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Antero Resources Corporation (AR 1.74%)
Q3Â 2019 Earnings Call
Oct 30, 2019, 11:00 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Greetings and welcome to the Antero Resources Third Quarter 2019 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions].
I would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Michael Kennedy, Senior Vice President of Finance. Thank you, you may begin.
Michael Kennedy -- Senior Vice President of Finance
Thank you for joining us for Antero's Third Quarter 2019 Investor Conference Call. We'll spend a few minutes going through the financial and operational highlights, and then we'll open it up for Q&A.
I'd also like to direct you to the homepage of our website at www.anteroresources.com, where we have provided a separate earnings call presentation that will be reviewed during today's call.
Before we start our comments, I'd first like to remind you that during this call, Antero management will make forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on our current judgments regarding factors that will impact the future performance of Antero and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Antero's control. Actual outcomes and results could materially differ from what is expressed, implied or forecast in such statements.
Today's call may also contain certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our earnings press release for important disclosures regarding such measures, including reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP financial measures. Joining me on the call today are Paul Rady, Chairman and CEO; and Glen Warren, President and CFO.
I will now turn the call over to Paul.
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Mike and thank you to everyone for listening to the call today. In my comments, I will provide an update on the considerable progress we've already made on our well cost savings initiative. I will also discuss meaningful operating cost reductions that we have achieved across our business that we expect to further reduce going forward.
Glen will then highlight our second quarter financial achievements and our expanded hedge position that now covers essentially 90% of our projected natural gas production through both Cal-20 and Cal-21. He will conclude with comments on our balance sheet and liquidity position. I'd like to start by discussing the expansive cost savings efforts under way at Antero. Over the last year, we have been intensely focused on reducing the overall cost structure at Antero, to make us more competitive in a lower for longer commodity price environment. This process includes a line-by-line review of every expense item throughout the Company. Through this comprehensive review, we have identified the potential to remove $250 million from our overall cost structure in 2020 alone.
As detailed on Slide No. 3, titled Cost Reduction Strategy overview. The majority of these significant reductions will come from lower well costs and reduced LOE. Term transportation mitigation and G&A reductions account for the remaining savings. These efforts are already delivering results as our third quarter D&C capex was $290 million, the lowest quarterly spend since our IPO in 2013.
Further, due to the cost savings realized to date, we reduced our full year 2019 D&C capex budget to a range of $1.275 billion to $1.3 billion, a nearly $100 million reduction from the midpoint of our original 2019 guidance. Despite this capital reduction, we increased our annual production guidance to the high end of the prior range, a 2% increase at the midpoint. Now let's discuss each of these items individually. Last quarter, we announced a well cost savings initiative that targets 10% to 15% reduction in well costs on a per lateral foot basis or approximately $1.2 million to $1.7 million per well.
Turning to Slide No. 4, titled Targeted Marcellus Well Cost Reductions. We begin with our January 2019 well costs at $970 per foot that was assumed in our budget. Today, our all-in well costs are $895 per foot which equates to savings have nearly $1 million per well. And by all, all-in, I do mean all in, as our well costs include pad, roads and facilities costs, which are on average $900,000 per well or $75 per foot. The savings already achieved are substantially ahead of the second half 2019 target of $930 per foot that we announced last quarter. We were able to accelerate localized water blending operations during the third quarter which reduced flowback water costs ahead of schedule. Our team was able to quickly execute a development plan to blend flowback water at the pad sites being completed during the third quarter, which was ahead of our initial timeframe.
This acceleration illustrates the direct benefit of our relationship of Antero Midstream, as compared to the long lead time, that would have been required if we were working with a third-party midstream provider.
The closure of the Antero Clearwater Facility also accelerated well cost savings, as we increased blending in order to minimize the high waste water injection fees and trucking costs associated with it. Also contributing to lower well costs was drier [Phonetic] completions. During the quarter, we used fewer barrels of fresh water per foot in approximately 20% of our completion stages. Looking ahead, we are targeting a well cost of $830 to $870 per foot in 2020, and have outlined several savings initiatives to achieve this goal, all of which are within our control. By the first quarter of 2020, we anticipate an average well AFE of $880 per foot with further declines expected as we move to the next year.
Turning to Slide No. 5, titled Marcellus Drilling and Completion Efficiencies. We also continue to realize cycle time improvements. During the third quarter, we set new records for average lateral length, average lateral feet drilled per day, averaging 6,000 feet per day and setting a new one well world record drilling 10,067 lateral feet in a day, in 24 hours. This dramatic increase in lateral feet drilled per day has reduced the days to drill as well to a 11 days from spud to spot. That's a 62% improvement since 2014, despite having increased our average lateral lengths by 42% to 11,500 feet.
