Ring Energy Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
November 7, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Ring delivered strong operational results with adjusted free cash flow of $13.9 million in Q3, lowered lifting costs to $10.73/BOE, and used that cash to pay down $20 million of debt.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Production was resilient (13,332 bbl/d oil; 20,789 BOE/d total), with newly acquired Lime Rock assets and recent wells outperforming expectations, but overall realized pricing fell to $41.10/BOE due to weak NGL and gas prices.
  • Negative Sentiment: GAAP results showed a Q3 net loss of $51.6 million driven by a $72.9 million non‑cash ceiling test impairment, although adjusted net income was $13.1 million.
  • Positive Sentiment: Balance sheet focus remains central: the company ended Q3 with $428 million drawn, $157 million available on the revolver, a reported leverage ratio of 2.1x (including a $10 million deferred payment), and hedges covering ~53% of oil sales at a ~$62 floor, supporting near‑term cash visibility.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Management will prioritize debt reduction over dividends, buybacks, or large acquisitions until leverage improves, while testing sale of small non‑op assets to raise proceeds for further debt paydown.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Ring Energy Q3 2025
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Good morning and welcome to the Ring Energy third quarter and full year 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. To ask a question, you may press star then one on a touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Al Petrie, Investor Relations for Ring Energy.

Al Petrie
Al Petrie
Head of Investor Relations at Ring Energy

Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate your interest in Ring Energy. We'll begin our call with comments from Paul McKinney, Chairman of the Board and CEO, who will provide an overview of key matters for the third quarter of 2025. We will then turn the call over to Rocky Kwan, Ring Energy's VP and Interim Chief Financial Officer, who will review our financial results. Paul will then return with some closing comments before we open up the call for questions. Also joining us on the call today and available for the Q&A session are Alex 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're welcome to re-enter the queue later with additional questions.

Al Petrie
Al Petrie
Head of Investor Relations at Ring Energy

We'd 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 SEC. These documents can be found in the Investors section of our website located at www.ringenergy.com.

Al Petrie
Al Petrie
Head of Investor Relations at Ring Energy

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
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Thanks, Al, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today and for your continued interest in Ring Energy. We are pleased to announce another strong quarter. During the third quarter, we were able to achieve or exceed our goals despite the volatility and challenges associated with commodity prices. We were able to do this because we continue to focus on the operational and financial items within our control to maximize adjusted free cash flow. We also benefited from our historical efforts to optimize and build an asset portfolio defined by high margins, shallow declines, and long reserve life. The virtues that lead to resilience and sustainability no matter where we are in the commodity price cycle. Let's get into the numbers. Our oil sales were 13,332 barrels of oil per day, which was slightly below the midpoint of our guidance.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Our total sales were 20,789 barrels of oil equivalent per day, which was above the midpoint of our BOE guidance. Production from our recently acquired Lime Rock assets, as well as the new wells drilled so far this year, continue to perform better than expected and continue to help mitigate the natural decline of our legacy assets during this period of capital discipline. We deployed $24.6 million in capital spending during the quarter, which was near the low end of our guidance range and allowed us to drill and complete the necessary wells to achieve our production targets. As we have shared in the past, our discipline in this regard is focused on striking the right balance of maintaining modest year-over-year production growth and liquidity with managing our leverage ratio and paying down debt.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Another item associated with our focus on maximizing adjusted free cash flow is our cost-cutting efforts in the field, which continue to yield great results. Our lifting costs during the quarter were $10.73 per BOE, which was below the low end of our guidance range for the second consecutive quarter and only 3% shy of the lifting costs recorded last quarter. Our lifting cost reductions have been driven primarily by reducing the number of operators in the field required to operate our wells, lower chemical expense, reducing well failures and the costs associated with well repairs, and production efficiencies gained through longer runtimes and proactive well interventions. Our third quarter results demonstrate that Ring Energy is successfully executing on our operational plans and managing the important issues within our control.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Despite weak oil and natural gas prices, Ring generated $13.9 million in adjusted free cash flow during the quarter, which was primarily driven by the operational items we just discussed. Our operational performance enabled Ring to reduce debt by $20 million, which was $2 million more than we guided for the quarter. Our continued and unwavering focus on improving our leverage ratio will continue into the foreseeable future, and we intend to maintain the momentum of the successes from the first half of this year as we finish out 2025 and enter 2026. As we stated in our earnings release, if we encounter higher oil and natural gas prices in the future, we will continue with our capital discipline to prioritize reductions and improving our leverage ratio to competitive levels with our peers.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Having said all this, I would like to turn this call over to and introduce you to our Vice President and Interim Chief Financial Officer, Rocky Kwan. He will share the highlights and details of our third quarter financial position. Afterwards, I will return to share more about the priorities and our outlook for the future. Rocky?

