PrairieSky Announces 2023 Third Quarter Results

CALGARY, Alberta, Oct. 23, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PrairieSky Royalty Ltd. ("PrairieSky" or the "Company") (TSX: PSK) is pleased to announce its third quarter ("Q3 2023") results for the three-month period ended September 30, 2023.

Third Quarter Highlights

• Royalty production volumes averaged 25,469 BOE per day, an increase of 8% over Q2 2023 and 2% over Q3 2022. Quarterly oil royalty production averaged 12,084 barrels per day, a 4% decrease from Q2 2023 and a 6% increase over Q3 2022.
• Quarterly revenues totaled $133.1 million, comprised of royalty production revenue of $127.4 million and other revenues of $5.7 million. Total revenues were 13% higher than Q2 2023 and 14% below Q3 2022.
• Funds from operations of $93.8 million ($0.39 per common share, basic and diluted) were driven by strength in both royalty production volumes and commodity pricing during Q3 2023. Funds from operations were 3% above Q2 2023 and 24% below Q3 2022.
• Declared a third quarter dividend of $57.3 million ($0.24 per common share), representing a payout ratio of 61%. Excess cash flow was allocated to $15.6 million of royalty acquisitions related primarily to exploration projects in the Mannville Stack and the balance to retiring bank debt, bringing net debt to $253.7 million as at September 30, 2023.

Board Renewal and Leadership Update

PrairieSky announces the following planned changes to its Board of Directors at the next Annual General Meeting of Shareholders scheduled for April 23, 2024 (the "2024 AGM").

• James Estey, Chair of the Board, plans to retire as Board Chair and a director of the Company at the 2024 AGM.
• The Board intends to appoint Margaret McKenzie as Board Chair following the 2024 AGM.
• Grant Zawalsky will not stand for re-election as a director at the 2024 AGM.

Anna Alderson has been appointed to the Board of Directors effective October 23, 2023, and will serve as a member of the audit committee of the Board of Directors.

In addition to changes to the Board of Directors, PrairieSky announced the appointment of Dan Bertram as Vice-President, Business Development & Chief Commercial Officer effective October 10, 2023.

President's Message

It was another active quarter for third-party operators across PrairieSky's royalty properties. There were 246 wells spud, including 238 oil wells with activity focused in the Clearwater, Mannville Stack and Viking plays. Leasing activity remained strong in the quarter with PrairieSky earning $3.6 million in lease bonus consideration on entering into 46 leases with 40 different counterparties. Leasing activity is a leading indicator of future drilling and we anticipate Q4 2023 to be another active quarter for third-party operators on PrairieSky lands. During the quarter we executed on $15.6 million in acquisitions primarily for undeveloped land in the Mannville Stack which continues to attract significant third-party capital due to the play's strong economics. PrairieSky expects to earn a high return on invested capital from the newly acquired assets as they will see immediate third-party drilling activity.

Total royalty production volumes averaged 25,469 BOE per day for Q3 2023, an increase of 8% over Q2 2023 and 2% above Q3 2022. Oil royalty production averaged 12,084 barrels per day in Q3 2023, 4% below Q2 2023 as anticipated following spring break up when there is lower activity across the basin and 6% above Q3 2022 due to active drilling across PrairieSky's land base over the last 12 months.

PrairieSky generated $127.4 million in royalty production revenue due to a combination of increased total royalty production volumes and the strength in realized oil pricing which drove PrairieSky's $93.8 million in funds from operations ($0.39 per share) in the quarter. PrairieSky declared dividends of $57.3 million or $0.24 per common share for shareholders of record on September 29, 2023, resulting in a payout ratio of 61%. Excess funds from operations after the dividend and royalty acquisitions were allocated to debt repayment reducing net debt to $253.7 million at September 30, 2023.

James Estey has informed the Board that he will retire as Board Chair and director at the 2024 AGM. The Board intends to appoint Margaret McKenzie as Chair of the Board. "On behalf of the Board, I want to express my gratitude to Jim for his many contributions in guiding PrairieSky to the company it is today. Jim has been the Chair of PrairieSky since its initial public offering in 2014 and has played a significant role in transformational transactions growing PrairieSky from just over five million acres of royalty lands in Alberta to over 18 million acres across Western Canada."

"We are pleased to welcome Anna Alderson to our Board of Directors and Dan Bertram to PrairieSky. We believe these additions strengthen our leadership team and we look forward to working with them. As we look forward to our next 10 years, I am confident in PrairieSky's future success with this management team and Margaret's leadership. As always, we would like to thank our staff for their hard work and shareholders for their support."

