Mr. Craig Blackwood reports

ADVANTAGE ANNOUNCES FIRST QUARTER 2024 FINANCIAL AND OPERATING RESULTS

Advantage Energy Ltd. has released its 2024 first quarter financial and operating results.

Advantage continued to execute on its three-year plan in the first quarter, delivering exceptional well results and expanding its Tier 1 drilling inventory. Since the corporation exited 2023 with net debt below its target range, Advantage was able to enhance shareholder returns in a period of weak commodity pricing with opportunistic, counter-cyclical share repurchases.

2024 first quarter financial highlights:

• Net income of $23.2-million or 14 cents per share;
• Cash provided by operating activities of $67.4-million;
• Adjusted funds flow (AFF) (a) of $65.4-million or 41 cents per share ($67.0-million Advantage (b));
• Cash used in investing activities was $79.4-million while net capital expenditures (a) were $80.1-million ($76.2-million Advantage (b));
• Net debt (a) increased to $280.0-million ($233.1-million Advantage (b));
• Repurchased 2.4 million shares (1.5 per cent of the outstanding shares at Dec. 31, 2023) at an average share price of $8.86, returning $21.3-million to shareholders.

2024 first quarter operating highlights:

• First quarter average production of 66,020 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) (357.4 million cubic feet per day (mmcf/d) natural gas, 6,452 barrels per day (bbl/d) liquids), an increase of 14 per cent (18 per cent on a per-share basis) over the first quarter of 2023;
• Liquids production of 6,452 bbl/d (2,630 bbl/d oil, 1,231 bbl/d condensate and 2,591 bbl/d NGLs (natural gas liquids)), an increase of 12 per cent (17 per cent on a per-share basis) over the first quarter of 2023;
• Production through the Glacier gas plant achieved design capacity of 425 mmcf/d for sustained periods during the quarter. Advantage's operated infrastructure remained reliable through extremely cold weather in January, though third party outages impacted production modestly;
• At Glacier, the most recent two wells delivered a total IP30 of 30.2 mmcf/d. Glacier well performance has continued to exceed expectations, and as a result, three drilled and completed wells are currently shut in due to the plant being at capacity;
• Currently drilling a three-well liquids-focused pad at Wembley targeting two D4 wells and one D3 well.

(a) Specified financial measure that is not a standardized measure under international financial reporting standards (IFRS) and may not be comparable with similar specified financial measures used by other entities.

(b) Advantage refers to Advantage Energy Ltd. only and excludes its subsidiary, Entropy Inc.

Marketing update

Advantage has hedged approximately 22 per cent of its forecast natural gas production for summer 2024 and has modest hedges through 2025. Advantage only has an approximately 8-per-cent exposure to AECO this summer through a combination of fixed price hedges and physical market diversification.

Looking forward

Elevated North American gas supplies and an abnormally warm winter have resulted in bottom-decile North American natural gas prices, which are expected to continue through the summer. Supply/demand balances are likely to improve substantially by year-end 2024, driving strong contango in the futures curve.

In order to adjust to rapidly changing market dynamics, Advantage continuously reviews its capital plan. Each well pad is evaluated for expected shareholder returns at forward pricing, ensuring all capital spending maximizes AFF per share. Significant discretion remains in the corporation's 2024 capital program. Additionally, since Advantage's well performance continues to exceed expectations, further capital reductions may be possible without impacting the corporation's production targets. Development of Advantage's Progress plant remains on track, with commissioning anticipated midyear 2025.

To maximize shareholder value, Advantage remains focused on growing AFF per share (a) while maintaining a net debt (a) target of $200-million to $250-million. Advantage's three-year plan is to deliver compounding AFF per share growth via disciplined capital allocation, with annual spending between $220-million and $300-million and production growth capped at 10 per cent. Based on current futures pricing, Advantage estimates capital spending to be approximately 75 per cent of AFF for 2024 and 2025, and all free cash flow will be used for share repurchases.

With modern, low-emissions-intensity assets, decades of top-tier inventory, and the Glacier carbon capture and sequestration asset, the corporation continues to proudly deliver clean, reliable, sustainable energy, contributing to a reduction in global emissions by displacing high-carbon fuels. Advantage wishes to thank its employees, board of directors and shareholders for their continuing support.

Conference call

Advantage's management team will discuss first quarter 2024 financial and operational results in a conference call and webcast presentation on Friday, April 26, 2024, at 8 a.m. Mountain Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time).

To participate by phone, please call 1-888-664-6383 (North American toll-free) or 1-416-764-8650 (international). A recording of the conference call will be available for replay by calling 1-888-390-0541 and entering the conference replay code 977926 followed by the pound key. The replay will be available until May 3, 2024.

To join the conference call without operator assistance, you may enter your details and phone number on-line to receive an instant automated callback. You may also stream the event via webcast.

Attached are complete tables showing financial and operating highlights.

The corporation's unaudited consolidated financial statements for the three months ended March 31, 2024, together with the notes thereto, and the management's discussion and analysis (MD&A) for the three months ended March 31, 2024, have been filed on SEDAR+ and are available on the corporation's website. Upon request, Advantage will provide a hard copy of any financial reports free of charge.

We seek Safe Harbor.