ASCENT RESOURCES REPORTS FOURTH QUARTER AND FULL-YEAR 2024 OPERATING AND FINANCIAL RESULTS AND ISSUES INITIAL 2025 GUIDANCE

Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2024 Highlights:

• Net production averaged 2,186 mmcfe per day for the quarter and 2,166 mmcfe per day for the year
  • 2024 liquids production increased to 44 mbbls per day and 12% of total production, a 44% increase over 2023
• Pre-hedge natural gas equivalent realized prices were $2.54 per mcfe for the year, representing a $0.27 per mcfe premium to NYMEX natural gas prices
• Cash Flows from Operations totaled $280 million for the quarter and $1.1 billion for the year
• Adjusted EBITDAX⁽¹⁾ of $385 million for the quarter and $1.5 billion for the year
• Adjusted Free Cash Flow⁽¹⁾ was $202 million for the quarter and $533 million for the year, marking our 5th consecutive year of positive free cash flow generation
• Year-end 2024 total proved reserves were 9.0 tcfe with a reserve replacement ratio of 139%
• Accumulated over 2 million man-hours without an employee injury and 3.6 million man-hours without an employee lost time injury
• Initial 2025 guidance of 2.05 to 2.15 bcfe per day of production, including 14% to 16% liquids and D&C Capex of $625 - $675 million

OKLAHOMA CITY, March 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ascent Resources Utica Holdings, LLC ("Ascent" or the "Company") today reported fourth quarter and year-end 2024 operating and financial results. Additionally, Ascent announced a conference call with analysts and investors scheduled for 9 AM CT / 10 AM ET, Friday, March 7, 2025. For more detailed information on Ascent, please refer to our financials, the latest investor presentation and additional information located on our website at https://www.ascentresources.com/investors. 

Commenting on the fourth quarter and full-year 2024 results, Ascent's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Jeff Fisher said, "2024 was a year of great success for Ascent despite challenging natural gas prices. Outperformance was broad-ranging as we exceeded our goals across all key metrics and generated $533 million of Adjusted Free Cash Flow. These results affirm our strategy of balancing activity across our diverse portfolio while simultaneously adding duration to the business through our active leasing efforts. I would be remiss to not thank and congratulate our employees and service providers for delivering such outstanding operational, financial and safety results in 2024."

Fisher continued, "Looking to 2025, we believe Ascent is well positioned to be a beneficiary of the improving macro-outlook for natural gas. We have a high degree of confidence in our short- and long-term plans and look forward to delivering value to all stakeholders as we generate and grow free cash flow, further reduce debt, and return capital to unitholders."

Fourth Quarter 2024 Production and Financial Results

Fourth quarter 2024 net production averaged 2,186 mmcfe per day, consisting of 1,877 mmcf per day of natural gas, 14,011 bbls per day of oil and 37,543 bbls per day of natural gas liquids ("NGL"), putting liquids at 14% of the overall production mix for the quarter.

The fourth quarter 2024 realized price, including the impact of settled commodity derivatives, was $3.53 per mcfe. Excluding the impact of settled commodity derivatives, the realized price was $3.07 per mcfe in the fourth quarter of 2024.

For the fourth quarter of 2024, Ascent reported a Net Loss of $135 million, Adjusted Net Income of $145 million, Adjusted EBITDAX of $385 million, along with Cash Flows from Operations of $280 million and Adjusted Free Cash Flow of $202 million. Ascent incurred $142 million of total capital expenditures in the fourth quarter of 2024 consisting of $107 million of D&C costs, $27 million of land and leasehold costs, and $8 million of capitalized interest.

Full-Year 2024 Production and Financial Results

Net production for the year ended December 31, 2024 averaged 2,166 mmcfe per day, consisting of 1,902 mmcf per day of natural gas, 11,913 bbls per day of oil and 32,117 bbls per day of NGLs, putting liquids at 12% of the overall production mix for the year.

The realized price, including the impact of settled commodity derivatives, was $3.44 per mcfe for the year ended December 31, 2024. Excluding the impact of settled commodity derivatives, the realized price for the year was $2.54 per mcfe.

For the year ended December 31, 2024, Ascent reported a Net Loss of $55 million, Adjusted Net Income of $556 million and Adjusted EBITDAX of $1.5 billion, along with Cash Flows from Operations of $1.1 billion and Adjusted Free Cash Flow of $533 million. Ascent incurred a total of $794 million of capital expenditures during the year ended December 31, 2024 consisting of $635 million of D&C costs, $127 million of land and leasehold costs, and $32 million of capitalized interest.

Balance Sheet and Liquidity

As of December 31, 2024, Ascent had total debt of approximately $2.3 billion, with $555 million of borrowings and $84 million of letters of credit issued under the credit facility. Liquidity as of December 31, 2024 was approximately $1.4 billion, comprised of $1.4 billion of available borrowing capacity under the credit facility and $8 million of cash on hand. The Company's leverage ratio at the end of the year was 1.55x based on a LTM Adjusted EBITDAX basis.

Operational Update

During the fourth quarter of 2024, the Company spud 12 operated wells, hydraulically fractured 8 wells, and turned-in-line 15 wells with an average lateral length of 20,649 feet. For the full-year, Ascent spud 60 operated wells, hydraulically fractured 58 wells, and turned-in-line 57 wells with an average lateral length of approximately 15,903 feet. As of December 31, 2024, Ascent had 918 gross operated producing Utica wells.

2024 Year-End Reserves

Ascent reported year-end 2024 proved reserves, under SEC guidelines, of 9.0 tcfe, of which 67% were classified as proved developed and 33% as proved undeveloped. The 2024 drill-bit F&D costs for undeveloped reserves were $0.57 per mcfe as we replaced over 139% of reserves. A summary of the changes in Ascent's proved reserves for the full-year 2024 can be found in our financial statements.