Further, the reduction in fresh water used in our completions helps increase our completion stages per day, which increased to a new quarterly record of 5.9 stages per day, and we also set a new record a one-day record of 11 stages in a day.
Slide No. 6 titled, Antero Water Savings Performance. Highlights the reduction in LOE and capital, driven by our transition into blending and reuse of produced and flowback water. We expect to increase our blended water for reuse to 40,000 barrels a day on average in the fourth quarter from 10,000 barrels a day on average in the third quarter. This increase in blending operations combined with reduced trucking miles and lower negotiated trucking rates is projected to result in over a $4.50 per barrel decrease in water handling expenses compared to the first quarter of this year. As shown in the green line on the chart, we expect this per barrel decrease will translate to approximately $57 million in cumulative 2019 savings relative to our initial budget.
Slide No. 7 titled, Water Savings Driving LOE Lower, illustrates the overall LOE impact from the water savings initiative. Our third quarter LOE of $36 million was down 17% sequentially. Historically, produced water costs represent 80% of our LOE. By transitioning our operations to localized blending and reuse starting in August and shifting away from the Antero Clearwater Facility in September, as the facility was idled, we were able to drive down our LOE substantially. We expect even further reductions in LOE going forward as we benefit from a full period of these cost savings with fourth quarter absolute LOE expected to decline another 15% or nearly $5 million. As it relates to our 2020 outlook, we anticipate LOE savings of at least $60 million from these initiatives compared to 2019.
Our goal is to blend 100% of our flowback and produced water. This is achievable, we believe. We have actually reused a 100%, a number of times and set a new record just this last week of blending 60,000 barrels a day. So we believe it's quite possible.
Turning to Slide No. 8 titled, Firm Transportation Mitigation and Guidance Update. We continue to work aggressively at mitigating our excess firm transportation costs. We recently released 250 million cubic feet a day of excess FT to third-parties during the months of September 2019 through March of 2020. This offload will reduce our net marketing expense by $15 million over the next several months and led to the lowering of our 2019 net marketing expense guidance by $0.02 per Mcfe at the midpoint. We continue to see attractive opportunities to market some of our excess firm transportation capacity, driven by the recent widening of local basis and attractive spreads to the Midwest and Gulf Coast.
As illustrated on the chart, 2019 is our peak year for firm transport capacity at 4.6 Bcf a day. At Antero's option, this capacity comes down by 100 million cubic feet to 200 million cubic feet per day, each year going forward, declining to 4.1 Bcf a day in Cal-23. We expect to have essentially all of our premium firm transport organically filled by the fourth quarter of 2021.
Switching to G&A expenses. We recently launched a cost savings initiative, targeting a 10% or $14 million annualized run rate reduction in mid-2020 -- by mid-2020. These savings will come through employee headcount reductions that occurred earlier this year, natural employee attrition and reduction across the Board in business operating expenses. In summary, we will remain steadfast in reducing our overall cost structure with the goal of being a peer leader in returns regardless of the commodity cycle.
Our relentless effort to reduce costs has already delivered benefits as highlighted by 2019 capital guidance being reduced 4% to under $1.3 billion. Despite reducing capital, we are increasing our production target to the high end of our initial guidance range of 3.15 to 3.25 Bcf equivalent per day, highlighting the improving capital efficiency of our assets.
Looking ahead, with these lower costs, we now expect D&C capex to be under $1.2 billion in 2020, while delivering production growth in the range of 8% to 10%. This preliminary target is supported by our peer leading hedge positions with 90% of our natural gas protected through Cal-21 at prices well above the strip. Based on the current commodity strip, we expect our 2020 modest growth program to outspend by $100 million to $150 million. It's important to note that our capital program will remain flexible depending on NGL prices and can be reduced accordingly in order to prioritize the strength of our balance sheet.
With that, I will turn it over to Glen for his comments.
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
Thank you, Paul. Turning to Slide No. 9 titled, Industry Leading Natural Gas Hedge Position. We continue to add our hedge position during the third quarter and through October. The orange line on the graph represents our hedged or fixed price swap prices for natural gas. We're now 91% hedged on natural gas in 2020, at an average price of $2.87 per MMBtu and 89% hedged in 2021 at an average price of $2.80 per MMBtu assuming the midpoint of our 8% to 10% growth target in 2020 and 10% growth target in 2021. It's important to note that we continue to offset our annual net marketing expense with hedge realizations.