Andrew Phillips, President & CEO

Q3 2023 Financial Highlights

• Q3 2023 funds from operations totaled $93.8 million or $0.39 per common share (basic and diluted), a 3% increase over Q2 2023 due to an 11% increase in WTI benchmark pricing and a narrowed heavy oil differential. This increase was partially offset by higher cash administrative costs as discussed below. Funds from operations were 24% below Q3 2022 due to weaker commodity pricing for all products which more than offset the 6% increase in oil royalty production.
• Royalty production volumes totaled 25,469 BOE per day generating royalty production revenue of $127.4 million, an 18% increase over Q2 2023 and 13% below Q3 2022. A further breakdown is as follows:
  • Oil royalty production volumes averaged 12,084 barrels per day, a 4% decrease from Q2 2023 following spring break up when activity across the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin slows due to road bans and limited lease access and a 6% increase over Q3 2022 due to strong third-party activity across PrairieSky's royalty properties. Third-party operators have been targeting a number of oil plays with a focus on the Clearwater, Mannville Stack and Viking.
  • Oil royalty revenue totaled $102.8 million in Q3 2023, 15% higher than Q2 2023 due to stronger average WTI benchmark pricing and a narrowed average heavy oil differential, partially offset by lower royalty production volumes. The 6% growth in oil royalty production volumes over Q3 2022 and a narrowed average oil differential only partially offset the impact of a 10% decrease in WTI pricing in the quarter.
  • Natural gas royalty production volumes averaged 64.1 MMcf per day, an increase of 19% over Q2 2023 due to the positive impact of new Montney wells brought on stream and the restoration of production temporarily shut in due to the Alberta wildfires and operational downtime in the prior quarter. Q2 2023 natural gas royalty volumes also included a negative adjustment related to a prior period overpayment that was not repeated in Q3 2023. Natural gas royalty production was 2% below Q3 2022 as the impact of declines and operational downtime more than offset new wells on stream.
  • Natural gas royalty revenue of $11.6 million was up 6% from Q2 2023 due to stronger royalty production volumes as described above and decreased 52% from Q3 2022 due to weaker average AECO natural gas index pricing with AECO daily pricing averaging $2.39 per Mcf in the quarter, down from $5.81 per Mcf in Q3 2022.
  • Natural gas liquids (NGL) royalty production volumes averaged 2,702 barrels per day, 39% above Q2 2023 with new Montney wells coming on stream and the restoration of production temporarily shut in due to the Alberta wildfires and operational downtime in the prior quarter. Q2 2023 NGL royalty volumes also included a negative adjustment related to a prior period overpayment that was not repeated in Q3 2023. NGL royalty production volumes were 2% above Q3 2022 as new wells on stream, including new Montney wells, more than offset the impacts of declines and operational downtime over the last 12 months.
  • NGL royalty revenue totaled $13.0 million in Q3 2023, 65% above Q2 2023 due to higher royalty production volumes combined with higher benchmark pricing. NGL royalty revenue was 8% below Q3 2022 due to weaker benchmark pricing.
• Other revenue generated $5.7 million in Q3 2023, comprised of $1.0 million of lease rentals, $1.1 million in other income and $3.6 million of lease bonus consideration from 46 new leasing arrangements with 40 different counterparties.
• Cash administrative expense totaled $17.9 million and included a $13.3 million termination payment related to a leadership change in the quarter. The termination payment included $1.5 million of vested Officer Deferred Share Units which are only paid in cash when an officer leaves the Company and $5.5 million related to Performance Share Units scheduled to vest in January 2024.
• PrairieSky declared a third quarter dividend of $57.3 million ($0.24 per common share), representing a 61% payout ratio with remaining funds from operations allocated to $15.6 million of royalty acquisitions and reducing net debt to $253.7 million, a decrease of $22.2 million from June 30, 2023.

ACTIVITY ON PRAIRIESKY'S ROYALTY PROPERTIES

During Q3 2023, there were 246 wells spud (97% oil) on PrairieSky lands at an average royalty rate of 7.1%, including 116 wells spud on our Fee Lands, 112 wells spud on our GORR acreage and 18 unit wells spud. There were 238 oil wells spud in Q3 2023 targeting oil plays across our acreage including 92 Viking wells, 46 Clearwater wells, 35 Mannville heavy oil wells, 12 Mannville light oil wells, 11 Cardium oil wells, 10 Bakken oil wells, 10 Mississippian oil wells, 7 Mannville thermal oil wells at Lindbergh, and 15 additional oil spuds in the Belly River, Charlie Lake, Dunvegan, Duvernay, Jurassic, Montney and Nisku formations. There were 8 natural gas wells spud in Q3 2023, including 5 Montney gas wells, 2 Mannville gas wells and 1 Belly River gas well.

