Ovintiv Inc.

Asset sales were another major source of cash during the quarter, with the diversified E&Ps generating $2.8 billion in net divestiture proceeds.

OVINTIV generated $2.8 billion, primarily from the sale of its Anadarko Basin assets, while SM Energy received nearly $900 million from the sale of South Texas oil and gas properties.

Matador Resources was the group's largest acquirer at $1.2 billion, purchasing 5,154 net undeveloped acres in the core of the Delaware Basin in southeastern New Mexico as part of the Bureau of Land Management's oil and gas lease sale.

Net debt reduction remained a significant use of cash, with more than $3.4 billion repaid during Q2.

OVINTIV accounted for the bulk of the activity, repaying $2.7 billion following its asset sales.

SM Energy also reduced debt by $936 million following its South Texas divestiture, while APA Corporation repaid $675 million as part of its continuing die leverage and efforts.

Partially offsetting those repayments, Matador Resources borrowed nearly $750 million to make the Delaware Basin investment.

Share repurchases rebounded sharply to $1.9 billion, or 15% of CFOA, roughly five times the Q1 level.

Buy ratings are not the be-all for stocks, but it can be comforting to know that people who are paid to know companies feel good about their outlooks.

Among smaller companies, the highest yielders that are earning their payouts are Diversified Energy, which buys legacy wells from other producers, Bakken Formation Energy Producer, Chord Energy, Bakken is B-A-K-K-E-N and Chord Energy C-H-O-R-D, Natural Gas Producer Antero Resources, Oil Field Equipment Maker Nov, spelled N-O-V, Oil Producer Ovintiv, spelled O-V-I-N-T-I-V, and Gas Station Operator Murphy USA.

The average dividend yield of the six is about 2.5%, Antero does not pay a dividend, and the average shareholder yield is 9.1%.

Of that group, Diversified, Chord, Antero, and Ovintiv have above-average buy rating ratios on Wall Street.

That's how the property started?

That's how some of the properties started, you know, and as, you know, so, so our main AECO facility, the Suffield facility, the, the Countess facility, and the Wild Goose facility, which are three in our fleet, were all started by the AEC and, or Encana.

AEC for sure did start the Suffield facility, which is the biggest facility, I believe, in North America.

Our other facilities were added on over time as they grew and understood the business.

And I'm thrilled with where we took Rockpoint to where we are today.

I'm probably even more excited-

In 2006, Carl/Riverstone bought the Encana Gas Storage unit, renamed it to Nisku, which side note is a Cree word meaning Canada goose.

But then it had...

Silver Hill was coming up.

And Bob Sanat, who is the CEO of Kane Anderson, on our investment committee, said, how in God's name are we going to back all these kids in their 30s? And I said, well, Bob, my guy Jason, who's 29 years old, he's been a drilling engineer at Encana for the last seven years.

He's drilled 400 horizontal wells He's designed them, executed them, done the completions, got them flowing.

And he's done more than anyone else in the industry because we've only been in the shale revolution now about seven or eight years.

And he had a vision of growing a decent-sized company, and I wanted to be part of that company.

I left there actually to take a job with Encana.

I left there in 2008, and it was right around the financial crisis that happened.

And unfortunately, my job got rescinded because of the crash.

Continental Resources was the only other company to eclipse the one billion dollars earnings threshold, reporting one point one billion dollars and generating one point seven billion in cash flow.

SM Energy, nine hundred and eighty-seven million dollars, APA Corporation, nine hundred and eighty-one million dollars, and Ovintiv, nine hundred and seventy-eight million dollars, were close behind, with each generating between one point five billion dollars and one point six billion dollars in cash flow.

On a per unit basis, Magnolia Oil & Gas posted the group's highest earnings at twenty-eight dollars and thirty-five cents per BOE, while Murphy Oil led in cash flow at forty-five dollars and thirty-six cents per BOE.

Oil and gas production by the group increased zero point six percent to four hundred and eighteen point three million BOE in Q two twenty twenty-six.

It just keeps picking up.

And, and one thing before I kind of ask about leaving the thing that worked, I mean, I think back to it, my mother actually worked for Encana back then, so this one came up at my dinner table.

But you started that natural gas company in 2003.

Four years later, the assets went to Encana for about 2.55 billion.

Um, you know, by then, Shell had kinda made it very hard for anyone to say with confidence what a hydrocarbon was worth.

You were already kinda turning your attention towards gold.

We're not talking about areas that were undiscovered, but where there were new geological models.

And we didn't find oil, um, but we did make the biggest, uh, discovery of natural gas in Texas in decades.