Based on strip pricing today, our hedge realizations will more than offset our net marketing expense through the year 2021. It is notable that we remain the only publicly traded U.S. producer that is 100% hedged on expected natural gas production for the remainder of 2019, and have significantly more hedge protection in 2020 and 2021, that almost all of our Appalachian peers. This is an important investment attribute in a bear market for gas.
Turning to Slide No. 10 titled, C3+ NGL hedges. We also have been actively adding NGL hedges and we're able to take advantage of the global price spikes following the missile attack in Saudi Arabia in September. We are currently 50% hedged on our expected C3+ NGL volumes for the fourth quarter and are now 28% hedged in 2020. We have hedged 93% of our expected pentane or C5 volumes in 2020 at $47.84 per barrel and over 60% in 2021 at $44.94 per barrel. The C5 volumes were first hedged at a price [Phonetic] of WTI, then the WTI price was locked with a fixed price oil swap resulting in a fixed-price for our C5 volumes. So our combined C5+ oil production volumes estimated to be 27,000 barrels a day for the fourth quarter of 2019 and closer to 30,000 barrels a day for 2020. These volumes really represent our WTI oil exposure going forward, and we have hedged 85% and 50% of that volume for the fourth quarter of 2019 and 2020 respectively.
We will continue to work toward managing our NGL price exposure by adding hedges across our domestic European and Asian markets. Third quarter C3+ NGL price realizations averaged only $22.53 per barrel. Although there was a seasonal NGL price decline from the second quarter, we were once again able to realize a premium to Mont Belvieu prices due to our industry-leading exposure to the international LPG market through our capacity on ME2 [Indecipherable].
As illustrated in the bottom left table on Slide No. 11, titled NGL Transportation Delivering Premium Pricing, we shipped 54% of total C3+ net volume on Mariner East 2 for export in the third quarter and realized a $0.12 per gallon premium to Mont Belvieu at Marcus Hook. The remaining 46% of C3+ net volume was sold domestically at $0.13 per gallon discount to Mont Belvieu pricing at Hopedale. This resulted in a blended price which was a $0.01 per gallon premium to Mont Belvieu pricing.
In the table on the right hand side of the slide, we provide guidance on NGL realizations relative to Mont Belvieu pricing for the full year of 2019. Looking forward, we see the third quarter as the trough in NGL prices. This is supported by the recent price strengthening seen since early October, as depicted in the chart on Slide No. 12 titled, NGL Price Improvement.
Based on current strip prices, we anticipate a $5 per barrel improvement in realized C3+ NGL prices in the fourth quarter of 2019. The improved pricing has been due to a combination of factors, including seasonal effects as we transition into winter, increased dock export capacity on the Gulf Coast, ongoing global supply disruptions following the incident in Saudi Arabia and continued robust international LPG demand. It's important to note our leverage to NGL prices, as the second largest NGL producer in the U.S. For 2020 for example, a $5 per barrel improvement in the roughly $25 per barrel C3+ strip price, that we're using in our estimates would generate an estimated $170 million of additional cash flow, thereby eliminating our estimated $100 million to $150 million outspend in 2020.
As we highlighted during the second quarter call, heading into 2020, we see fundamental tailwinds to NGL prices, driven by additional export expansion capacity projects along the Gulf Coast and East Coast at Marcus Hook that will provide relief to stranded supply and support domestic prices. On the international front, new PDH plants in China combined with incremental import capacity across India and Europe are expected to drive continued strong demand in the international markets.
Moving on to Slide No. 13 titled, Strong Financial Position for Low Price Environment. Maintaining a strong balance sheet remains the top priority at Antero. Our current balance sheet strength positions us well to weather any sustaining downturn in the market. We have reduced absolute debt by approximately $700 million over the past few years, resulting in a mid-two times leverage today.
We have $1.2 billion of value in our AM ownership, that provides over $200 million per year of steady cash flow in the form of dividends, and our hedge mark-to-market value is currently $807 million. Our borrowing base was reaffirmed at $4.5 billion during the spring redetermination. This October we added RBC to our lending group with a $140 million lender commitment, increasing our total bank commitments to $2.64 billion. We currently have only $275 million drawn on the facility and $700 million of letters of credit. So today we have almost $1.7 billion of committed liquidity under our credit facility, plus almost $1.9 billion of uncommitted first-lien capacity. While we have no plans to utilize the additional first-lien capacity, the combined $3.5 billion of first-lien borrowing capacity serves as a backstop, that would enable Antero to repay both it's 2021 and 2022 bond maturities, with new first-lien commitments if the unsecured market doesn't materially improve.
