Chesapeake's Eagle Ford well drilling time is down from 25 days a year ago to 18 days in the first quarter of 2013.

The company is running 15 rigs in the play now, but plans to drop the rig count to 13 in the second half of the year. Chesapeake also believes they will be able to drive drilling times down by another five days.

Thirteen rigs drilling wells in 13 days is comparable to 25 rigs drilling wells in 25+ days. All that to say, the rig count is almost one-third of the 30+ the company operated at the peak, but they will be drilling wells at rates much more comparable to 2012 levels. That's the magic of improving operational efficiencies. More with less.

CHK's Eagle Ford Production Continues To Climb

Chesapeake's Eagle Ford production grew to 75,000 boe/d net (166,000 boe/d gross operated) in the first quarter. That's 20% more than the fourth quarter and 225% more than one year ago.  Approximately 65% of production is oil and the remainder is almost evenly split between NGLs and natural gas.

Approximately 650 wells were producing at March 31, 2013. 887 have been drilled, but 34 are awaiting pipeline connection and 203 are in various stages of completion. 111 wells were completed in the quarter at average IPs of 950 boe/d. 300 additional wells will be completed by year-end when the company's acreage is expected to be fully held by production.

Chesapeake is still in the process of selling acreage in the northern portion of its Eagle Ford holdings. I expect we'll hear more later in the quarter.

Three wells noted were:

• Gates 010-CHK-A TR3-J2H in Webb County, TX achieved a peak rate of approximately 3,110 boe/d, which included 930 b/d oil, 1,160 b/d of NGL and 6.1 mmcfd
• PGE Browne G 4H in Webb County, TX achieved a peak rate of approximately 1,840 boe/d, which included 770 b/d of oil, 570 b/d of NGL and 3.0 mmcfd
• Sultenfuss Unit 6H in Dimmit County, TX achieved a peak rate of approximately 1,360 boe/d, which included 1,260 b/d of oil, 60 b/d of NGL and 0.2 mmcfd.

Read the full press release at chk.com