Antero Resources Corp. reported net income of $213.431 billion for the first quarter on Wednesday, down 71% from the previous three months on lower realized prices.
It posted a net loss of $156.419 million in the first quarter of 2022.
Antero had combined natural gas production of 3.274 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (MMcfe/d) in January-March 2023, up from 3.224 MMcfe/d in October-December 2022, the company said shares in New York in a press release.
While production rose, average realized prices for all but one of its hydrocarbon products fell. Natural gas was selling at $3.45 a thousand cubic feet, oil was selling at $62.35 a barrel and ethane was $11.73 a barrel. Only Antero’s C3+ NGL natural gas liquids product rose in price, to $42.95 a barrel from $39.88 sequentially.
“Our development program remains focused on our liquids-rich acreage, which provided attractive price upside during the quarter thanks to the strength of NGL prices,” Chairman, CEO and President Paul Rady said in the ‘earnings report.
Antero recorded $267 million in drilling and completion capital expenditures in the first quarter of 2023, including 12,000 net acres comprising “more than 50 incremental drilling locations at an average cost of $1 million per location” .
“These incremental locations nearly offset Antero’s maintenance capital plan which requires an average of 60 to 65 wells per year,” the announcement added.
Compared to a year ago, the first three months of 2023 represented a recovery from the $156.419 billion net loss that Antero reported in the first quarter of 2022, when higher commodity prices increased taxes on the production
“Total cash expense, which includes lease operation, 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 on average in the first quarter of 2021,” Antero said in its first quarter 2022 performance report released on April 27 of 2022.
It also spent $100 million in the first quarter of 2022 repurchasing 3.7 million shares following a repurchase program approved in February 2022 that provided for the return of up to $1 billion of common stock pending Antero.
In January-March 2023, he bought three million shares for $87 million.
“Since the start of the share repurchase program, Antero has purchased 30.4 million shares for approximately $1 billion, or 10% of the outstanding common stock. The company currently has approximately $1.1 billion dollars of remaining capacity under the share buyback program,” he said.
Antero CFO Michael Kennedy said the buyback 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 billion. dollars, compared to $314.612 billion annually.
“Driven by our strong commitment to debt reduction over the past few years, we entered 2023 in the strongest financial position in the company’s history. During the first quarter we returned 50% of our free cash flow through our share buyback program,” he said.
Antero’s net debt stood at $1.31 billion at the end of the quarter, up from $1.18 billion at the end of 2022.
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