And this backstop is supported by 10 Tcfe of [Indecipherable] reserves, the dividend stream from AM and almost $1 billion of hedge value. And that's a bank pricing. Other liquidity options include asset sales and further cost reductions. Some of the asset sale alternatives are hedge monetizations which we've done in the past, the sale of AM shares which we did in the simplification earlier this year and land sales, which we have done in the past. Also recall that we have 84% average NRIs in the Marcellus and the sale of overriding royalty has been demonstrated to be a viable asset monetization strategy. We don't rank that as an attractive alternative for us as, as our net interest in production is core to Antero.
Additionally, further cost reductions will strengthen AR's cash flow and borrowing base capacity above the estimates provided above. At the time of our spring of redetermination, we have not yet announced our well cost savings initiative, LOE reduction or G&A cuts. The continued execution on these important initiatives will support our borrowing base capacity next spring. Any reduction in GP&T cost could materially enhance the cost reduction initiatives. The key takeaways, we have abundant refinancing and liquidity alternatives available to navigate a lower for longer commodity price environment. For an integrated natural gas and liquids producer with the scale that Antero enjoys, there is a spectrum of alternatives available, it's not a binary situation. Importantly, we can be patient as our cost reduction initiatives play out and believe that the bond market will offer attractive refinancing rates to solid upstream credits over the next year, particularly, with cyclical commodity price improvement.
With that, I will now turn the call over to the operator for questions.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you. At this time, we'll be conducting the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Welles Fitzpatrick with SunTrust. Please state your question.
Welles Fitzpatrick -- SunTrust -- Analyst
Hey, good morning.
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Good morning. Hi, Welles.
Welles Fitzpatrick -- SunTrust -- Analyst
You guys have obviously taken advantage of the recent dips and volatility at Dom South and M2. Can you talk to how you see those two hubs developing going forward? And I guess through year-end and in '20 years is that volatility some -- it is transient or do you think it will continue through year-end '20?
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
I think it will continue probably through year-end '20. There is still some constraint in the regional pipeline systems, that being for example, the Tetco shut down with the resumption and we'll probably resume at a lower takeaway capacity. But we just see things are a little bit constrain there in the Dom South, Tetco M2 market. I think when the spreads widen to Chicago, then the distress gas is bought up at a premium to M2 or Dom South because there are a number of shippers including ourselves, and by the distress gas and move it. So it goes up and down, it's volatile due to the physical constraints, and then when spreads widened, then it gets bought up and then when spreads are not, don't justify the variables, then it languishes again.
So, we think until there is more pipe built out of that Northeast area that is going to go up and down depending on weather and pipeline capacity as it comes online or doesn't.
Welles Fitzpatrick -- SunTrust -- Analyst
Okay. And in that type of environment, is it fair to assume that you guys would be able to get some more release capacity agreements? Do you think there is steps to those type of deals?
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. We do. So we've demonstrated we're perfectly willing to release some capacity to other parties and the spreads justify that. And -- or we can buy the distress third-party gas and collect a margin. So we're constantly looking at both of those options.
Welles Fitzpatrick -- SunTrust -- Analyst
Okay. And then just one last one for me, it's -- I suppose it's less applicable deal, but there is been some chatter about pipelines demanding an extra letters of credit that can be triggered by one thing or another. Is that something that could potentially manifest in '19 or in '20. And what would the trigger points that maybe we should pay attention to be for that?
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
Yeah. We've looked through all our agreements, when we look at all of our FT agreements, there is about three of them that have provisions, that if we get downgrades, there would be an increase in the letters of credit. Those downgrades are actually -- they actually tied to what our ratings were at the time of the agreement. So, it's back to 2014 when we were rated a couple of notch below where we're at. So right now that would not affect us, but if you do have further downgrades in the future, there could be a little bit of LC increases. Like we mentioned right now, there is about $700 million of LCs. The order of magnitude of those are increases are about $100 million to $300 million, but they would have to be a couple of notch downgrade from here.
Welles Fitzpatrick -- SunTrust -- Analyst
Okay. Thanks and congrats on the strong [Indecipherable].
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Welles.
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
Thank you.
Operator
Our next question comes from Brian Singer with Goldman Sachs. Please state your question.
Brian Singer -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Thank you. Good morning. We saw a significant pickup in the weighting toward NGLs as a percent of the total production mix this quarter. Can you break out where and why you saw this and how you see that evolving through 2020 next year? Do you see a different range of liquids growth versus the 8% to 10% total growth guidance?
