Peyto Exploration & Development Q2 2026 Earnings Report

Peyto Exploration & Development EPS Results

• Actual EPS: C$0.50
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Peyto Exploration & Development Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $340.45 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Peyto Exploration & Development Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2026
• Date: 8/11/2026
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, August 12, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 11:00AM ET

Peyto Exploration & Development (TSE:PEY) Corp (Peyto Exploration & Development) is an oil and gas company that involves in the exploration and development of natural gas. The company acquires, explores, develops and produces crude oil and unconventional natural gas reserves.

Peyto Exploration & Development Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Strong financial performance: Peyto generated CAD 228 million in funds from operations, maintained a 71% operating margin, reduced net debt by CAD 72 million, and increased its monthly dividend by 9% in May.
• Positive Sentiment: The company reported progress in its Cardium drilling program, including 400–600 barrels per day of initial liquid rates and a 37% improvement in horizontal drilling cost per meter in the Brazeau area.
• Positive Sentiment: Peyto is expanding revenue diversification, with 400 MMcf/d of unhedged volumes expected to be tied to non-AECO pricing from 2028 onward, including a new Centrica agreement linked to European TTF pricing beginning around 2029.
• Positive Sentiment: Management reaffirmed 2026 guidance of CAD 450–500 million in capital spending and 78 net wells, supported by four active rigs, strong well results, and substantial gas and liquids hedges through 2027.
• Negative Sentiment: Management is taking a cautious approach to further dividend increases and capital allocation because forward natural-gas prices have weakened; excess cash flow will likely continue going toward debt reduction until the outlook improves.

Presentation

[Operator]

Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would like now to turn the conference over to JP Lachance, President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

Thanks, Michelle. Morning, folks, and thanks for joining Peyto's second quarter 2026 conference call. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everybody that all statements made by the company during this call are subject to the same forward-looking disclaimer and advisory set forth in the company's news release that was issued yesterday. Here in the room with me, I have most of the management team, including Riley Frame, our Chief Operating Officer, Tavis Carlson, our CFO, Todd Burdick, our VP of Production, Derick Czember, our VP of Land and Business Development, Michael Collens, our VP of Marketing, Crissy Rafoss, our VP of Finance, and Mike Rees, our VP of Geosciences. Before we discuss the quarter, on behalf of the management group here, and as always, I'd like to thank the entire Peyto team in the office and in the field for their contributions to another strong quarter.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

It was a wet spring and early summer in the areas that we operate, so we had a lot less activity in the field, especially when you compare that to Q1. Yet we managed to maintain production levels more or less at the same level, thanks to a strong drilling program in Q1. We paid down some more debt. We increased the dividend in May. We drilled more great wells. We added more undeveloped acreage, signed another important natural gas diversification deal as well. I think that's pretty good for a typically quiet quarter. Let's dive into some details with operations first. We slowed drilling activity down, as we typically do during the spring breakup. We only spudded 10 wells, which is reflected in our capital spend of only CAD 68 million in the well-related costs and includes some completions that would have spilled over from Q1.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

The average performance of these wells are tracking closely with the last two years' outcomes, and we're particularly pleased with the latest Cardium drills down in Brazeau. We applied the same drilling and completion strategy that worked so well last year in the area just south of there in Chambers. This is where we drill a little deeper in what we call the bioturbated zone, to increase the drilling speed, and then we complete the longer horizontal with more stages to increase stimulation intensity. The gas rates are better, but most importantly, so are the wellhead liquids. We have initial liquid rates of 400 to 600 barrels per day. Now we're applying our Cardium learnings up in the Sundance area to see if we can repeat those results and improve the internal rates of return up there as well.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

