Antero Resources Corp. reported Wednesday $213.431 million in net income for the opening quarter, down about 71 percent from the previous three months on lower realized prices.
It recorded $156.419 million in net loss in the first quarter of 2022.
Antero had a combined natural gas production of 3,274 million cubic feet equivalent per day (MMcfe/d) in January-March 2023, up from 3,224 MMcfe/d in October-December 2022, the New York-listed company said in a press release.
While output rose, average realized prices for all but one of its hydrocarbon products fell. Natural gas sold at $3.45 a thousand cubic feet, oil sold at $62.35 per barrel and ethane $11.73 per barrel. Only Antero’s C3+ NGLs natural gas liquids product gained in price, to $42.95 a barrel from $39.88 sequentially.
“Our development program remains focused on our liquids-rich acreage, which provided an attractive pricing uplift in the quarter through the strength in NGL prices”, chair, chief executive and president Paul Rady said in the earnings report.
Antero logged $267 million in drilling and completion capital expenditure in the first quarter of 2023, including on 12,000 net acres that comprise “over 50 incremental drilling locations at an average cost of $1 million per location”.
“These incremental locations nearly offset Antero’s maintenance capital plan that requires an average of 60 to 65 wells per year”, the announcement added.
By year-ago comparison, the first three months of 2023 represented a recovery from the net loss of $156.419 million Antero reported in the first quarter of 2022, when higher commodity prices pushed production taxes higher.
“All-in cash expense, which includes lease operating, gathering, compression, processing and transportation, production and ad valorem taxes was $2.33 per Mcfe [thousand cubic feet equivalent] in the first quarter, a 3% increase compared to $2.26 per Mcfe average during the first quarter of 2021”, Antero said in its performance report for the 2022 first quarter published April 27, 2022.
It also spent $100 million in the first quarter of 2022 repurchasing 3.7 million shares following a buyback program approved February 2022 eyeing the return of up to $1 billion worth of Antero’s outstanding common stock.
In January-March 2023 it bought back three million shares for $87 million.
“Since the inception of the share repurchase program, Antero has purchased 30.4 million shares for approximately $1 billion, or 10% of common shares outstanding. The Company currently has approximately $1.1 billion of remaining capacity under the share repurchase program”, it said.
Antero chief financial officer Michael Kennedy said the repurchase program allowed the company to return 50 percent of its free cash flow in the first three months of 2023, which stood at $173.557 million, compared to $314.612 million year on year.
“Driven by our steadfast commitment to debt reduction in recent years, we entered 2023 in the strongest financial position in company history. During the first quarter we returned 50% of our Free Cash Flow through our share repurchase program”, he said.
Antero’s net debt stood at $1.31 billion as of the end of the quarter, from $1.18 billion yearend 2022.
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