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
Well, we focused on highly liquids-rich locations from 1,250 1,300 BTU. So you're just seeing that incremental increase in the proportion of liquids. And I'd say we expect it to be fairly steady in that range over the next year, Brian.
Brian Singer -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Great. And then my follow-up is, you highlighted the multiple cost reduction initiatives, reductions in marketing expense. And yet at the strip, you still outspending -- you're expect to outspend cash flow modestly after some of the one-off benefits. Does your $100 million to $150 million in outspend assume the full impact of the cost savings initiatives discussed today and beyond the commodity price improvements, what do you see as the drivers of upside to the free cash flow range?
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Yes, that forecast does include the LOE improvements, the well cost improvement that's all baked in, and hope for those numbers of conservative and will even do better than those numbers. But we also mentioned or I mentioned in my comments, just that there are other cost initiatives under way outside of that on the midstream transport side, so we're having a number of discussions there. So you could see some improvement there over time and that could be material as well.
Brian Singer -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
And I guess with regards to the conservatism baked in, if there is an area of focus where you think there is a some more significant opportunity for cost reduction of the multiple initiatives you talked about. Would you point that more toward the well cost, the LOE or the midstream side?
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, I would say both well cost and LOE. I think on the well cost side, we feel pretty good about getting the low 800s per foot there. And so hopefully, we'll outperform on that. And -- but the GP&T cost, that's all a negotiation. It takes place over time. We've mentioned that on previous calls. There is no guarantee that any of it gets done, but some of it does, it could be pretty material.
Brian Singer -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Great. Thank you.
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Brian.
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
Thank you.
Operator
Our next question comes from Lilly Shahidi with Guggenheim Partners. Please state your question.
Subash Chandra -- Guggenheim Partners -- Analyst
Yes. Yeah, sorry guys. Subash here. The -- I guess the first question, first of all, congrats on a very eventful quarter. So, I'll try to get a few of these in. The GP&T or I should say the cash production expense outlook for 2020, what is that range now?
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
Yeah, we haven't put out a range there, but it's similar to this third quarter, I think it's between $215 million to $225 million.
Subash Chandra -- Guggenheim Partners -- Analyst
Okay. And on the water side, how much more can you press that with regards to, it looks like 100% recycling was sort of somewhat isolated maybe, and it could be a lot more broadly applied than that? And the $10 million goes to $40 million. So what could be a pine-in-the-sky number eventually on the water handling?
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Well, I think certainly, within our site, Subash, we could see it takes planning and so on, but as much as 100% blending of all of our flowback and produced water. And so as our production grows, I think steady state right now, roughly, steady state with three frac crews 45,000 barrels a day, with four crews that we're operating right now, the flowback and it produced 60,000 barrels a day. And our teams are handling that quite well. We just keep getting better at it. So how do you think that's achievable that as we go forward, we have a bigger production base, that will be a little more produced water and varying between three and four frac spreads, will be in that 50,000 to 60,000 barrels of produced and flowback.
And I think that's all achievable and it's going to be our old LOE was above $10 including Clearwater, $10 a barrel and we're getting it down into the mid-fours now. So you can see there could be quite a bit of savings certainly above the $50 million a year. So to feel optimistic about that, our Utica volumes are pretty low, they're about 4,000 barrels a day. Right now, we take that to injection and it's pretty, pretty low cost, it's under 450 a barrel between injection and trucking, since it's near the injection side. So anyway, we do think that LOE and as we've said in our press release or in our remarks, water is about 80% of our LOE, so as we make big strides on the water side, we can really reduce LOE.
Subash Chandra -- Guggenheim Partners -- Analyst
Okay, thanks. And final one on, back to the LC discussion. Are there alternative markets to kind of put the money out there away from the credit facility. It seems like offshore producers with FERC regulated -- expose the FERC regulated pipe seem to be able to do that in alternate markets?
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Yes. Subash that's a good point. We are looking into that. There are, the surety bond market out there is something we are exploring in order to satisfy some of those LC requirements. So that could definitely offset any LC increases, if we do get downgrades.
Subash Chandra -- Guggenheim Partners -- Analyst
Got you. So you wouldn't, you do it on the incremental amount -- on the current amount, is that...
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
[Indecipherable] we could actually replace some of our existing LC with surety bonds as well.
Subash Chandra -- Guggenheim Partners -- Analyst
Okay, got you. Terrific guys, nice job. Thank you.
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Thanks Subash.
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
Thanks Subash.