Rocky Kwan
Rocky Kwan
VP and Interim CFO at Ring Energy

Thanks, Paul, and good morning, everyone. The takeaway for the quarter is that Ring continues to successfully execute its plans to reduce costs, maximize free cash flow generation with a focus on further debt reduction. In Q3, similar to Q2, we paired strong sales volumes with disciplined capital deployment and a focus on cost reduction. The combination of these actions resulted in adjusted free cash flow of $13.9 million, which enabled us to pay down $20 million of debt. As we have said every quarter, balance sheet improvement has been and will remain a top priority for the company. Turning now to the metrics for the quarter, it's clear that the team is executing the operational plan effectively. Starting with sales volumes, we sold 13,332 barrels of oil per day, just below the midpoint of our guidance, and 20,789 BOE per day, above the midpoint of guidance.

Rocky Kwan
Rocky Kwan
VP and Interim CFO at Ring Energy

Third quarter 2025 overall realized pricing decreased 4% to $41.10 per BOE from $42.63 in the second quarter. Driving the overall decrease was a 16% reduction in NGL prices to $5.22 for the quarter. This was offset by 3% higher realized oil prices of $64.32. Realized gas price remained at a negative value of $1.22. However, that was an improvement from a negative $1.31 in the second quarter. Plant processing fees continue to reduce realized pricing for both NGL and gas. Our third quarter average crude oil differential from NYMEX WTI futures pricing was a negative $0.61 per barrel versus a negative $0.99 for the second quarter. This was mostly due to the Argus CMA roll that increased $0.76 per barrel, offset by the Argus WTI WTS that decreased by an average of $0.41 per barrel from the second quarter.

Rocky Kwan
Rocky Kwan
VP and Interim CFO at Ring Energy

Our average natural gas price differential from NYMEX futures pricing for the third quarter was a negative $4.22 per MCF compared to a negative $4.67 per MCF for the second quarter. Our realized NGL price averaged 8% of WTI compared to 10% for the second quarter. The result was revenue for the third quarter of $78.6 million despite the weakening prices. We continue to target higher oil mix opportunities as oil accounted for 100% of our total revenue, while it was only 64% of total production. Overall, our sequential revenue decreased by 5% from the second quarter, which was driven by a negative $5.8 million volume variance offset by a positive $1.8 million price variance. Moving to expenses, LOE was $20.5 million or $10.73 per BOE compared to $20.2 million or $10.45 per BOE in the second quarter.

Rocky Kwan
Rocky Kwan
VP and Interim CFO at Ring Energy

We were pleased to see the trend of lower LOE on a BOE basis over the last two quarters, which was well below our guidance of $11-$12 per BOE. Cash G&A, which excludes share-based compensation, was $6.5 million compared to $5.8 million for the second quarter. The slight increase was primarily driven by an increase in salaries and bonuses related to the separation of a former executive. Our third quarter results included a gain on derivative contracts of $0.4 million compared to a gain of $14.6 million for the second quarter. The third quarter gain included a $2.1 million unrealized loss and a $2.5 million realized gain. As a reminder, the unrealized gain loss is simply the difference between the mark-to-market period to period.

Rocky Kwan
Rocky Kwan
VP and Interim CFO at Ring Energy

For Q3, we reported a net loss of $51.6 million or $0.25 per diluted share, which includes $72.9 million of non-cash ceiling test impairment charges compared to the second quarter net income of $20.6 million or $0.10 per diluted share. 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 and losses on hedges, our third quarter 2025 adjusted net income was $13.1 million or $0.06 per diluted share, while second quarter 2025 adjusted net income was $11 million or $0.05 per diluted share. We posted third quarter 2025 adjusted EBITDA of $47.7 million compared to $51.5 million in the second quarter, with most of the difference attributed to lower oil revenue and higher cash G&A offset by higher realized hedges.