Peyto also invested CAD 14 million in facility projects that included major pipelines, plant optimizations, and some maintenance work during the quarter. We completed some plant turnarounds with a minimal effect on production since when we plan these, we try to redirect volumes to other plants and stage the shutdowns to maximize online time. Maybe I will get Todd to expound on that later. The credit of these efficient turnarounds goes in part to the great execution by our team in the field, but also to the planning that goes into these things in the office. This is an element of our own and control strategy that I think is often overlooked. We are not dependent on third parties' performance for these kinds of turnarounds. The majority of our gas, 98% of our gas, is controlled by us. It goes to our plants.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

The balance of our capital that was spent in Q2 was CAD 2 million. It was used to capture another 26 sections of land through crown sales and direct purchases. That brings new land purchases so far this year up to a total of 53.8 net sections at an average cost of CAD 158 per net ac, which cheaply adds to our unbooked drilling inventory. At the start of Q2, we redirected about 85 million cubic feet a day of sales gas to a third-party deep cut facility to increase our C3+ or our propane butane recoveries, mostly as some condensate, which adds an incremental 1,500 barrels per day, and that is helping to bring our corporate liquid content up from 12%-13%. The other part of that is the Cardium program, of course, that is adding some more liquids.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

Switching to financials, controllable cash costs in the quarter, that is operating, transport, interest, and G&A, totaled CAD 1.04 per Mcfe, which brings us down to the pre-Repsol levels, before Q4 2023, and that speaks to the great effort by the Peyto team to stay focused and integrate these assets into our low-cost model. Flipping to revenue, another strong quarter where our realized gas price was CAD 3.42 an Mcf, which is double the average AECO monthly for the quarter, which was CAD 1.64 when it is adjusted for per Mcf, when you adjust that for our heat content. Once again, the diversification value of CAD 0.93 per Mcf played an important role, and the rest of the gain we saw was from CAD 0.85 of hedges.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

Speaking of diversification, we added another piece to our portfolio in Q2 with the Centrica gas supply agreement that fetches us European TTF-based pricing, less deductions.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

That starts sometime in 2029 and delivers 50,000 MMBtu at nit or at AECO at a very attractive netback. Of course, that agreement is confidential, but it does bring our total unhedged diversified volumes, so that is non-AECO price-related volumes, to 400 million cubic feet a day in 2028 and beyond. Combine the low cost and the great pricing that we got, at least relative to AECO, it meant we generated CAD 228 million in funds from operations. That is CAD 1.11 per share, and adjusted earnings of CAD 150 million or CAD 0.50 a share. We have continued to impress with an operating margin of 71%. We announced the monthly dividend increase of CAD 0.01 per share. That is up 9% in May, and that was paid out starting in June, and we still paid down total net debt by CAD 72 million.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

There's no rest for the wicked, and we're back up to running four rigs. We expect to hold that there for the rest of the year. We've continued to modify our drilling program going forward to shift even more towards some of the liquid-rich species, like the Cardium and the Falher. You can refer to the latest corporate presentation for reference to that. I think it's on slide 21, gives you a breakdown of the species that we're going to drill this year in the fullness of this year. We remain well-protected for the rest of the year, with just over 500 million cubic feet a day of gas hedged over CAD 4 in Mcf and about 400 million cubic feet a day secured for 2027, at least so far, at CAD 3.30 in Mcf. Both of which are higher than current strip, which is good and bad.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

The rest of our production is pointed at the downstream markets and essentially with really no summer exposure to spot AECO prices through 2027. When combined with our liquid hedges, that secures CAD 485 million for the rest of 2026 and another CAD 590 million for 2027. This, along with our industry-leading cash costs, our market diversification, the great well results we're seeing, gives us the confidence to remain committed to our guidance, which is investing CAD 450 million to CAD 500 million and drilling 78 net wells for 2026. We remain constructive for natural gas with the continued tailwinds that are presented from LNG build-out in Canada and the U.S., and the increased demand from local markets like power for data centers. Peyto's strategy remains the same.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

We focus on execution, control things that we can control, that's cost, while mitigating the risks on the commodities. You know how we do it.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

We believe this is a winning recipe, and it provides long-term returns to our shareholders in a very volatile commodity market. Okay. I imagine there are some questions, Michelle, so maybe I'll turn it over first to the phones. I've got some other questions that come in overnight, but maybe, Michelle, we'll start with anybody on the phone who wants to ask a question. Go ahead.