Operator
Our next question comes from Jane Trotsenko with Stifel. Please state your question.
Jane Trotsenko -- Stifel -- Analyst
Good morning, and thanks for taking my questions. My first question is on production strengths that we have seen year-to-date. Maybe you could provide some color on what has driven production outperformance?
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
What we are seeing, great well performance all year and so that's really what it comes down to just bidding and part of it is getting as well as on sooner than expected. So we certainly schedule everything out for the year on our budget. And when we beat that budget from a timing standpoint the production comes on sooner and drives the quarterly production up higher. So, it's a combination of those two well performance and timing.
Jane Trotsenko -- Stifel -- Analyst
Got it. My second question is on oilfield services. So you kind of highlighted well cost savings which mostly are driven by self-help initiatives. I'm just curious like how much of well cost savings are related to when the related cost reductions and maybe you can just provide general comments on oilfield service deflation, if any, in Appalachia?
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, there is definitely cost deflation with our vendors, and we've been working with them for a number of months. Now, we've made requests and contacted and there are several hundred vendors that we are involved with. But contacted them all and asked for a certain discount and virtually all have been willing to give that to us and then we have asked for extensions through the next year and many have rallied for it. And so, we feel that all our interests are in the same boat. And so they definitely want to continue to work with us. We are very active and so -- they've been willing to cut. And so feel good about that sticking for the foreseeable future.
Jane Trotsenko -- Stifel -- Analyst
Okay, got it. And then you guys provided this well cost guidance for 2020, does it include any well cost savings related to those vendor related cost reductions?
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
No, those are already baked in. Now we've realized about $400,000 per well and in savings in that arena, and that's all that's all is baked in there right now. So any further reductions would take those numbers lower.
Jane Trotsenko -- Stifel -- Analyst
Okay, got it. Thanks a lot.
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
Thank you.
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Our next question comes from David Deckelbaum with Cowen. Please state your question.
David Deckelbaum -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst
Good morning, Paul and Glen and Mike. Thanks for taking my questions.
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
Good morning.
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Hey David.
David Deckelbaum -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst
You guys laid out an improved 20 program in terms of capital efficiency. And you also look at lateral length that's above 12,000 feet on average now. I guess how -- it's been a while I think since you address like a very long-term program. Where do you see lateral lengths progressing beyond '20? And how can you match that up with some of the projected land spends that you have. I saw the $50 million in '20, and I think you guys have talked about kind of discretionary land spend before to get to the right working interest in lateral length over the next several years, and how do you see that progressing beyond '20 to remain efficient on that basis?
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
We do see a continued lengthening of the laterals over time, and I think we sort of get up into the 12,500 range over the next several years. Of course there will be a range of links, there'll be 8,000 to 9000 foot laterals, but there are also be 15,000, 16,000 foot laterals. But the average is kind of 12,500 range, at the peak over the next few years through 2023. And we already have a lot of that land in place. We've a very consolidated land position, so we already have a very high working interest and we feel like that $50 million sort of neighborhood gets us what we need in terms of any add-ons to keep very high working interest in our drilling.
David Deckelbaum -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst
Okay, fair enough. Also just curious, the Utica impairment, I know, not a whole lot of development there. Can you talk about just how you think about that asset now with portfolio management? Is it something that's held and you'd hold on to for a while, kind of become a source of funds, just how would you square that now?
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, of course, this is just an accounting adjustment, so it doesn't change our mindset strategically on the asset, but it does have tremendous option value. There are some great dry gas locations over there and some [Indecipherable] our liquids rich locations. It's just at this point in time in a very low price environment, it makes sense to keep your costs optimally low, of course. And when you drill in the same area, you're able to use all the flowback water in your next completion. So it just makes sense to keep the rigs in the Marcellus for now, but the Utica -- those are important locations that are in our inventory.
David Deckelbaum -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst
And if I could just close out with one more, just you saw some effort on the share buyback side this quarter. Obviously, there is still projected outspend going on. You have increased, I guess your lender commitments by welcoming an RBC. Some of your corporate bonds obviously traded the discount, I guess. How do you think about now, one, perhaps leaning on the revolver, I guess tighter buy back some debt or shares. And I guess what are the conditions that cause you all to look at the share buyback as a good use of funds?
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
We want to remain flexible on that. We were opportunistic here in the last quarter and picked up a few shares, I think you'll see us do that some over time, but it's not going to be a happy program until we see better commodity prices and stronger cash flow. So, we want to preserve the balance sheet, primarily. We certainly have the option to buy back bonds and you may see us do some of that over time as well. We've got plenty of liquidity for that, so, we'll be opportunistic, I think is the bottom line.