Rocky Kwan
Rocky Kwan
VP and Interim CFO at Ring Energy

During the third quarter, we invested $24.6 million in capital expenditures, which was below the midpoint of guidance of $27 million. Adjusted free cash flow was $13.9 million compared to $24.8 million for the second quarter, with a net decrease primarily associated with approximately $7.8 million in higher capital spending combined with $3.7 million lower EBITDA compared to the second quarter. We ended the period with $428 million drawn on our credit facility after a $20 million paydown. With the current borrowing base of $585 million, we ended the quarter with $157 million in availability with a leverage ratio of 2.1 times, which includes the $10 million deferred payment related to the Lime Rock acquisition due in December of 2025. Moving to the hedge positions for the last three months of 2025, we currently have approximately 0.6 million barrels of oil hedged with an average downside protection price of $62.08.

Rocky Kwan
Rocky Kwan
VP and Interim CFO at Ring Energy

This covers approximately 53% of our oil sales guidance midpoint. We also have 0.6 BCF of natural gas hedged with an average downside protection price of $3.27, covering approximately 33% of our estimated natural gas sales based on the midpoint of guidance. For a breakdown of our hedge positions, please refer to our earnings release and presentation, which includes the average price for each contract type. We updated our guidance for the fourth quarter and the full year 2025. Full year production guidance is now 13,100-13,500 barrels of oil per day and 19,800-20,400 BOE per day. Guidance for the fourth quarter total sales volumes is now 19,100-20,700 BOE per day, and oil production ranges between 12,700 and 13,600 barrels of oil per day, resulting in a 66% oil mix.

Rocky Kwan
Rocky Kwan
VP and Interim CFO at Ring Energy

On the cost side, we updated guidance to $10.75-$11.75 per BOE for the fourth quarter and $10.95-$11.25 for the full year of 2025. Please refer to our third quarter earnings release and company presentation for full details by period. As in the past, we retained the flexibility to react to changing commodity prices and market conditions while also managing our quarterly cash flow. With that, I will turn it back to Paul for his closing comments. Paul?

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Thank you, Rocky. Ring Energy's value proposition is clear. Our enviable portfolio of oil-rich assets with shallow declines, long reserve lives, and higher margins allow for resilient cash generation. Our focus on building an inventory of drilling opportunities with low break-even costs provides flexibility and optionality to maintain our production levels and liquidity. Together with our capital discipline, flexibility, and focus on maximizing adjusted free cash flow generation to manage our leverage ratio and improve our balance sheet, emphasizes the virtues of our value-focused proven strategy and the potential for strong revenue and earnings growth when higher commodity prices return. Ring stockholders have observed two consecutive quarters of disciplined capital allocation and improvements in capital and operational efficiencies that led to strong cash flow generation and debt reduction during these post-liberation day commodity prices.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

We intend to remain on course with these priorities regardless of future commodity prices and intend to do so until we drive our leverage ratio down to competitive levels with our peers. Regarding acquisitions, it is challenging in my mind that Ring would acquire producing assets of any reasonable or significant size, with our leverage ratio being what it is today and our stock, in my opinion, being as undervalued in the marketplace as it is today. Having said that, though, there are attractive opportunities out there that would make great additions to our portfolio because they meet our strict criteria. I feel compelled to say that we are and will continue to evaluate available opportunities to acquire, but until some of these individual and macro level issues change, it is unlikely that we could or would do anything in this regard of any significant size.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Regarding divestitures, as many of you know, we have a small package on the street of quality non-operated working interests. We are testing the market to see if we can repeat the performance achieved in the past when we were able to sell assets at valuations accretive to our trading multiples. The proceeds from future asset sales will be allocated to debt reduction. Regarding implementing a stockholder capital return framework, we currently do not pay dividends and have not pursued a stock buyback program. With all things considered and having had conversations with many of our large stockholders, we believe prioritizing debt reduction and improving our leverage ratio is our most important focus. We also believe that achieving a more relevant size and scale in the marketplace is also important. With respect to growth, until we achieve leverage ratio competitiveness, our focus will be on reserves and inventory growth.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

As you may recall, we did not complete any acquisitions during 2024, yet we grew our production and reserves through organic means. Having more ways to grow today is important, and we no longer have to rely on acquisitions of producing assets to achieve our growth ambitions. By focusing on reserves and inventory growth during these times of challenging commodity prices, we can continue our focus on improving our balance sheet and prepare ourselves for the future when our leverage ratio, debt levels, and commodity prices provide the opportunity and the flexibility for significant growth. With that, we will turn this call over to the operator for questions. Operator?

Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone 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 will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Noel Parks with Tuohy Brothers. Please go ahead.

Noel Parks
Managing Director of Energy Research at Tuohy Brothers

Hi, good morning.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Hi, good morning, Noel.

Noel Parks
Managing Director of Energy Research at Tuohy Brothers

You know, one thing I was wondering about is on the balance sheet, something I don't know if I've asked about recently. Any thoughts about possibly terming out the revolver since we're kind of in this transitional interest rate environment and seems like there are some folks out there who think we might not see a lot further down move in longer-term rates? Just wondering if that was on the table these days.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Yeah, Noel, that's a really good question. To be quite frank with you, everything's on the table, right? Yes, we are looking at not only that, but all other opportunities that we have to strengthen the balance sheet. What are the ways to reduce risk out there in the marketplace? There are advantages and disadvantages associated with various different financing alternatives. The credit facility that we currently have in the reserve-based loan still does stand as the lowest cost of capital for us, and that's where we are right now. As markets change and as risks change going forward, because you've got all kinds of things moving, you've got interest rates that are moving, you have energy prices that are moving, everything appears to be very volatile. Yes, we do our best to try to stay abreast with all these changes.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

What does that mean in terms of the best way to finance our future growth and the debt that we have on the balance sheet? Rocky, is there anything else you could say?

Rocky Kwan
Rocky Kwan
VP and Interim CFO at Ring Energy

Yeah, I just want to echo that, the comments, Paul. All options are on the table. We are exploring all opportunities to strengthen our balance sheet, especially when it comes to our debt levels. We are exploring opportunities, and we are continually keeping abreast of all our options out there.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Yeah. The only thing I can say is that although we were evaluating, we're not in a position right now to announce any kind of a change or anything like that. I think every company out there, just including us, especially those that are in the public space, you have to stay abreast of these types of changes. Yeah, that's a very good question. We don't have any of the—we're not anticipating any kind of changes in the near term, but we are looking at all of those things continually. Does that answer your question, Noel?

Noel Parks
Managing Director of Energy Research at Tuohy Brothers

Sure does. Thanks. Another thing I was wondering is, in this environment, we've had some relative weakness in crude compared to where we've been. Would you say it's safe to assume, looking into next year, flattish service costs kind of at worst heading into next year?

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Yeah. If you've got a crystal ball on what future energy prices are, that would be probably the best prognostication you could ever have, I guess. I'm going to turn this over to my operational guys. There have been changes in the cost for services that we've seen since post-liberation day. Shawn, I don't know if there's anything more you can say in that regard.

Shawn Young
Shawn Young
Senior VP of Operations at Ring Energy

Yeah, obviously with activity levels and commodity prices where they are, there's continued pressure on service costs. I'm not sure we've seen the bottom yet. We are continuing to work with our vendors and continuing to negotiate the best costs we can. Yeah, hopefully we do see some improvement in commodity prices, and maybe that does keep service costs relatively flat. Right now, we are still continuing to take advantage of some savings that we're able to negotiate.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Yeah. We are anticipating a few more here in the near term.

Shawn Young
Shawn Young
Senior VP of Operations at Ring Energy

Yes.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Yeah. That's good. Good question, Noel.

Noel Parks
Managing Director of Energy Research at Tuohy Brothers

Great. Thanks a lot.

Operator

The next question comes from Jeff Robertson with Water Tower Research. Please go ahead.

Jeff Robertson
Analyst at Water Tower Research

Thank you. Good morning. Paul, in your opening remarks, you talked about the stock price, and you talked a little bit about it on the August conference call. Can you just share any thoughts with 90 days later how you think Ring is relatively positioned as you look at it in 2026?

