10-K as of 12/31, and then some more recently. The short answer on hedging is that we are choosing to increase hedge positions as a result of this acquisition. Both given that we’ve agreed to a purchase price and a financing capital structure. And thus we want to protect some of those cash flows. We will have further hedging. And so, I can tell you just in general with a larger debt load, we’re going to be much more amenable to hedging. That said, we’re pretty happy with some of the trades we’ve made so far in the year. We did a fair amount earlier in January when prices were higher.