David Deckelbaum -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst
Okay. So is the share buyback now is it just intended to offset sort of the natural dilution from employee programs?
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
No. No, it's just an opportunistic buying of shares and it's a very economic thing to do at these kind of price levels.
David Deckelbaum -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst
Thank you, guys.
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
Thanks.
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, David.
Operator
Our next question comes from Karl Blunden with Goldman Sachs. Please state your question.
Karl Blunden -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
The time on the comments on the balance sheet just looking at your maturities, 21s and 22s, we interested in how you think about addressing those. Do you need to come up with a solution for addressing them together or perhaps be more patient? I think some of your comments suggested, if the market remains challenging, potentially address the 21s before then turning your attention to 22s. I'd be interested in any thoughts on that and what makes you decide between secured and debt sooner and/or waiting for the unsecured markets to open up?
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Well, the good news is we can afford to be patient we have a lot of time. So you really haven't seen the bond market shut down for even E&P for more than a few quarters. So we don't think this will last for a year, let's say. But we can afford to be patient on it, and we look at both of those maturities for sure or not as a bundle, but we look at both of them. And whether we go to the secured market or not, that kind of depends on how things play out over time. So, it's a very fluid dynamic situation, when you get into these kind of market dislocations, and you have to stay on top of it, be aware and be ready to execute if there is something attractive.
Karl Blunden -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
And so that makes sense. So when you think about kind of the market window required to allow you to keep that flexibility, is it 12 months, maybe it's not -- nothing fixed like that. But when the bank started taking a look more -- a closer look at your maturity, it tends to be about 12 months, is that right way to think about it? That basically you have the whole of 2020 to make a move and clarify your part or you maybe have less or more time, I'd be interested in anything on that?
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Yes, I think that's a good way to think about it. I mean you'd like to stay out of going current on your balance sheet, so that's the way to think about the 2021 anyway. That's right.
Karl Blunden -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Yeah. Really appreciate it. Thanks.
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
Thanks, Karl.
Operator
Our next question comes from Sean Sneeden with Guggenheim Securities. Please state your question.
Sean Sneeden -- Guggenheim Securities -- Analyst
Hi. Good morning and thank you for taking the questions. I guess on the kind of small FTE monetization that you're doing over the winter. I guess, could you share what the kind of end market is, that pipe is going to. And I guess it looked like the kind of implied charge there, it's going to roughly $0.30. Just kind of curious how we should be kind of thinking about that? Is that just a function of kind of tougher in-basin dips that kind of drove that decision or any kind of commentary around opportunities beyond this winter?
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, Sean, we're looking at those all the time and the choice is whether to do an AMA, Asset Management Agreement and lease something out in a sense for an extended period like we did here six or seven months to go from the M2 pool over to Chicago or to manage it ourselves and buy and sell distressed third-party gas moving it in that direction. And so that's right, roughly $0.30. And so we -- and there is a pretty good market out there for release capacity. And so others are the spreads and saw them in the forwards, that they could lock-in. And so we made the decision to let go of those in mass. And so the flow path would be Rex [Phonetic] Westbound, out of Clarington and it connects with a couple of pipes that we have, MGT and NGPL over in Eastern Illinois, Scotland and Montreal and Ohio into the Chicago market. So they're generally into the Chicago City Gate. And so good spreads, and so those parties are working that and the spreads have been positive, quite a bit lately with this cold weather. So I think they're doing well. So that's what we look at all the time. And so those emerge quite often, we're looking at spreads and whether we want to sublet as it were for some period or use it ourselves for our own gas, for the very best realizations or buy and sell gas on the day and make up the -- some of the marketing expense that way. So we've our choices.
Sean Sneeden -- Guggenheim Securities -- Analyst
Got it. That makes sense. And then I guess as you think about kind of the maintenance versus kind of filling FT cases. I guess could you talk a little bit more about how you're thinking about that? And I guess specifically since it would look like the market is -- that's been wanting producers to kind of go more -- maintenance case. How do you think about slowing down? And I guess along with that, is there any ability to renegotiate with AM just on the rate side to kind of improve cost of capital for both sides?
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
Yeah. As we said, all that's on the table, the whole GP&T expense line items, so we're talking to everyone on that, at least all the material players. So on the path forward, we can lay that out, I think it was August 3, the last quarterly release, there is a roadmap in that deck where we kind of painted the picture of without any changes in firm transport cost and portfolio, it made sense for us to continue to modestly grow 8% to 10% over the next couple of years to fill up the firm transfer. Well, that's still the case, so nothing has changed there. And that's the path that we're on. We'll see where these negotiations take us and thus reshape the FT portfolio enough to where it makes sense to slow a bit, are taking more gradual growth profile, if commodity prices don't change.