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Yes. I mean, if you look back at where we were this time last quarter, there are a couple of things that have changed. The most significant change is that Warburg has since completely exited their position at Ring Energy stock. I also believe all of the institutional repositioning associated with the Russell 3000 is also over. From my perspective, Ring Energy is now free from what has been described by others as an overhang or additional selling pressure against our stock. I am really excited about that. Now, where we are trading today, I still believe we are at a discount to our peer companies, and I believe that our performance is very competitive versus that peer group.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

I believe that we will see a gradual increase in our stock price performance versus our peers just because I believe that's the rightful place where we should be. If we continue to deliver to our stockholders quarter over quarter, I don't know how long it'll take for us, but if you look back in history, if you look at the history of our stock price and performance versus our peers, we've suffered three years of additional selling pressure that really put us at the lower end of that peer group when our operational financial performance during that time period was at the higher end. I believe we're going to get there. What does that mean? It's kind of hard to say.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

If you just look at the trading metrics, we're just not trading where many of the other peer companies are, and yet our performance is superior. I think that there's a bit of a re-rating that can occur there.

Jeff Robertson
Analyst at Water Tower Research

With the emphasis on debt reduction, I think Rocky mentioned that $10 million deferred payment that's due to Lime Rock during the fourth quarter. Paul, can you talk about what the scenarios that you think about for 2026 for further debt reduction? Should we take the slide that you all have? I think it's the bottom right panel on slide seven as an indication of what might be possible for debt reduction in 2026.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Yeah. Yeah. Another good question. That was intentional. Rocky will jump in here shortly as well. Before getting into any of the numbers, though, I think we need to emphasize to our investors that there are several variables between now and the end of the year that will impact our debt as we exit the year. Having said that, we believe, based on our current projections of operational performance and also the assumptions associated with commodity prices remaining at current levels, of course, you can't forget that, right? We should be able to pay down somewhere in the $10 million range in the fourth quarter. Rocky, is there anything more you want to say?

Rocky Kwan
Rocky Kwan
VP and Interim CFO at Ring Energy

Yes, there is. I'd like to re-emphasize the uncertainties that we have the potential to pay down, and that would affect the $10 million number that you just shared, Paul. Some of these issues can improve the amount, and one or two of these could actually reduce the amount. I just want to emphasize the uncertainty of that nature. Importantly, I think it's worthwhile to note again that we do have a $10 million deferred payment due in December. If it wasn't for the $10 million deferred payment from the Lime Rock acquisition, that repayment, that reduction would actually be approximately $20 million. I just want to re-emphasize the uncertainty of the nature, and it could improve or it could reduce the amount.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Yeah. So going back to that, I mean, we just paid down $20 million of debt in the third quarter. If it was not for that deferred payment, I thank you for mentioning that, Rocky, we would be paying down another $20 million next quarter. All of these changes that we have made in terms of how we are allocating capital, the priority associated with debt reduction, I think if anything, we have learned from liberation day that the leverage ratios that we currently have really need to be lower. We need to position ourselves so that we have more flexibility and more optionality, especially with our dealings with commodity hedges and everything else. We are not going to lose focus on paying down debt. If it was not for the deferred payment, we would be paying down more next quarter.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Hey, we still have a couple of things up our sleeve. We might be able to exceed that. I think $10 million is a good number. Alex?

Alex Dyes
Alex Dyes
Executive VP and COO at Ring Energy

Yes. One more thing. Hi, good morning, Jeff. As Paul mentioned on the call just earlier, we are looking at rationalizing our portfolio. We are also looking at non-core divestitures and specifically a non-op divestiture. That asset class is tending to trade at better multiples than us. If we can potentially sell it at a premium like we did last year when we sold an asset, we will try to do that too.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Yeah. That is another potential that could increase our debt reduction. Put it this way, Jeff, we are very, very focused on debt reduction. Back when oil prices were $75-$80, we could continue to pay down debt and also pursue organic growth or growth. At these prices, we are squarely focused on paying down debt. I think $10 million is a good number to go with. We will see how things turn out. Does that answer your question?

Jeff Robertson
Analyst at Water Tower Research

Yes, it does. Thank you. I'll jump back in a few.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Okay. Thanks.

Operator

Again, if you have a question, please press star then one. The next question comes from Poe Fratt with Alliance Global Partners. Please go ahead.

Poe Fratt
Poe Fratt
Managing Director, Equity Research, and Senior Transportation Analyst at Alliance Global Partners

Yeah. Good morning. Just to follow up on that $10 million debt reduction number in the fourth quarter, can you give us a range? Rocky, you talked about some good things and potentially some bad things. What's the best-case scenario for debt reduction in the fourth quarter?

