OREANDA-NEWS. Atlas Energy Group, LLC  today reported operating and financial results for the first quarter 2016.

  • ATLS received approximately $0.6 million in management fees and cash distributions during the first quarter 2016 from its E&P development subsidiary, Atlas Growth Partners, L.P. (“AGP”). AGP recently had its Form S-1 for its continuous $1 billion public offering declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 5, 2016.
  • ATLS received $0.5 million in cash distributions in the first quarter 2016 from Arc Logistics Partners, LP , a master limited partnership of which approximately 16% of its general partner interest and approximately 12% of its limited partner interest is owned by ATLS through the Company’s interest in Lightfoot Capital Partners. In April 2016, ARCX announced a quarterly cash distribution of $0.44 per common unit for the first quarter 2016, unchanged from the fourth quarter 2015.
  • Atlas Resource Partners, L.P.  Atlas Energy’s E&P subsidiary, paid common unit cash distributions totaling approximately $0.025 per limited partner unit for the first quarter 2016. On May 5, 2016, ARP announced that the Board of Directors elected to suspend monthly common unit distributions, beginning with the month of March 2016, as well as Preferred Class C distributions, due to the continued lower commodity price environment.
  • Atlas Energy’s Distributable Cash Flow, a non-GAAP measure, was approximately $0.5 million, or $0.02 per common unit, in the first quarter 2016, compared to $(0.1) million, or $(0.00) per common unit, in the fourth quarter 2015.
  • On a GAAP basis, net loss was approximately $1.3 million for the first quarter 2016, compared with a loss of $297.4 million for the fourth quarter 2015 and net income of $53.5 million in the prior year comparable quarter.  The year over year decline in net income was due primarily to lower mark-to-market derivative gains recognized from ARP’s financial hedge positions.

ARP’s First Quarter 2016 Highlights

  • Average net daily production for the first quarter 2016 was 237.0 million cubic feet equivalents per day (“Mmcfed") compared to 270.8 Mmcfed in the first quarter 2015. The decrease in net production from the prior year quarter was due primarily to temporarily shutting in older, mature production across ARP’s footprint, in response to the continued weaker commodity price environment.
     
  • ARP's net realized price for natural gas including the effect of hedge positions was $3.41 per thousand cubic feet (“mcf") for the first quarter 2016, compared to $3.42 per mcf for the fourth quarter 2015. Net realized oil prices including the effect of hedge positions averaged $77.16 per barrel for the first quarter 2016, compared to $85.26 for the fourth quarter 2015.
     
  • Investment partnership margin contributed $3.0 million to Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter 2016 compared with $5.0 million for the previous quarter. The $2.0 million decrease in investment partnership margin was due to lower amounts of capital deployed during the first quarter 2016 due to scheduled changes in well drilling activity.
     
  • During the first quarter 2016, ARP was approximately 76% hedged on its net natural gas production and approximately 99% hedged on its net oil production. During the quarter ended March 31, 2016, ARP received approximately $48.7 million of cash from realized natural gas and oil hedge positions.

AGP’s First Quarter 2016 Highlights

AGP had net daily production of over 7,800 thousand cubic feet equivalent per day (“Mcfed”) in the first quarter 2016, compared to average daily net production of approximately 6,600 Mcfed in the fourth quarter 2015. AGP connected two additional wells in the Eagle Ford shale during the first quarter 2016. AGP recently had its Form S-1 for its continuous $1 billion public offering declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 5, 2016.   

Corporate Expenses

  • Cash general and administrative expense, excluding amounts attributable to AGP and ARP, was $0.6 million for the first quarter 2016, compared to $1.4 million for the fourth quarter 2015. The decrease in expense from the prior quarter was due primarily to the timing of certain seasonal costs.
  • Cash interest expense was $1.5 million for the first quarter 2016, compared to $1.7 million for the fourth quarter 2015. ATLS had approximately $70.6 million of debt on its balance sheet at March 31, 2016, and a cash position of approximately $4.4 million.