Donovan Schafer: Okay. And then, lastly, just – I’m curious if you can comment on kind of the state of the M&A market. If you’re assessing a lot of opportunities still, I guess you can comment both on ground game or near-term drilling – near-term development, as well as something larger package-type deals? In both those kind of opportunity sets, have you seen directional changes or were you seeing more potential in one versus the other at this time are going forward? Just kind of, in general trends, what kind of the state of affairs are there, and an opportunity versus not – sometimes, it’s better to just sit things out for a while?
Bob Gerrity: Yes. Donovan. Thanks for the question. This is Bob. We are seeing a lot of deal flow, both in the near term and in the larger asset class. It’s possibly because the price of oil has been fairly stable, but this is the most – this the biggest deal flow we’ve seen in years. Now, that said, that doesn’t always correlate to us closing those deals, but it’s great. There is a real nice smorgasbord of opportunities. About half the company is engaged in some form of reviewing and analyzing and closing deals. So, we are very busy. But, again, can’t promise that we’re going to close those things. But, you know, at the end of the day, we are underwriters. So, we’re having a lot of fun.
Donovan Schafer: Yeah, I’d actually prefer that you promise that you don’t close on any of the one that are, you know…
Bob Gerrity: Right on, buddy – right on.
Donovan Schafer: …if coming at, from an economic standpoint. So…
Bob Gerrity: Right on.
Donovan Schafer: Okay. All right. Well, great, thanks guys. I will follow up for any other questions.
Bob Gerrity: Thanks, Don.
Brian Cree: Thank you for your support, Donovan. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jeff Brent with Alliance Global Partners. Please proceed.
Jeff Brent: Good morning, all. Thanks for the time. I was curious on the cost side of things, well costs specifically. Just an update there in terms of what you guys are seeing? How does a leading edge AFE maybe compare to this time last year, maybe first half of this year? And then, relatedly, what kind of costs are you guys baking into that ’24 guide? Thanks.
Brian Cree: Sure. Thanks, Jeff. This is Brian. I’ll take a crack at that, and let Bob add anything that he wants to add. But, you know, we’ve talked about this on most of our calls. We didn’t see as much cost inflation in the Bakken as I think some of the other basins have seen over the last year, year-and-a-half? But, as we mentioned on our 2Q call, the difference between the first quarter and the second quarter, we were starting to see a nice – you know – small but nice trend back to lower AFEs. I don’t know that I would say that that trend necessarily improved into the third quarter. But I think it’s been consistent. I think, you know, we started to see the price of oil go back up. You know, your drilling and completion costs are going to have some correlation to the price of oil.
But I think we are happy with the AFEs that we’ve been receiving in terms of – where their costs are coming in, our operators are doing a good job. My sense is that, you know, sometimes, it takes a while for us to get all the actual costs and it’s one of the benefits of – being an non-operated working interest owner is you don’t see the cost as quickly as the operators do. But the trends that I think we’re seeing is certainly the operators are doing a very good job of managing costs out there in the field. And I don’t think we’re seeing the inflation that we saw in 2022. I think that 2023 third quarter is kind of a continuation of the second quarter.
Jeff Brent: Got it. Great, thank you. And for my follow-up on, I guess, tangentially related to your own M&A aspirations. Hess is obviously one of your larger operators – that’s going to be a changing of the guard there soon. Do you guys have an opinion on that – positive, negative, non-event – as it relates to how it will impact the test? And, prospectively, just curious how you guys are thinking about looking at opportunities underlying Hess acreage, given that change?
Brian Cree: Well, you must have been at our conference from the last week, Jeff, because it’s been a big topic of conversation. We know Chevron for what they’ve done in the DJ, and we think that there are very good operator. We are under Hess in a lot of in a lot of wells, and we – I can’t predict if it’s a good thing for us, Jeff, or a bad thing. But we do like Chevron, and we get our head on a swivel. Usually when M&A like that happens, it’s beneficial because, you know, the smaller assets do shuffle, but we haven’t seen that yet. So, we’re looking at, we don’t know yet.
Jeff Brent: Understood. Yeah, I know, it’s early. I thought I’d ask. So, thanks for the time guys. Appreciate it.
Brian Cree: Thank you, Jeff.
Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I’d like to turn the call back to management for closing remarks.
Brian Cree: Well, thanks everybody for your time. Ben does a terrific job in answering any questions that you have, and we really appreciate your interest and support. See you in a couple of months. Thank you. Bye, bye.
Operator: Thank you. This concludes today’s conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.