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Oh, Paul, come on now.

Poe Fratt
Poe Fratt
Managing Director, Equity Research, and Senior Transportation Analyst at Alliance Global Partners

What's the worst case? I mean, just how tight is that range?

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Yeah. I'll leave it.

Rocky Kwan
Rocky Kwan
VP and Interim CFO at Ring Energy

Again, thanks for the question. That's a really tough question to quantify any ranges due to the uncertainty of the nature, commodity prices, several aspects that we are working on in-house, such as the non-op divestiture piece that we have out there. Again, the $10 million deferred payment that we have. If you strip that out, we're looking at approximately a $20 million paydown. Again, the uncertainty of the nature, I can't go into too much and put out a range.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Yeah. Paul, the reason why I really wanted Rocky to answer that question is I know that he would give you a much more conservative number than I might. I'll put some quantification on it. I mean, it's going to be at least $8 million. If you go back to what Alex mentioned, there's a potential to pay down $12 million, $13 million, or $14 million. Is that the high end of the range? It's kind of hard to say because we are still making progress. Some of the big surprises that I've had as a CEO really is the progress that our field guys are making in terms of reducing operating costs out there. Our drillers and guys completing our wells, they're continuing to find ways.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

The capital that we're planning to spend in the fourth quarter, we're finding ways to reduce those costs, and that'll go straight to debt reduction. At the same time, any more progress we make on reducing operating costs, that's going to go towards paying down debt as well. It's kind of hard to put a range on it, but that's probably the best we can give you, Paul. Is that all right?

Poe Fratt
Poe Fratt
Managing Director, Equity Research, and Senior Transportation Analyst at Alliance Global Partners

No. From what I think I heard, the high end of the range potentially includes the sale of the non-op working interest. Should I be thinking about the potential proceeds from that sale in the $3 million-$5 million range? Is that sort of a reasonable expectation?

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

It is kind of hard to say there because if you look at the range out there in the marketplace, it could be considerably higher than that. That is part of the reason why I said we are testing the markets with this. If we do not get what we think is the right value, we will not sell it at all. So then there will not be any benefit to that. It truly is a test in the marketplace. We expect to get a very strong trading multiple out of the sale of those assets. Otherwise, we will not sell them. That is a real risk that we just actually do not close on a deal in the fourth quarter, and we do not apply that to paying down debt.

Poe Fratt
Poe Fratt
Managing Director, Equity Research, and Senior Transportation Analyst at Alliance Global Partners

Yep. What did the non-op working interest contribute in the third quarter as far as production?

Rocky Kwan
Rocky Kwan
VP and Interim CFO at Ring Energy

Less than 200 BOEs.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Yeah. It's less than 200 BOE a day. Yeah.

Poe Fratt
Poe Fratt
Managing Director, Equity Research, and Senior Transportation Analyst at Alliance Global Partners

Okay. Yeah, on the margin, it's not going to move the needle significantly on your debt reduction program. Okay. I noticed this may be a little nitpicky, but I noticed the third quarter production, the oil cut dropped. Is there anything that drove that, or it sounds like it may be temporary from the standpoint of looking at your fourth quarter guidance? Oil cut rebounded to 66% from 64%. Anything going on there?

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Yeah. I mean, actually, you're digging into the numbers, and you're identifying a lot of things that we do not spend a lot of time talking about. Prior quarters, we had, and we have this consistently. Some of the gas gatherers are systems that are a little on the older side. The reliability of those gas gathering systems, when these plants go down or there is a line leak and they have to replace a line, oftentimes we find our gas not going to sales. That is the swing typically that you see in our ratios from one quarter to the next. It is more a reflection of the takeaway capacity and whether or not they are actually taking. Shawn, is there more you can share there?

Shawn Young
Shawn Young
Senior VP of Operations at Ring Energy

Yeah. Yeah, Paul hit it right on the head. In the second quarter, we did have a lot more downtime associated with gas takeaway. Our gas volumes were not as strong in the second quarter versus where we were in the third quarter. That is what is making the splits there change.

Poe Fratt
Poe Fratt
Managing Director, Equity Research, and Senior Transportation Analyst at Alliance Global Partners

Okay. Great. If you look at the midpoint of your CapEx guidance for the fourth quarter, can you give me an idea of the mix between vertical and horizontal wells that you're going to drill?