The good news is, their tailwinds on commodity prices right now, things are looking better and we have a lot of leverage to that, as I mentioned earlier for every $5 change in NGLs. We picked up $170 million of cash flow next year 2020. In 2021 that goes to $250 million and up from there. So lots of leverage to these price changes. And that's important to note. There is never a static kind of situation here.
Sean Sneeden -- Guggenheim Securities -- Analyst
Got it. That's helpful. And then just lastly for me. Glen, I know you highlighted on Slide 13 you're kind of just shy of $2 billion of uncommitted first lien capacity. I guess should we be thinking about that as you kind of your remaining first lien capacity, assuming kind of the borrowing base stays as it is or do you think there is kind of more beyond that?
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
Well, I think the first lien capacity that's we're just forecasting what it would look like off of the current $4.5 billion borrowing base. There could be a little bit of downside of that borrowing base depending on where the markets are, where the banks are in the second quarter next year, when we redetermined, but there is also a lot of upside with these cost reductions. So the more of cost reductions that we come up with, that enhances the borrowing base to the positive side. So I think that $4.5 billion is a good number to work with. And that's first lien and it's of course beyond that. There is always additional asset borrowing capacity, whether it's second lien or whatever you want to call it. So there is quite a bit of capacity in the Company like this, with 3.3 Bcf a day of production and the liquids exposure and all of that, the scale. So a lot of borrowing capacity there that's why we're being patient about the bond market and the healing therein hopefully.
Sean Sneeden -- Guggenheim Securities -- Analyst
Got it. So the calculus you're doing on Slide 13, is not necessarily kind of mirroring what is permitted under the bond indentures, it just kind of off the $4.5 billion borrowing base?
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
Correct.
Sean Sneeden -- Guggenheim Securities -- Analyst
Got it. Thank you very much guys.
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
Thanks, Sean.
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Our next question comes from Betty Jiang with Credit Suisse. Please state your question.
Betty Jiang -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst
Good morning. So can you elaborate on the opportunities that you're currently pursuing to potentially reduce the GP&T cost? There are certainly many counterparties in that line, so just trying to understand whether the conversation as was AM or other entities. And now we're talking about plan and extend agreement or something different?
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. It's all of that. And all of those parties, as I mentioned a minute ago it's every party that we do business with, both on the service provider side and then also on the midstream transport processing side, all of that. So we're having those discussions with all parties, their partners in the business overall. So we think that we will make some progress there and having some pretty healthy discussions on that. So that is a key focus but I can't elaborate any -- on any particulars there. But amend and extends a good way to think about it.
Betty Jiang -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst
What type of magnitude are we thinking about here like as a sort of pennies, nickels, any sense that you can provide?
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
No, but it could be material. I'd say a penny is not material, so larger than that.
Betty Jiang -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst
Okay, thanks. And then my follow-up is just on, you've been -- Antero has been put on negative watch by several rating agencies. So in your conversation with them, what are they looking for -- from the company to avoid potential credit downgrade and just want to trying to understand this [Indecipherable] process get influenced by how Antero plans to address the 2021 and 2022 maturities?
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
Yeah. So once again it's all of that, Betty, it's how are you going to address 2021 maturities and how are you going to do anything on the asset sale side or for the cost reduction side or there is also the hedging side. We've made quite a bit of progress there recently, which really locks down prices in your future cash flow. So it's all of those topics that get discussed in the market today.
Betty Jiang -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst
Got it. Okay. Thank you.
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
Thank you, Betty.
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Thanks Betty.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time, I'll now turn it back to Michael Kennedy for closing remarks. Thank you.
Michael Kennedy -- Senior Vice President of Finance
Thank you for joining us for today's conference call. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us. Thanks again.
Operator
[Operator Closing Remarks]
Duration: 55 minutes
Call participants:
Michael Kennedy -- Senior Vice President of Finance
Paul M. Rady -- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Glen C. Warren -- President, Chief Financial Officer & Director
Welles Fitzpatrick -- SunTrust -- Analyst
Brian Singer -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Subash Chandra -- Guggenheim Partners -- Analyst
Jane Trotsenko -- Stifel -- Analyst
David Deckelbaum -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst
Karl Blunden -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Sean Sneeden -- Guggenheim Securities -- Analyst
Betty Jiang -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst
