Ring Energy Q4 2025 Earnings Call - Discipline Pays: Free Cash Flow, Debt Paydown and Testing Horizontal Upside
Summary
Ring closed 2025 having quietly proved its playbook: generate cash, cut costs, pay down debt, and test new horizontal inventory without blowing up the balance sheet. Despite a post-Liberation Day price shock and weaker realized oil pricing, the company posted its 25th consecutive quarter of adjusted free cash flow, reduced debt by $40 million since the March Lime Rock deal, and grew proved reserves and identified drilling inventory.
Looking forward, management is holding the line. 2026 guidance is conservative, sized to maintain flat production while allocating excess cash to further debt reduction. The operational emphasis is on longer laterals, more horizontals, and targeted zone tests that could unlock multi-bench inventory and drive future organic growth, all while running the business from a position of financial discipline.
Key Takeaways
- Ring delivered its 25th consecutive quarter of adjusted free cash flow, generating $5.7 million in Q4 and $50.1 million for full-year 2025 despite an 18% drop in realized commodity pricing year over year.
- Q4 production sold 20,508 Boe/d, essentially flat sequentially, and 2025 full-year average sales set a company record at 20,253 Boe/d, helped by nine months of production from the March Lime Rock acquisition.
- Realized price fell to $35.45 per Boe in Q4, down 14% from Q3, driven by an 11% sequential decline in realized oil pricing and wider differentials versus NYMEX WTI.
- Q4 reported net loss was $12.8 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, which included $35.9 million of non-cash ceiling test impairment; adjusted net income ex-items was $3.6 million, or $0.02 per diluted share.
- Ring reduced debt by $40 million since the Lime Rock closing, including a $10 million deferred payment in December, and paid down $8 million of debt in Q4; total year paydown was $35 million.
- Liquidity at year-end: $420 million drawn on a $585 million borrowing base, leaving $165 million available under the facility, and combined cash plus availability of $166 million; reported leverage 2.2x.
- Hedges provide downside protection for 2026: roughly 2.3 million barrels of oil hedged, about 48% of mid-point oil sales, and 4.7 Bcf of gas hedged, about 66% of estimated gas sales.
- 2026 guidance is conservative and cash-flow focused, assuming $60 WTI and $3.50 Henry Hub: production 19,500 to 20,800 Boe/d (mid 20,150), oil 12,500 to 13,400 bbl/d (mid 12,950), and capex $100 to $130 million (mid $115 million).
- Capital program plans 23 to 32 wells in 2026, with a first 2-mile lateral planned, and a shift to an 85% horizontal mix at the midpoint versus 67% in 2025 to drive capital efficiency.
- Drilling capital efficiency is improving, quoted at $500 per lateral foot, a 19% improvement since 2023 and 3% year over year, and Finding and Development costs improved to $10.40 per Boe since 2023.
- Operating cost progress continues, with Q4 LOE of $18.9 million or $10.02 per Boe, below the low end of guidance, and 2026 LOE guidance set between $10.15 and $11.15 per Boe (mid $10.65), implying further expected reductions.
- Q4 revenue was $66.9 million, down 15% from Q3's $78.6 million, with oil revenue down $9.5 million driven primarily by price variance; gas and NGL revenues increased sequentially.
- Management highlights 14% growth in total proved reserves for 2025 and a 17% increase in approved undeveloped inventory, pushing identified total locations to 500+, or over 10 years of drilling inventory.
- Non-core monetizations continue, with a late-January sale of ~200 Boe/d of non-op production for $4.5 million, roughly 4.5x NTM cash flow; management says remaining sellable inventory is limited.
- Executive changes matter: Sonu Johl joined as EVP, CFO, bringing 20+ years in energy investment banking and an explicit mandate to protect the balance sheet, enhance free cash flow durability, and position the company for eventual returns of capital.
Full Transcript
Operator: Good day, and welcome to the Ring Energy’s fourth quarter 2025 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touch tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Al Petrie, Investor Relations Coordinator. Please go ahead, sir.