[Operator]

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced, and to withdraw your question, please press star one one again. At this time, I am showing no questions in the queue.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

Okay. I will give some time for people to think. I have one question that came in about a little more information about what we are doing with this Cardium play and how we might be applying that up in Sundance. I will ask Riley to expound upon that a little bit with respect to how we are doing and what we are doing in the Cardium these days.

[Riley Frame, COO at Peyto]

Sure, yeah. Like we have talked about mostly over the last little while here, we have been active in the Brazeau area. We are going longer to help amortize the fixed cost of our wells, drilling into bioturbated zone to increase our ROPs. Then, obviously, we are increasing our stimulation intensity to try to improve on our per-meter performance. Like we talked about in the press release, that has translated into a 37% improvement in our drilling cost per meter horizontal, which is a huge improvement. We still think there is room to work on the completion side of that. One of the things that we did here just recently with the last pad we drilled was we tried a coil shiftable sleeve system. There are some significant advantages to that system as we start talking about cemented liner systems.

[Riley Frame, COO at Peyto]

We just finished up those completions here recently, so it is still early, but everything is looking pretty positive that we have actually been able to move costs in the right direction there. We are on track to see an even larger cost reduction on a per-meter basis as we go forward. Translating that over to the Sundance area, we recently drilled our first pad in Sundance since 2022. Really trying to take what we have learned from Brazeau and apply that as best we can. It is not completely translatable. There are a few differences, but the main goal here was to try and drive horizontal lengths longer. This first pad, we were able to increase horizontal length by about 50%, which is pretty meaningful.

[Riley Frame, COO at Peyto]

The big difference up in Sundance would be that we do not really have the bioturbated zone to chase, so going low and improving that ROP in that bioturbated zone is not really an option. That length increase is still meaningful as it pertains to decreasing the per-unit cost as we are drilling these wells. Then the other part of it would be increasing the stimulation intensity and driving that tonnage per meter number up a bit to try and get a higher per-meter rate. Overall, the first couple of wells we drilled here, it looks like we have been able to reduce our horizontal per-meter cost by about 10% on the drill side, which is a good starting point. I think we will continue to try and move that further down. Those wells were completed just sort of again late last week here, so it is still early time.

[Riley Frame, COO at Peyto]

Overall, it is very encouraging, and I think it will really help us to drive improved economics in Sundance Cardium across the board, where we have obviously a lot of reserves booked as well as a lot of locations. Stay tuned on that as far as where we go with that one.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

Okay. That sounds good. So essentially, we are trying to pull on both levers, both the cost side and the production side, because of course, what matters most is returns, not just increasing production in these wells.

[Riley Frame, COO at Peyto]

Yeah.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

Cost matters, as you point out. So that is good.

[Riley Frame, COO at Peyto]

That is what we are working on.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

Yeah, exactly. So another question that came in was this new term we've introduced in our press release or in our MD&A as well called adjusted earnings. I just wanted maybe, Tavis, to give you a chance to sort of explain that maybe in layman's terms a little bit more about what do we mean by this adjusted earnings. Thanks.

[Tavis Carlson, CFO at Peyto]

Sure. It mainly stems from our new Centrica gas supply agreement. Peyto's component of this contract is viewed as an embedded derivative. We have to separate that from the underlying AECO component of the contract, account for it as a derivative financial instrument. So what that means is we have to mark to market this component every quarter and record that change in value in P&L. This mark to market change is going to cause quite a bit of volatility in our earnings going forward, or it could potentially cause quite a bit of volatility. So we've decided to add a new non-GAAP measure to our disclosures that's going to take earnings, and we're just going to back out that unrealized gain or loss every quarter.