Shawn Young
Shawn Young
Senior VP of Operations at Ring Energy

Can you repeat that question?

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Yeah. He was just wanting to know the mix between horizontal and verticals in the fourth quarter based on that calendar.

Shawn Young
Shawn Young
Senior VP of Operations at Ring Energy

Yes. Yes. I think we've got three horizontal wells and one vertical well planned for the fourth quarter, so.

Poe Fratt
Poe Fratt
Managing Director, Equity Research, and Senior Transportation Analyst at Alliance Global Partners

Great. Jeff talked about page seven, the lower right box. Is that your current working guidance for 2026, or how should we look at that? Is that more of a hypothetical at this point in time, or should we view that as the guidance for 2026?

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

It's actually a hypothetical. It's basically assuming that we continue with the same capital spending levels that we have. We are looking at, and actually in the final throes of assembling our budget for next year, and we intend to review that with our board of directors to get approval for that. We will come out with official guidance once we've got that pinned down. There are a lot of moving parts in that regard right now because I think it's probably safe to say at this early stage that unless something changes, $60 will probably be the price assumption, a flat $60 case going into the next year associated with our projected cash flows and all this kind of stuff. If you use that as a basis, that's going to affect the capital spending levels.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

We are going to continue our preference for paying down debt and strengthen the balance sheet through a stronger leverage ratio. We will be managing all that. At this point, it is the tail projections from basic assumptions that were designed for 2025. That tends to get updated and will be updated here before we exit the year. We will be reviewing that with the board immediately after the new year. When we come out with our fourth quarter results, we will have clear guidance at that time.

Poe Fratt
Poe Fratt
Managing Director, Equity Research, and Senior Transportation Analyst at Alliance Global Partners

Okay. Yeah. Just wanted to make sure that that was hypothetical and that we really shouldn't be looking at those numbers unless oil prices change from where they are now, right?

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Yeah. If you—I will say this. The assumptions that went into that, even though it is a hypothetical, those assumptions in this current price environment are not going to be a whole lot different than what was used to put that together. It could change. Alex, is there any more you want to say there?

Alex Dyes
Alex Dyes
Executive VP and COO at Ring Energy

Yeah. As Paul was alluding to here, it is more of if you look at what the realized oil price of this year, it is about $64 to $65. This base model for 2026 outlook was based on that. If we really do remain in the $60 price environment, then we will look at pulling back our capital some to try to still maintain production. The reinvestment rate would obviously be—we are trying to stay pretty level around that 50-55%, so.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Yeah. That reinvestment level is important. Again, because we're not going to lose sight of debt reduction, you can't lose sight of leverage ratios either. It's a balance, it's a mix. Yeah, that would imply a slightly lower capital spend, and that would affect EBITDA. Same with the oil price assumption too.

Poe Fratt
Poe Fratt
Managing Director, Equity Research, and Senior Transportation Analyst at Alliance Global Partners

Okay. Sounds good. Rocky, just a nitpicky one on G&A expense. You had mentioned Travis leaving, that hit the G&A expense line this quarter. Will it bleed into the fourth quarter, or will G&A fall back into the sort of the second quarter range?

Rocky Kwan
Rocky Kwan
VP and Interim CFO at Ring Energy

No. So G&A will kind of be back in line. That was a one-time recognition of the costs related to the departure of our executive. Based on the roles, we had to take the—we had to recognize all the costs within the period that it incurred, and it was in third quarter.

Poe Fratt
Poe Fratt
Managing Director, Equity Research, and Senior Transportation Analyst at Alliance Global Partners

Okay. Great. Very helpful. Thanks.

Operator

Once again, if you have a question, please press star then one. We now have a follow-up from Jeff Robertson with Water Tower Research. Please go ahead.

Jeff Robertson
Analyst at Water Tower Research

Thanks. Paul, you've talked about organic growth in the past, but if you're not in the acquisition market just because of dynamics, what do you do with the existing asset base to try to categorize or catalog organic growth opportunities that you can take advantage of in the future?