Al Petrie, Investor Relations Coordinator, Ring Energy: Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate your interest in Ring Energy. We will begin our call with comments from Paul McKinney, our Chairman of the Board and CEO, who will provide an overview of key matters for the full year. We’ll then turn the call over to Rocky Kwon, Ring Energy’s VP and Chief Accounting Officer, who will review the details of our fourth quarter 2025 and full year financial results. Paul will then return to discuss our 2026 guidance and outlook with closing comments before we open up the call for questions. Joining us on the call today are Sonu Johl, who recently joined Ring Energy as its Executive VP, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer, Alexander Dyes, Executive VP and Chief Operations Officer, James Parr, Executive VP and Chief Exploration Officer, and Shawn Young, Senior VP of Operations.
During the Q&A session, we ask you to limit your questions to one and a follow-up. You are welcome to re-enter the queue later with additional questions. I would also note that we have posted an updated corporate presentation on our website. During the course of this conference call, the company will be making forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and those actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Finally, the company can give no assurance that such forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Ring Energy disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
These and other risks are described in yesterday’s press release and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These documents can be found in the Investors section of our website, located at www.ringenergy.com. Should one or more of these risks materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially. This conference call also includes references to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable measure under GAAP are contained in yesterday’s earnings release. Finally, as a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Paul McKinney, our Chairman and CEO.
Paul McKinney, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Ring Energy: Thanks, Al. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today. Before we begin our discussion, I would like to introduce our Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer, Sonu Johl, who joined our senior management team last Friday. Sonu brings more than 20 years of experience across upstream oil and gas investment banking, corporate finance, and strategic advisory roles with deep expertise in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, valuations, and financial strategy. For the last 6 years, Sonu was Managing Director, Co-Head of Energy Investment Banking at Raymond James & Associates, Inc., where he advised public and private E&P companies doing business in the Permian Basin, as well as other major US onshore basins. We are very pleased to welcome Sonu, who we got to know well while he was at Raymond James. Sonu, welcome aboard.
Sonu Johl, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer, Ring Energy: Thank you, Paul. I’m excited to be here and officially part of the Ring team. I want to start by thanking you, the board, and the entire leadership team for entrusting me with this important role. As we begin what I truly believe is an exciting next chapter for Ring and for our stockholders. As a banker, I have known the company and many of you in the investment community for quite some time, and I’m genuinely thrilled to now be on the inside, working alongside you, Paul, and the rest of this leadership team. We have a very exciting future at Ring, and I look forward to contributing as we continue to execute our strategy and create long-term value for our stockholders.
Paul McKinney, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Ring Energy: You’re welcome, Sonu. We are equally excited for you to be a member of our executive team. Like I said earlier, welcome aboard. Regarding the task at hand, what a difference a week can make, right? Up until the Iranian crisis began to unfold last weekend, our focus was on raising the floors of our oil hedges to help ensure our future realized prices would be adequate to fund our 2026 capital program. Things certainly look different today. We’ll talk more about 2026 and the future later in this call. For now, Rocky and I are going to reflect on what happened last year, the conditions we face in 2025, and our fourth quarter and full year results. 2025 was a year that demonstrated the strength and resilience of Ring’s value-focused, proven strategy.
When combining the flexibility afforded by our strategy and the discipline demonstrated by the management team to quickly adjust capital spending in the face of post-Liberation Day oil prices, Ring Energy delivered strong performance throughout the year 2025 and in the fourth quarter. Perhaps one of the more important successes was that we increased adjusted free cash flow by 15% year-over-year, setting a new company record despite 18% lower realized commodity prices, and we delivered our 25th consecutive quarter of adjusted free cash flow, a track record we are very proud of. We also increased sales volumes by 3% year-over-year, our total proved reserves by 14%, our approved undeveloped inventory by 17%, which pushed our identified total locations to 500 or more, representing over 10 years of drilling inventory.
This is significant because we have demonstrated for the third year in a row our ability to organically grow our reserves beyond merely replacing our production. We decreased capital spending by 35% year-over-year, reducing our reinvestment rate by 18% to 53% of our 2025 EBITDA. We improved our drilling capital efficiency by 19% since 2023 and 3% year-over-year to $500 per lateral foot, keeping our capital costs under control. We also reduced our year-over-year per Boe all-in cash costs by 4% and our lease operating expense during the last six months by 18% or $1.4 million per month over the pro forma run rate prior to closing the Lime Rock asset acquisition.