[Tavis Carlson, CFO at Peyto]

We believe that's going to give investors a clearer picture of our current operating performance without the noise of this non-cash item.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

Excellent. Okay. Thanks for explaining that for folks. That's good. One last question that came in about turnarounds. Maybe Todd, I mentioned it in my opening remarks, you could expand a little bit more about how we do this, because I think it's something we're proud of and how we manage our business and how we keep production on. The uniqueness, I guess, or potentially uniqueness of a way our gathering systems and plants are all connected that allows us to do this. Maybe you can expand on that a little bit more, too.

[Todd Burdick, VP of Production at Peyto]

Yeah, sure. Thanks for recognizing the planning that goes into turnarounds, the execution from our asset integrity group, our field foremen, our operators who are out there doing the work when turnarounds are happening. They do a great job. Sometimes they have to pivot mid-turnaround because we are going into vessels and we are looking and doing UT and that sort of stuff, and all of a sudden we see something needs to be repaired. They do a great job of minimizing the downtime. Yes, given the interconnectivity, especially down in Brazeau, we have three plants that are essentially interconnected. Then, obviously in Sundance, we have many plants, I think nine in total, that are interconnected. We are able to move gas from plant to plant. Still seeing some production losses, but it is mitigated substantially. We did three plants in the quarter.

[Todd Burdick, VP of Production at Peyto]

Two were in Sundance, and out of those two plants, we only saw for the quarter about a 400 Boe a day loss on the quarter. Then, the third plant was Brazeau. We were able to divert gas to Chambers and to Aurora, and that only accounted for 100 Boe's on the quarter. The other part is the modularity of our plants. We might have two inlets at a plant and we have multiple processing trains. In a lot of situations, we are able to keep part of the plant running and just focus on the part that needs to be inspected. We have them usually in five-year intervals. You might have one inlet that is five years and the other inlet that is sort of opposite or other vessels. We are able to keep part of the plant running, not always, but we try that.

[Todd Burdick, VP of Production at Peyto]

We do it by design to minimize the impact on a particular plant at one time. We did one plant at the beginning of Q1, Kakwa, a small plant. That went really quick and good, but we have one more here in Q3 starting next week in Swanson. Same thing, we will keep about half the plant running. We will be able to push a little bit more through one train, and then we will have gas going up to Nosehill, down to the Edson plant, over to Oldman and Oldman North to try and minimize the downtime. Busy year with five turnarounds.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you. Again, thanks to the team in the field and everyone that is involved in that. A few folks in the office that have to make sure all this runs the way it does. It looks like, no questions. Is that correct, Michelle?

[Operator]

That's correct.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

Okay. Well, I think we'll end it here. I guess it was a somewhat expected in-line quarter of maybe a little bit boring, but we won't apologize certainly for boring. Oh, wait a minute. Sorry. There is one question now that showed up on our queue. Do you want to take that call?

[Operator]

Okay. One moment. The question is going to come from Chris Thompson with CIBC. Your line is open.

[Chris Thompson, Analyst at CIBC]

Hey, apologies. I got my hand raised late there, but thank you for still taking my question, guys. Just on capital allocation, JP, you already raised the dividend once this year. Maybe alluded to potential for additional raises going forward. Just maybe walk us through how you're thinking about capital allocation now that you're below your debt targets and free cash flow generation's been pretty strong.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

Yeah, actually, we did have some questions overnight on that, too, so I'm glad you did bring it up. As we've mentioned, we've essentially met our soft target of debt to EBITDA by approximately 1 time, and we've increased the dividend slightly last quarter, recognizing that we made it there. That leverage target's backward-looking, of course. We're looking forward now, and I've always said that as we look forward, we'll be looking at the business environment and be mindful of where the business environment is. Gas prices have weakened certainly in the forward strip. We're going to be mindful of that. We're going to remain prudent on our capital returns. We certainly want to give our shareholders confidence that these dividends are sustainable, and that's just the way we run the rest of the business, too. We'll see.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

As things transpire, we certainly are obviously still paying down some debt, but we're going to be mindful of the business environment going forward now. We've never paid a variable dividend on it, and we don't think we'd get credit for a variable dividend in the market. I don't see us starting that this time. Any dividend increase we make will be a fixed dividend increase, and we'll continue to do that when we're comfortable with what forward strip presents to us. That's kind of it in a nutshell, Chris, if that answers your question.