RETIREMENT OF BOARD CHAIR AND BOARD RENEWAL

The following Board of Director changes are expected to take effect following the 2024 AGM:

• James Estey will retire as Chair of the Board of Directors at the 2024 AGM.
• The Board intends to appoint Margaret McKenzie as the Board Chair following the 2024 AGM. Ms. McKenzie has served on the PrairieSky Board of Directors since 2014 and has significant royalty experience as a founder and Chief Financial Officer of Range Royalty. "We are pleased to announce Margaret as the incoming Chair of the Board. Her understanding of royalties, financial expertise and business and strategic planning experience make her the ideal candidate to takeover as Chair," said Mr. Estey.
• After serving on the Board of Directors since December 2014, Grant Zawalsky will not stand for re-election as a director at the 2024 AGM. "PrairieSky has benefitted from Grant's strategic thinking, years of capital markets and securities law experience and his understanding of the Canadian energy industry," said Mr. Estey. "We thank Grant for his many contributions as a director."

PrairieSky is also pleased to announce the appointment of Anna Alderson to the Board of Directors effective today. Ms. Alderson will serve as a member of the Company's audit committee. Ms. Alderson is an experienced Corporate Director based in Calgary with over 35 years of experience in all sectors of the energy industry as well as financial services. Ms Alderson retired from KPMG in 2019 after a distinguished career as an audit partner in Calgary, Toronto and Hong Kong. Ms. Alderson is a Chartered Professional Accountant, holds her ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors and earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree (with great distinction) from the University of Saskatchewan.

PrairieSky believes these changes demonstrate our commitment to board renewal and position us well for the future.

FINANCIAL AND OPERATIONAL INFORMATION

The following table summarizes select operational and financial information of the Company for the periods noted. All dollar amounts are stated in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted.

A full version of PrairieSky's management's discussion and analysis ("MD&A") and unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements and notes thereto for the fiscal period ended September 30, 2023 is available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca and PrairieSky's website at www.prairiesky.com.

CONFERENCE CALL DETAILS

A conference call to discuss the results will be held for the investment community on Tuesday, October 24, 2023, beginning at 6:30 a.m. MDT (8:30 a.m. EDT). To participate in the conference call, you are asked to register at the link provided below. Details regarding the call will be provided to you upon registration.

Live call participants registration        
URL:  https://register.vevent.com/register/BIedc97c0d7a654dadbc5aad56f6ab221a

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release includes certain statements regarding PrairieSky's future plans and operations and contains forward-looking statements that we believe allow readers to better understand our business and prospects. The use of any of the words "expect", "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "objective", "ongoing", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe", "plans", "intends", "strategy" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking information or statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release include estimates regarding our expectations with respect to PrairieSky's business and growth strategy; future growth from PrairieSky's existing royalty asset portfolio, including but not limited to the expectation that the Mannville Stack oil play will attract significant third-party capital, and contributions from acquisitions, including newly acquired assets seeing immediate third-party drilling activity and the expectation that PrairieSky will earn a high return on invested capital from these assets; the quality of PrairieSky's existing royalty asset portfolio; leasing and licensing inventory being a leading indicator for third-party drilling and exploration on our royalty asset portfolio and expectations for the pace of third-party drilling activity to increase in Q4 2023 due in part to leasing and licensing activity and planned leadership changes following the 2024 AGM.

With respect to forward-looking statements contained in this press release, we have made several assumptions including those described in detail in our MD&A and the Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2022. Readers and investors are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such forward-looking information and statements, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. Our actual results, performance, or achievements could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements. We can give no assurance that any of the events anticipated will transpire or occur, or if any of them do, what benefits we will derive from them.

By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond our control, including the impact of general economic conditions including inflation, industry conditions, volatility of commodity prices, lack of pipeline capacity, currency fluctuations, imprecision of reserve estimates, competitive factors impacting royalty rates, environmental risks, the effects of inclement and severe weather events and natural disasters, including fire, drought and flooding, taxation, regulation, changes in tax or other legislation, competition from other industry participants, the lack of availability of qualified personnel or management, stock market volatility, political and geopolitical instability and our ability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources. In addition, PrairieSky is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties in relation to acquisitions. These risks and uncertainties include risks relating to the potential for disputes to arise with counterparties, and limited ability to recover indemnification under certain agreements. The foregoing and other risks are described in more detail in PrairieSky's MD&A, and the Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2022 under the headings "Risk Management" and "Risk Factors", respectively, each of which is available at www.sedarplus.ca and PrairieSky's website at www.prairiesky.com.