This is significant because our lease operating cost run rate per month is less today than it was before the Lime Rock acquisition, despite the fact that we are operating more wells and more production. Finally, we reduced our debt by $40 million since the closing of Lime Rock asset acquisition. In addition to making the $10 million deferred payment in December. The $40 million debt reduction represents almost 60% of the debt incurred at closing of the Lime Rock acquisition in only three quarters, and all of that done in a low price environment. Although 2025 will be remembered by Liberation Day and challenging oil prices that followed, Ring Energy stepped up to the challenge and delivered strong operational and financial performance. Now with that, I have completed my intro.
I am going to turn it over to Rocky to go over the numbers and the details of the fourth quarter and the full year. Sonu, me, and the rest of the team will follow up afterwards to review our outlook and guidance for 2026 and discuss the rapidly changing conditions affecting our industry and what they may mean for our stockholders. Rocky.
Rocky Kwon, Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer, Ring Energy: Thanks, Paul. Good morning, everyone. We are pleased with our outcome for the fourth quarter. In addition to the results that met our overall guidance, the fourth quarter capped off another successful full year for Ring Energy. Similar to past calls, I will take a few minutes to cover some additional color detailing the most significant sequential quarterly results. Starting with production. In the fourth quarter, we sold 20,508 Boe per day, down from 20,789 Boe per day in the third quarter, a slight decrease of 1%. A portion of the decrease was attributable to a third-party gas plant being shut in due to a fire which affected our sales volumes.
Our fourth quarter total sales volumes were above the midpoint of our guidance range and contributed to a record full year 2025 sales volume of 20,253 Boe per day. The year benefited from nine months of production from our Lime Rock acquisition, which closed in March 2025. As Paul discussed, another successful drilling campaign across our asset base with a continued focus on our highest rate of return inventory also materially contributed to our record full year 2025 sales volumes. Turning to the fourth quarter 2025 pricing, our overall realized price declined 14% to $35.45 per Boe from $41.10 per Boe in the third quarter. The overall sequential decline was driven by 11% lower realized pricing for oil in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Our fourth quarter average crude oil price differential from NYMEX WTI futures pricing was a negative $1.66 per barrel versus a negative $0.61 per barrel for the third quarter. This was mostly due to the Argus WTI-WTS that decreased negative $0.14 per barrel, offset by the Argus CMA roll that decreased a negative $0.92 per barrel on average from the third quarter. Our average natural gas price differential from NYMEX future pricing for the fourth quarter was a negative $6.47 per Mcf, compared to a negative $4.22 per Mcf for the third quarter. Our realized NGL price for fourth quarter averaged 9% of WTI, compared to 8% for the third quarter.
Oil revenue decreased by $9.5 million due to a negative $8.3 million price variance and a negative $1.2 million production variance. Gas and NGL revenues, on the other hand, increased by $2.2 million quarter-over-quarter, for a combined total of $2.5 million in the fourth quarter, compared to a $0.3 million in third. This resulted in fourth quarter revenue of $66.9 million compared to $78.6 million for the third quarter, a 15% decrease. Fourth quarter LOE of $18.9 million was 8% below third quarter. On a unit basis, fourth quarter LOE was $10.02 per Boe, which was 7% below the low end of our guidance range. Third quarter LOE was $10.73 per Boe.
Cash G&A, which excludes share-based compensation and transaction-related costs, was $3.46 per Boe for the fourth quarter versus $3.41 per Boe for the third quarter. Our fourth quarter 2025 results included a gain on derivative contracts of $17.5 million, up from $0.4 million for the third quarter, primarily due to lower relative pricing at the end of the fourth quarter. For Q4, we reported a net loss of $12.8 million or $0.06 per diluted share, which includes $35.9 million of non-cash ceiling test impairment charges. Excluding the estimated after-tax impact of pre-tax items, including share-based compensation expense, non-cash ceiling test impairment, and non-cash unrealized gains, losses on hedges, our fourth quarter adjusted net income was $3.6 million or $0.02 per diluted share.
This is compared to a third quarter 2025 net loss of $51.6 million or $0.25 per diluted share and adjusted net income of $13.1 million or $0.06 per diluted share. We incurred $24.3 million in CapEx in the fourth quarter, in line with the midpoint of guidance. We maintained D&C CapEx at $14 million in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter. We incurred costs of approximately $0.5 million for facility upgrades, which contributed to our year-over-year reduction in emissions. Also included in our fourth quarter CapEx was over $0.4 million in leasing costs, approximately 23% of our full year leasing, which added to our reserve replacement and organic inventory growth.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, we generated $5.7 million of adjusted free cash flow and paid down $8 million in debt, resulting in debt reduction of $40 million since completing the Lime Rock acquisition in March 2025. In addition to the pay down, we made a $10 million deferred payment in December 2025 related to the Lime Rock acquisition. For full year 2025, we paid down $35 million of debt and generated $50.1 million in adjusted free cash flow. We will continue to utilize our free cash flow to improve our long term financial profile through further debt repayments, which we expect will be fueled primarily by growth and cash flow driven by the successful execution of our targeted 2026 development program.