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Yeah. I'm going to allow James Parr to jump in on this. Again, it goes back to the price environment that we are in. If we were in a higher price environment, you can focus on more than just one endeavor that leads to share price appreciation, right? In the past, when we were in the $75 price range, we were paying down debt and also seeking to grow. Right now, we're focused on debt repayment. What are the other things you can do? If you go back to 2024, we were very successful in terms of growing the company through organic means. That's acquiring additional leases within our cash flow and drilling wells identified through organic means. We not only grew our reserves, but we also grew our production. Right now, we don't intend to grow our production.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

By focusing on reserves and inventory, building your undeveloped inventory, we'll position the company so that when energy prices return and our balance sheet is in a stronger position, our leverage ratio is where we want it, we have the optionality to actually take advantage of the built inventory and deliver significant growth. That could be in significant production, revenue, and EBITDA growth. Right now, I think we're focused in the Central Basin Platform and the Northwest Shelf in terms of identifying the opportunities. I think, James, I mean, I'm sure there's a lot you can say here.

James Parr
James Parr
Executive VP at Ring Energy

Yeah. No, great question, Jeff. In tight times, how do you continue to maintain the company and pay down the debt? I'm excited by the multiple organic opportunities that we've got across most of our assets that we've purchased through previous deals that we've got. For instance, down in Crane County, offset operators have successfully drilled and de-risked additional stratigraphic intervals that extend onto our acreage. Pursuing these deeper targets in the future will enable us to have more of a horizontal well program going forward, replace and grow our reserves organically, and increase our capital efficiency through the shared costs of the facilities we have along the laterals, etc.

James Parr
James Parr
Executive VP at Ring Energy

These deeper benches that are across our acreage holdings give us a really robust future inventory to replace production, pay down debt, and grow prices, even in this grow the company or maintain it, even in this depressed price environment without resorting to an acquisition. We feel good about what we've got ahead of us, and there's a lot of potential.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Yeah. Jeff, I mean, organic developed opportunities typically are considerably more economic than the opportunities that you buy in the marketplace when you make an acquisition. We proved that to ourselves last year. That was also part of the reason why we hired James, and we have continued—we call it adding more tools to the toolbox. We want more ways to win and higher prices. In the past, without the staff necessary that was necessary to identify these types of opportunities, you grew through acquisitions. Just because we're in a position right now where acquisitions are less likely, that doesn't mean we're not growing.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Growing reserves and growing our undeveloped inventory is the best thing we can do during these times so that when oil prices do return and our balance sheet is stronger, we can really pour it on and we can deliver or grow through organic means. Getting back to what James said, we do have several operators. He mentioned Crane County. There is an operator down there, a private operator that is just doing a great job, a great organization. They have proved many of the zones that go across our acreage. We are going to test and we are going to try some of these. We are going to build that inventory so that when prices are right, we will be able to get after it. That represents a great opportunity for investors.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

When you look at a company like Ring, that growth could be very significant, especially when you consider our current size and how meaningful that could be. Can we see significant multiples in terms of our future production and revenue growth? I believe it's possible, and that's the best thing you can do during times like this when we're just paying down debt.

Jeff Robertson
Analyst at Water Tower Research

Thank you, Paul.

Operator

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Paul McKinney, Chairman and CEO, for any closing remarks.

Paul McKinney
Paul McKinney
Chairman and CEO at Ring Energy

Yeah. Thank you. On behalf of the entire team and Board of Directors, I want to once again thank everyone for listening and participating in today's call. We are pleased to have posted solid operational and financial results for the third quarter in 2025, and our outlook for the remainder of the year remains solid despite the current price environment. We will continue to keep everyone apprised of our progress. Thank you again for your interest in Ring Energy. Have a great weekend, everybody.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Executives
    • Rocky Kwan
      Rocky Kwan
      VP and Interim CFO
    • Shawn Young
      Shawn Young
      Senior VP of Operations
    • Al Petrie
      Al Petrie
      Head of Investor Relations
    • James Parr
      James Parr
      Executive VP
    • Paul McKinney
      Paul McKinney
      Chairman and CEO
    • Alex Dyes
      Alex Dyes
      Executive VP and COO
Analysts
    • Jeff Robertson
      Analyst at Water Tower Research
    • Noel Parks
      Managing Director of Energy Research at Tuohy Brothers
    • Poe Fratt
      Managing Director, Equity Research, and Senior Transportation Analyst at Alliance Global Partners
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