Further, any forward-looking statement is made only as of the date of this press release, and PrairieSky undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement or statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by applicable securities laws. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for PrairieSky to predict all of these factors or to assess in advance the impact of each such factor on PrairieSky's business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. The forward-looking information contained in this document is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

CONVERSIONS OF NATURAL GAS TO BOE

To provide a single unit of production for analytical purposes, natural gas production and reserves volumes are converted mathematically to equivalent barrels of oil (BOE). PrairieSky uses the industry-accepted standard conversion of six thousand cubic feet of natural gas to one barrel of oil (6 Mcf = 1 bbl). The 6:1 BOE ratio is based on an energy equivalency conversion method primarily applicable at the burner tip. It does not represent a value equivalency at the wellhead and is not based on either energy content or current prices. While the BOE ratio is useful for comparative measures and observing trends, it does not accurately reflect individual product values and might be misleading, particularly if used in isolation. As well, given that the value ratio, based on the current price of crude oil to natural gas, is significantly different from the 6:1 energy equivalency ratio, using a 6:1 conversion ratio may be misleading as an indication of value.

NON-GAAP MEASURES AND RATIOS

Certain measures and ratios in this document do not have any standardized meaning as prescribed by International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") and, therefore, are considered non-GAAP measures and ratios. These measures and ratios may not be comparable to similar measures and ratios presented by other issuers. These measures and ratios are commonly used in the crude oil and natural gas industry and by PrairieSky to provide potential investors with additional information regarding the Company's liquidity and its ability to generate funds to conduct its business. Non-GAAP measures and ratios include operating netback per BOE, operating margin, payout ratio, cash administrative expenses and cash administrative expenses per BOE. Non-GAAP measures should not be considered an alternative to or more meaningful than the most directly comparable financial measure of each such non-GAAP measure described below. Management's use of these measures and ratios is discussed further below. Further information can be found in the "Non-GAAP Measures and Ratios" section of PrairieSky's MD&A

"Operating Netback per BOE" represents the cash margin for products sold on a BOE basis. Operating netback per BOE is calculated by dividing the operating netback (royalty production revenues less production and mineral taxes and cash administrative expenses) by the average daily production volumes sold for the period. Operating netback per BOE is used to assess the cash generating and operating performance per unit of product sold and the comparability of the underlying performance between years. Operating netback per BOE measures are commonly used in the crude oil and natural gas industry to assess performance comparability.

"Operating Margin" represents operating netback (royalty production revenues less production and mineral taxes and cash administrative expenses) as a percentage of royalty production revenues. Management uses this measure to demonstrate the comparability between the Company and production and exploration companies in the crude oil and natural gas industry as it shows net revenue generation from operations.

"Payout Ratio" is calculated as dividends declared as a percentage of funds from operations. Payout ratio is used by dividend paying companies to assess dividend levels in relation to the funds generated and used in operating activities.

"Cash Administrative Expenses" represent administrative expenses excluding the volatility and fluctuations in share-based compensation expense for restricted share units ("RSUs"), performance share units ("PSUs"), officer deferred share units ("ODSUs") and deferred share units ("DSUs") and stock options that were not settled in cash in the current period. Cash administrative expenses are calculated as total administrative expenses, adjusting for share-based compensation expense in the period, plus any actual cash payments made under the RSU, PSU, ODSU or DSU plans. Management believes cash administrative expenses are a common benchmark used by investors when comparing companies to evaluate operating performance. 

Cash Administrative Expenses

The following table presents the computation of cash administrative expenses:

"Cash Administrative Expenses per BOE" represents cash administrative expenses on a BOE basis and is calculated by dividing cash administrative expenses by the average daily production volumes sold for the period. Cash administrative expenses per BOE assists management and investors in evaluating operating performance on a comparable basis.

ABOUT PRAIRIESKY ROYALTY LTD.

PrairieSky is a royalty company, generating royalty production revenues as petroleum and natural gas are produced from its properties. PrairieSky has a diverse portfolio of properties that have a long history of generating funds from operations and that represent the largest and most consolidated independently-owned fee simple mineral title position in Canada. PrairieSky's common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol PSK.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

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