Our primary focus remains the same, utilizing our substantial free cash flow to primarily reduce debt and better position ourselves to ultimately provide a meaningful return of capital to shareholders. At year-end 2025, we had $420 million drawn on our credit facility. With a borrowing base of $585 million that was reaffirmed in December, we had $165 million available net of letters of credit. Combined with cash, we had liquidity of $166 million and a leverage ratio of 2.2 times. Moving to our hedge position for 2026, we currently have approximately 2.3 million barrels of oil hedged or approximately 48% of our established oil sales based on the midpoint guidance.
We also have 4.7 Bcf of natural gas hedged or approximately 66% of our estimated natural gas sales based on the midpoint. For a quarterly breakout of our 2026 hedge positions, please see our earnings release and presentation, which includes the average price for each contract type. With that, I will turn it back to Paul to review the outlook and guidance for 2026. Paul?
Paul McKinney, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Ring Energy: Thank you, Rocky. Before turning to our outlook and guidance for 2026, we want to take a moment to directly compliment our field personnel. Once again, a January winter storm brought extremely cold temperatures and icy conditions to our operations. To our pumpers, maintenance crews, contractors, and our field supervisors, your dedication kept our people safe and our assets protected. We know what it takes to operate in those temperatures. The executive team and board are incredibly grateful for your grit and hard work. Looking ahead to 2026, we intend to follow a similar disciplined approach as we have in the past. Our strategy is to invest enough capital to maintain or slightly grow our production and allocate the remaining portion of our cash from operations to reduce debt.
Our budget and plans this year are based on $60 per barrel WTI and $3.50 per Mcf Henry Hub. We expect our average annual sales to range between 19,500 to 20,800 barrels of oil equivalent per day for a midpoint of 20,150 barrels of oil equivalent per day. We expect our average annual oil sales to range between 12,500 and 13,400 barrels of oil per day, with a midpoint of 12,950 barrels of oil per day.
Both ranges are essentially flat with 2025 sales volumes after taking into account the recent divestiture of approximately 200 barrels of oil equivalent per day of non-operated production and the impact of the January winter storm that temporarily reduced production by 540 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Supporting our production ex-estimates, we expect full year capital spending of $100 million to $130 million, with a midpoint of $115 million. We anticipate drilling, completing, and bringing online approximately 23-32 wells during the year. First quarter spending is projected to be between $28 million and $34 million, with a midpoint of $31 million.
This capital program provides optionality and the potential to add new benches to our drilling inventory, offering a compelling avenue to expand our development, deepen our opportunity set, and further demonstrate the strength and longevity of our asset base. Our ongoing advancements in capital efficiency through longer laterals, optimized completions, and continued constant improvements are already generating tangible benefits and are expected to serve as a strong foundation for sustainable free cash flow generation. With our continued focus on capital efficiency, our full year LOE is currently expected to range between $10.15 and $11.15 per BOE, for a midpoint of $10.65 per BOE. I believe it is important to point out that we are projecting an LOE midpoint below what we achieved in 2025, which emphasizes our continued commitment to further cost reductions.
This is important because it contributes directly to the bottom line by increasing margins and creates further optionality for the company. In summary, our 2026 programs follow the same proven playbook, disciplined capital allocation, relentless focus on reducing our LOE and cash costs, increasing the capital efficiency of our drilling program, which collectively maximizes free cash flow generation, and furthering our ability to reduce debt. As mentioned earlier, our 2026 budget and plans assume WTI oil prices of approximately $60 per barrel and Henry Hub natural gas prices of approximately $3.50 per Mcf. With that, we have covered the 2026 guidance.
I believe we as a team should spend a little more time talking about the Iranian crisis, Ring’s strategic advantage, our recent stock price performance since last fall, and what all this can mean for our stockholders. People want to get to know you, Sonu, and understand why you chose to leave the investment banking world to join Ring. Sonu?
Sonu Johl, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer, Ring Energy: Paul, as you know, I’ve spent nearly two decades as a banker advising E&P companies. What became increasingly obvious to me over that time is that the U.S. shale model is maturing. Core inventory across the industry is being drilled up, decline rates remain steep, and the market today is far more selective about which companies deserve long-term capital. Against that backdrop, Ring stands out. What initially caught my attention was the durability of the asset base. Ring operates conventional assets with shallow declines, long life reserves, and high margins, characteristics that are unique to Ring and increasingly rare in today’s E&P landscape. A 20-plus year R/P ratio and more than 10 years of identified drilling inventory is something I don’t think many other companies can say, especially in the small to midcap space. What also truly differentiated Ring for me was its consistency of execution.
Ring has generated resilient free cash flow for 25 consecutive quarters through multiple commodity cycles. Over the last three years, Ring has organically grown reserves, not just replaced production. The company has also been active at M&A, successfully integrating multiple accretive acquisitions, all while simultaneously improving capital efficiency, lowering costs, and reducing debt. From a capital allocation standpoint, Ring is doing exactly what the public markets are asking for today: living within cash flow, reinvesting prudently, strengthening the company, building towards sustainable returns of capital, and maintaining optionality for growth. There are very few companies, especially at this scale, that can demonstrate this level of discipline and repeatability.
Looking ahead, I’m excited to be part of the team, and my focus as CFO will be straightforward: protect the balance sheet, enhance free cash flow durability, strategically position us for growth, and help position Ring to ultimately return capital to stockholders from a position of strength. With our asset quality, inventory depth, and proven operating and financial discipline, I believe Ring is exceptionally well positioned for the next phase of this industry. Paul, I hope this gives investors a better sense of why I’m so excited to be working at Ring.
Paul McKinney, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Ring Energy: Thank you, Sonu. Yes, I believe it does and reinforces why we are so excited to have you. Turning to James, how about you? What do you believe are some of the more important issues our stockholders should know about Ring and in light of the current events?
James Parr, Executive Vice President and Chief Exploration Officer, Ring Energy: I’m glad you brought that up, Paul. The value of being a Permian-focused company has never been greater given the potential for international supply disruption. Our over 96,000 net acres footprint in the heart of the Permian has been primarily focused on the San Andres. We have proven through our vertical drilling program that we have a robust inventory of additional attractive targets, which have been and continue to be de-risked by us and others in our industry horizontally. Ring’s exploration mindset has led to organic growth over the last 3 years, and we don’t see any reason why we can’t continue this performance in 2026 and beyond. Began testing previous vertical targets last year horizontally with excellent results. We will continue to test these intervals to determine repeatability and are confident that successful outcomes will result in increased inventory, capital efficiency gains, and future organic growth.
More to come.
Paul McKinney, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Ring Energy: James, that was great. Alex, what do you believe are some of the important issues our stockholders should know about our company, our operations, and also in light of the current events?
Alexander Dyes, Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer, Ring Energy: Thanks, Paul. Let me walk through how our strategy has delivered real, measurable value for our shareholders and set us up for future value creation. First, we built a clear track record of executing acquisitions that are not only immediately accretive, but strategically complementary. These deals added scale to our business, provided operational synergies, and most importantly, expanded our future drilling inventory. What truly differentiates us is our execution after close. In our two most recent acquisitions, Founders and Lime Rock, we’ve exceeded expectations in the first year across key metrics, including increased production, lowering lift costs, lowering drilling capital per well, and increasing proof reserves. That performance is tangible proof of value creation as shown in our 2025 performance. Beyond near-term results, these acquisitions, along with the Strongholds in 2022, have meaningfully deepened our inventory across the Central Basin Platform.
Increased scale and operational control have enabled a more durable cost structure. Over the past three years, we’ve consistently improved capital efficiency and reduced operating costs, driving approximately a 10% improvement in Finding and Development costs to $10.40 per Boe since 2023. That improvement is not cyclical, it’s structural. They’re driven by disciplined capital allocation, technical optimization, and a strong cost control culture, as demonstrated in our three-year track record of improvements. Our LOE reductions are long-term in nature and further enhance the value of our already long life, low decline reserves. Our culture is one built to last, not one for just short-term gains. Looking ahead, we’re focused on extending this momentum into 2026.
We’re investing in infrastructure that supports the next phase of development as we transition from verticals and predominantly 1-mile laterals to multi-bench, longer laterals, meaning laterals longer than 1.5 miles, and co-development opportunities where applicable. Proving our shift to horizontals, in 2026, our drilling program midpoint increased the horizontal mix to 85% or 23 horizontals versus 67% in 2025. By drilling longer laterals, proving up multi-bench inventory and advancing co-development across stacked pay zones, we’re unlocking more capital efficient inventory and positioning the company for stronger, more durable free cash flow profile over the long term. Paul, I’ll turn it over back to you.
Paul McKinney, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Ring Energy: Thanks, Alex. These are all great points. Another point worth discussing, though, is that since the exit of our former largest stockholder in August of last year, our stock price has nearly doubled. If you recall, their exit put additional selling pressure on our stock, causing our stock to trade below $1 and disqualifying our inclusion in the Russell 3000 Index. We believe these two events were instrumental in driving our stock price down to $0.72 a share and our trading multiples at the lower end of our peer group. Another point I wanna make is associated with our pursuit of growth through acquisitions. Given our current debt and leverage ratio, we are not in the best position to pursue a sizable acquisition.
Having said that, though, we are always looking for the next great deal. This is where it is good to have more ways to win, so to speak, or more growth tools in the toolbox. We don’t only depend on M&A for our future growth because we have demonstrated that we can grow organically as well. Having said all that, this brings us to the end of our prepared remarks. I will sum things up by saying we’ve scaled the business, expanded high quality inventory, lowered our cost structure, and are investing today to drive sustainable returns and long-term value creation. We are excited about the opportunities ahead in 2026 and believe we can deliver meaningful long-term stock price appreciation now that our overhang on our stock is behind us.
Since the new year, our share price has increased 62%, reflecting renewed investor confidence, our stronger operational execution, and a clear alignment between our stock price performance and our valuation. With that, we will turn this call over to the operator for questions. Operator?
Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touch tone phone. If you’re using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we’ll pause momentarily to assemble our roster.
The first question will come from Jeff Robertson with Water Tower Research. Please go ahead.
Jeff Robertson, Analyst, Water Tower Research: Thanks. Good morning.
Paul McKinney, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Ring Energy: Hey, good morning, Jeff.
Jeff Robertson, Analyst, Water Tower Research: You talked about expanding the organic growth in inventory set through the 2026 drilling program. Are you testing any new zones in the 2026 program or is expanding the inventory related to high grading or zones that you may think are prospective, but with additional drilling data points, you determine those could be economic targets?
Paul McKinney, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Ring Energy: Yeah. That’s a good question, Jeff. Very much so. With respect to new zones, you gotta remember that we have been drilling what we call inexpensive verticals and completing the stacked pay in Crane County and also in Ector County, and for quite some time. North of that, we focus on the San Andres. All these zones have been producing in many of our wells for a long time. What is new is that we’ve taken a serious look at our inventory across our entire acreage position. We’ve identified the zones that we believe are commercial or can be commercial horizontally. We began last year testing a few of those.
We’re not yet ready to come out with, which z-zones that we’re specifically targeting and where, but we’re very encouraged by the results. This year’s program is designed to test the repeatability of that, and with that, we’ll come out with a lot more information about which of these zones that we’re targeting, how meaningful it will be for our stockholders in terms of the number of, sticks that we’re adding into our inventory. We are really excited about 2026.
I think the point that you’re driving to right here is a key reason why we’re so excited ’cause we do believe that our capital program this year, even though a modest one, is gonna generate a lot more information about the sustainability of our current asset set in terms of developing future horizontal wells, going from verticals to horizontals. With that, James. James, is there anything more you’d like to add to that?
Jeff Robertson, Analyst, Water Tower Research: Yeah, no, that’s all good points. Jeff, we paused our original budget at the beginning of the year, and what a change this past week has been. We’re gonna stay disciplined towards paying down debt and feathering in these additional tests for these other horizons so we can still meet our financial objectives of paying down debt and remaining disciplined, and then get some data behind us. We view our previous acquisitions setting us up perfectly with a great inventory of deeper potential that we’re in the process of testing. More to come on this, but as Alex mentioned, we’re investing a little in infrastructure to be able to capitalize on converting the program into horizontal wells. The neighbors surrounding us have been testing some of the zones very successfully too.
We’re going to have a disciplined approach to doing this, but we’re very excited by the potential we have ahead of us. Thanks for asking.
Paul McKinney, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Ring Energy: Yeah. Like I said a little earlier, Jeff, although we’re not planning to grow our production appreciably this year, it is my belief anyway, that the results of the work program that the geoscience and engineering teams are pursuing will inventory more horizontal sticks, and we should emerge from 2026 with an inventory that can actually develop and lead to significant organic growth without the need to pursue M&A. Of course, you know that we love M&A, and we like pursuing the acquisitions, but we have more than one way to win, so to speak. This, this program, although not designed to develop production growth, it is designed to develop potentially additional inventory for drilling locations and also reserve growth.
Jeff Robertson, Analyst, Water Tower Research: To your point on horizontal wells, Paul, do you have a lot of land work to do to get the lease position to accommodate the length of lateral that you think will be most efficient as you look at these zones?
Paul McKinney, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Ring Energy: Yeah, we began those efforts, actually as much as two years ago. Positioning our land so that we can drill the longer laterals. This year, we will be drilling our first 2-mile well. We are focused on organizing our leases, preparing things so that we can take advantage of the benefits of additional capital efficiency. We’ve learned now that going to longer laterals, we’ve also learned that employing some of these newer, later, greatest completion techniques and the evolution of our completion designs is just leading to more reserves per dollar spent, more production per dollar spent, more capital efficiency. This is also another part of what we’re doing.
Yes, it takes a little bit of capital to invest in some of the infrastructure like, you know, the ability to store enough water so you can complete these longer wells. These investments are gonna pay off in the long term. We’ll incur some of those costs this year, but they will have benefits in the years to come as we fully develop our acreage down there in Crane County and Ector County and all that kind of stuff.
Jeff Robertson, Analyst, Water Tower Research: Thank you.
Operator: Again, if you have a question, please press star then one.
Our next question will come from Poe Fratt with Alliance Global Partners. Please go ahead.
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: Hey, great presentation. Just a quick one. I noticed that you sold some non-op properties in, I think, earlier this year after the end of the year. Can you quantify what you’re gonna bring in there? I’m not sure I heard that. Secondly, are there other opportunities to sell, you know, assets or non-core production?
Paul McKinney, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Ring Energy: Yeah. Good morning, Poe. Yeah, that’s a very good question. We began a disposition process last year of some non-operated assets in Yoakum County.
Shawn Young, Senior Vice President of Operations, Ring Energy: I found this on the west.
Paul McKinney, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Ring Energy: Yes, we closed on that at the end of January. It represented about 200 barrels a day net of our non-op production. That’s what we subtracted out of our forecast for this year. There’s a few more details that we can share with that. I mean, Alex, I think maybe you ought to cover all of that for us.
Alexander Dyes, Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer, Ring Energy: Yeah. Thank you, Paul. Po, yes, we sold 200 BOEs a day, and we sold it at $4.5 million, about 4.5 times next 12 months cash flow using a December strip price. That’s actually what we sold.
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: Great. Thank you.
Paul McKinney, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Ring Energy: With respect to the rest of our inventory, we’re always looking for ways to accelerate value to help us pay down debt. As you know, we have been pretty diligent over the last five years, you know, selling the assets in the portfolio that really don’t meet our criteria. If the undeveloped opportunities are not competitive with our current portfolio, it’s kind of hard to justify keeping those. You can sell those to someone else who’s willing to invest in those types of opportunities and bring that value forward, and we’ve been paying down debt or primarily allocating those funds to paying down debt. We’ll continue to do that in the future. I will say, though, that the cupboard’s kind of bare.
We probably need to do another acquisition or two. Every time you make an acquisition, you’ll end up picking up assets that don’t fit our criteria to stay within our portfolio, we tend to monetize those when that occurs. Right now, I’m not sure that we really have an inventory that’s meaningful that would be coming to market from us anyway, because we’ve basically already cleaned out the cupboards. Does that answer your question, Po?
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: It did. Thank you, Paul.
Operator: As there are no further questions, this will conclude our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Paul McKinney for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.
Paul McKinney, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Ring Energy: Thank you, Chuck. On behalf of the management team and the board of directors, I wanna once again thank you for your interest in joining today’s call. We appreciate your continued support of the company, and we look forward to keeping everyone updated on our progress in the future. This ends the conversation. Thank you. Have a great day.
Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.