Hess Corp (HES) Q4 2019 Earnings Call Transcript

Hess Corp (HES) Q4 2019 Earnings Call Transcript

With me today are John Hess, Chief Executive Officer; Greg Hill, Chief Operating Officer; and John Rielly, Chief Financial Officer.. Then Greg Hill will discuss our operating performance, and then, John Rielly will review our financial results.. As our free cash flow grows, we will prioritize return of capital to shareholders, both in terms of dividends and opportunistic share repurchases.. We ended the year with more than $1.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents on the balance sheet and have hedged 150,000 barrels of oil per day in 2020 using put options with 130,000 barrels per day at $55 per barrel WTI and 20,000 barrels per day at $60 per barrel Brent.. With outstanding execution throughout our portfolio, we were able to reduce our full year 2019 capital and exploratory expenditures to $2.74 billion, down approximately $115 [Phonetic] million from our original guidance.. We have kept our 2020 capital and exploratory budget to $3 billion in line with the guidance we provided at our December 2018 Investor Day.. During the fourth quarter, we closed the previously announced transaction in which Hess Midstream converted to an Up-C corporate structure and acquired Hess Infrastructure Partners.. On December 20th, the Liza Phase 1