Hedging Update

Ascent has significant hedges in place to reduce exposure to the volatility in commodity prices, as well as to protect its expected operating cash flow. As of December 31, 2024, Ascent had hedged 1,550,000 mmbtu per day of natural gas production for 2025 at an average downside price of $3.77 per mmbtu, 1,205,000 mmbtu per day in 2026 at an average downside price of $3.72 per mmbtu, and 398,000 mmbtu per day in 2027 at an average downside price of $3.82 per mmbtu. Additionally, Ascent has hedged 11,000 bbls per day of crude oil production at an average downside price of $70.36 per bbl for 2025. Ascent also has a significant portion of its natural gas basis position hedged for 2025 along with additional natural gas hedges in place through 2027. Please reference the financial statements for additional detail on Ascent's hedge position.

Initial 2025 Guidance

The Company expects its full-year 2025 production to come in between 2,050 mmcfe/d and 2,150 mmcfe/d while continuing to grow liquids production to 15% of the overall mix, at the midpoint. The total capital outlay for 2025 is expected to be in the range of $755 million and $815 million. A detailed summary including production, differentials, expenses and operational counts is included in the table below:

About Ascent Resources

Ascent is one of the largest private producers of natural gas in the United States and is focused on acquiring, developing, and operating natural gas and oil properties located in the Utica Shale in southern Ohio. With a continued focus on good corporate citizenship, Ascent is committed to delivering cleaner burning, affordable energy to our country and the world, while reducing environmental impacts.

Contact:
Chris Benton
Vice President – Finance and Investor Relations
405-252-7850
chris.benton@ascentresources.com

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of US federal securities laws.  Forward-looking statements express views of Ascent regarding future plans and expectations.  Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding future operations, business strategy, liquidity and cash flows of Ascent.  These statements are based on numerous assumptions and are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including, commodity price volatility, inherent uncertainty in estimating natural gas, oil and NGL reserves, environmental and regulatory risks, availability of capital, and the other risks described in Ascent's most recent investor presentation provided at www.ascentresources.com/investors.  Actual future results may vary materially from those expressed or implied in this news release and Ascent's business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flow could be materially and adversely affected by such risks and uncertainties.  As a result, forward-looking statements should be understood to be only predictions and statements of Ascent's current beliefs; they are not guarantees of performance.

ASCENT RESOURCES UTICA HOLDINGS, LLC
NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

Ascent uses certain non-GAAP measures as a supplement to its financial results prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). These non-GAAP measures include Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted EBITDAX, Net Debt and Adjusted Free Cash Flow. A reconciliation of each financial measure to its most directly comparable GAAP financial measure is included in the tables below. Ascent's management team believes these non-GAAP measures are useful to an investor in evaluating Ascent's financial performance because (a) management uses these financial measures to evaluate operating performance, in presentations to its Board of Managers and as a basis for strategic planning and forecasting, (b) these financial measures are more comparable to estimates used by analysts, and (c) items excluded are one-time items, non-cash items or items whose timing or amount cannot be reasonably estimated.

Ascent believes these non-GAAP measures provide meaningful information to its investors and lenders; however, they should not be used as a substitute for measures of performance that are calculated in accordance with GAAP. These non-GAAP measures, as used and defined by Ascent below, may not be comparable to similarly titled measures employed by other companies.

Adjusted Net Income: Adjusted Net Income is defined as net income (loss) before the revenue impact of changes in the fair value of commodity derivative instruments prior to settlement, unrealized (gain) loss on interest rate derivatives, change in fair value of contingent payment right, long-term incentive compensation, (gains) losses on purchases or exchanges of debt, impairment of unproved natural gas and oil properties and certain items management believes affect the comparability of results or that are not indicative of trends in the ongoing business. Adjusted Net Income is a supplemental measure of operating performance monitored by management that is not defined under GAAP and does not represent, and should not be considered as, an alternative to net income (loss), as determined by GAAP.

Adjusted EBITDAX: Adjusted EBITDAX is defined as net income (loss) before exploration expenses, depreciation, depletion and amortization expense, interest expense (net), the revenue impact of changes in the fair value of commodity derivative instruments prior to settlement, change in fair value of contingent payment right, long-term incentive compensation, (gains) losses on purchases or exchanges of debt and certain items management believes affect the comparability of results or that are not indicative of trends in the ongoing business. Adjusted EBITDAX is a supplemental measure of operating performance monitored by management that is not defined under GAAP and does not represent, and should not be considered as, an alternative to net income (loss), as determined by GAAP.

Net Debt: Net Debt is defined as total debt less cash and cash equivalents. Management uses Net Debt to determine our outstanding debt obligations that would not be readily satisfied by our cash and cash equivalents on hand. Net Debt does not represent, and should not be considered as, an alternative to total debt, as determined by GAAP.

Adjusted Free Cash Flow: Adjusted Free Cash Flow is defined as net cash provided by (used in) operating activities adjusted for changes in operating assets and liabilities, drilling and completion costs incurred (excluding ARO), land and leasehold costs incurred, capitalized interest incurred, financing commodity derivative settlements and certain items management believes affect the comparability of results or that are not indicative of trends in the ongoing business. Adjusted Free Cash Flow is an indicator of a company's ability to generate funding to maintain or expand its asset base, make equity distributions and repurchase or extinguish debt. Adjusted Free Cash Flow is a supplemental measure of liquidity monitored by management that is not defined under GAAP and that does not represent, and should not be considered as, an alternative to net cash provided by (used in) operating activities, as determined by GAAP.

SOURCE Ascent Resources Utica Holdings, LLC