Frontera Announces Third Quarter 2022 Results

Frontera Energy release

CALGARY, AB, Nov. 1, 2022 /CNW/ - Frontera Energy Corporation (TSX: FEC) ("Frontera"' or the "Company") released financial and operational results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2022. All financial amounts in this news release are in United States dollars, unless otherwise stated.

Gabriel de Alba, Chairman of the Board of Directors, commented:

"Frontera's third quarter results underscore the Company's continued focus on cash flow generation, operational excellence and unlocking value for shareholders. Year to date, the Company continues to deliver on its guidance with over 41,200 barrels per day in production - representing about 10% year-over-year growth, generating close to $500 million in EBITDA and a strong focus on cost control, including a 9.5% decrease in quarter over quarter production costs. Additionally, the Company continues to deliver on its shareholder value initiatives. Year to date, the Company has invested over $100 million, including $87 million in share buybacks through its SIB and NCIB programs, while retiring more than 8.5 million shares. Further, with the Company's purchase of IFC's interest in ODL, Frontera has strengthened its midstream cash flows and created a self-sustained and growing midstream business. As a result of its continued focus on performance and value, during the quarter S&P Global Ratings upgraded its outlook for Frontera from 'stable' to 'positive' and affirmed the Company's B+ issuer credit and issue-level ratings. The Company, through its joint venture with CGX, looks forward to building on the light oil and condensate discovery at Kawa-1 with the spudding of the Wei-1 well, offshore Guyana in between December 2022 and late January 2023, subject to rig release by the third-party operator." 

Orlando Cabrales, Chief Executive Officer, Frontera, commented:

"Frontera delivered solid operational and financial results during the third quarter. The Company generated EBITDA of $173.2 million and almost $500 million of EBITDA year to date to the end of the third quarter. Frontera also produced 41,033 boe/d in the third quarter, averaging 41,238 boe/d year to date to the end of the third quarter. We remain on track to deliver our 2022 production guidance of 41,000-43,000 boe/d as production ramps up in the fourth quarter due to additional water disposal capacity in Quifa via the new Battery 4 facility (which came on-line in October) and increased pumping capacity at the CMA water treatment facility in November, as development drilling grows record production at CPE-6 and as liquids recovery increases at VIM-1. 

We're delivering on our production and EBITDA targets so far this year while controlling our operating costs, despite industry-wide inflationary pressures and we anticipate achieving our production and transportation cost guidance for the year. I'm proud to say that we are delivering these results while achieving a total recordable injury rate of 1.01 - the best safety performance in the Company's history - and a credit to everyone at Frontera. 

In the fourth quarter, we expect to continue generating strong free cash flow from our oil-weighted production and efficient operations, advance our significant development and high-impact exploration growth prospects in Colombia, Ecuador and Guyana while maintaining a strong balance sheet, healthy leverage levels and returning value to shareholders through our NCIB."

The full release is available here.