[Chris Thompson, Analyst at CIBC]

Sure. Yeah. Excess free cash flow, I guess, would be allocated to the balance sheet in the interim. At what point can you give us a bit of color on how low you'd be willing to let leverage go before you find that you have to make it a different kind of capital allocation decision?

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

Well, as we get closer to that would be a great problem, wouldn't it be? I would argue that reduction in net debt is a return of capital to shareholders as well. I'm not sure that it doesn't, either one is a way of returning capital to shareholders. We could go lower. I'll tell you what, when we get closer to that level, then we'll talk about it.

[Chris Thompson, Analyst at CIBC]

Got it. Okay. No problem. Then maybe just a question on the marketing side, looking forward, starting in late 2027 and more so in 2028, there is more exposure to the WCSB, Empress, Emerson markets. Wondering how you are thinking about that, just given where your outlook is on natural gas.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

Yeah. Nothing is really changed for us in the way we run the business and our strategy to take risk off the table. Those markets can trade, at times can trade just the same as AECO or AECO plus, and that is fine. So, depending on the season, we might take that down or not. We might move those to downstream markets and make arrangements, so we can do that as well. So there is flexibility there over the next, I would say year and a half. We have built this position such that we do not need to react quickly to make these decisions. We obviously do not want to hedge something, say, below CAD 2, so we are mindful of that, too.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

Our strategy is to continue to add to the hedge book as we see it, as we have a mechanical program that we prescribe, and we will continue to do that in a mindful way, of course. So nothing really changes for us. Like I said, we have 400 million cubic feet a day, which is a substantial portion of our future gas out in 2028 beyond that is pointed at downstream markets, so we are not sort of fixed at AECO-only approach. In the meantime, we are well-protected on revenues, as I mentioned earlier. So if prices really peel away and across the board entirely, then we will slow down. Clearly, right?

[Chris Thompson, Analyst at CIBC]

Okay. Then last question, if I can sneak in one more. Just on the data center side, we have seen the conversation amongst your peers, quite active in the last few months. Just wondering if you can give us a bit of color on what you are seeing in that market, and is that kind of the opportunity that Peyto might have access to as well?

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

We certainly have access to it, to answer that question. We weren't the first ones to jump onto an LNG deal either. If you recall, we took our time to find the right deal. We'll be prudent on anything on data centers. I will remind you that we already have a power deal, right? We already sell our gas, a pretty good deal, actually, we sell our gas to a power plant. It's not like we are desperate for that. Those opportunities, if they present themselves, will have to make sense to us. We're not going to sign anything just for the sake of signing a deal. We're not desperate. We're going to look for the right price.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

We certainly see a lot of potential, but we'll be prudent, again, with our approach to this, and we'll make sure that any deal we enter into is good for Peyto and our shareholders.

[Chris Thompson, Analyst at CIBC]

Okay. Thanks for taking my questions.

[JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto]

Yeah. Thanks, Chris. Thanks for asking them. Okay. I'll turn it back to you. That's good. We'll see you, everyone, next quarter. Thanks for tuning in.

[Operator]

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.

Participants

Analysts

• JP Lachance, President and CEO at Peyto
• Riley Frame, COO at Peyto
• Tavis Carlson, CFO at Peyto
• Todd Burdick, VP of Production at Peyto
• Chris Thompson, Analyst at CIBC