Diamondback Energy, Inc. (ticker: FANG) produced 102.6 MBOEPD in Q1 2018. This is 10% more than Q4 2017 production volumes of 92.9 MBOEPD. Diamondback is currently running 11 drilling rigs and five dedicated completion crews.
Q1 2018 average realized prices were $61.66 per barrel of oil, $2.20 per Mcf of natural gas and $24.64 per barrel of natural gas liquids, resulting in a total equivalent unhedged price of $50.55/BOE, up 12% from $45.31/BOE in Q4 2017.
Fortress balance sheet
“In just over five years as a public company, Diamondback has grown production volumes to over 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent production per day from a starting point of ~2,500 BOEPD, said Diamondback CEO Travis Stice.
“Since our IPO in October 2012, our industry has experienced oil prices as high as $110 and as low as $26 per barrel, and Diamondback has grown production over 40 times in spite of these challenges while maintaining a fortress balance sheet. This growth has been a direct result of an unwavering focus on low cost operations, accretive growth through a disciplined returns-focused acquisition strategy and, above all, best in class execution of our operating plan.
“Diamondback will remain disciplined and committed to full-cycle economics for both our forward operating plan and acquisition strategy. The company has a proven track record of disciplined, accretive acquisitions, as well as a significant runway of premium inventory highly economic at today’s commodity prices. We will continue to demonstrate best in class production growth within cash flow and add rigs as operating cash flow allows, with our 11th operated rig recently beginning operations in the Delaware Basin.”
Viper Energy
Diamondback subsidiary Viper Energy Partners LP also released Q1 production values of 14.1 MBOEPD, an increase of approximately 14% from Q4 2017’s average daily production of 12.4 MBOEPD.
Viper’s Q1 2018 average realized prices were $61.43 per barrel of oil, $2.22 per Mcf of natural gas and $24.17 per barrel of natural gas liquids, resulting in a total equivalent price of $49.09/BOE, up 17% year over year from $41.80/BOE in Q1 2017 and up 12% from the Q4 2017 total equivalent price of $43.76/BOE.
“During the first quarter, Viper achieved strong quarter over quarter production growth due to increased activity levels across our asset base and accretive acquisitions closed in the quarter, leading to a record distribution. As recently announced, Viper’s proposed tax status election to a taxable entity will expand our investor base and allow us to continue to consolidate the highly fragmented minerals market. Viper offers investors a unique value proposition as the only exclusively onshore focused high growth E&P income vehicle, with a 7.5% current yield that will continue to grow with Diamondback and Permian Basin production,” Stice added.
Viper declares cash distribution
The board of directors of Viper’s general partner has declared a cash distribution of $0.480 per common unit for the three-month period ended March 31, 2018, payable on April 27, 2018 to common unitholders of record as of the close of business on April 20, 2018.
When annualized, this distribution represents an approximate 7.5% yield based on the closing price for Viper’s common units on April 9, 2018, the company said.
