Cabot Oil & Gas To Expand Eagle Ford Drilling Program

May 20, 2014 Kirk Eggleston

After seeing positive results in the Eagle Ford over the past six months, Cabot Oil & Gas plans on expanding its Ealge Ford drilling program in the third-quarter of this year. Company officials cite continued improvements in production and cost savings as the primary reasons for the decision to expand their drilling program.

Like may other Eagle Ford operators, Cabot is seeing positive results from pad drilling. In the first quarter, the company completed its first six well pad with an average lateral length of 6,658'. The wells achieved an average peak 24-hour initial production (IP) rate of 1,045 boe/d per well (89% oil) during their first ten days online. Currently, the company is drilling a five-well pad with a planned average lateral length of over 8,500'.

“We have been very pleased with the strides our Eagle Ford team has made over the last six months. Based on the continued improvement in production rates and realized cost savings, which have resulted in higher rates of return, we are adding a third rig to our Eagle Ford program beginning in the third quarter. This additional rig will be focused on multi-well pads and is expected to have minimal impact on 2014 production but will materially impact our estimated 2015 oil production volumes.”

— Cabot CEO, Dan Dinges

Cabot's Eagle Ford First-Quarter Update

During the first quarter of 2014, Cabot netted 7,271 boe/d, a 42% increase compared to the same reporting period last year. Total net production included 6,839 bbl/d of liquids, which represented a 49% increase. Also during the first quarter, Cabot added approximately 4,000 net acres to its Eagle Ford position through its leasing efforts.

In April of 2014, the company revealed that it intends to increase its position in the play. Before the end of the year, the company will almost assuredly strike a deal for more Eagle Ford acreage. Currently, Cabot has ~66,000 net acre across the play, with properties principally located in Atascosa, Frio, La Salle and Zavala Counties, Texas.

Sanchez Energy's First-Quarter Production Up 376% Over Last Year

April 29, 2014 Kirk Eggleston

Sanchez Energy increased its' portfolio-wide production by 376% to 18,784 boe/d in the first-quarter of 2014 over the first-quarter of 2013. The oil cut from this year's first-quarter production was 72%, with 15% NGLs and 13% natural gas. Production remained relatively flat quarter-over-quarter.

The company's current production of 21,000 boe/d is within guidance for 2014. Operations are incorporating more pad drilling, which company officials credit for current production numbers and cost savings.

“Our ability to more than triple our first quarter production year over year reflects positively on both the quality of our assets and the efficiency of our operations. Moving forward, we will continue to leverage our proprietary systems and drilling processes to drive down costs per well, reduce drill time and enhance our capital efficiencies. This strategy already has effectively reduced drill time by 40%, doubled the number of frac stages pumped per day and decreased total well costs by 30% across our Eagle Ford operations.”

— Tony Sanchez, III, President and CEO of Sanchez Energy

Sanchez Energy Eagle Ford Operations Update

Sanchez currently has six rigs running in the Eagle Ford, with 214 gross producing wells. 13 gross wells are undergoing or awaiting completion.

Marquis Project - 48 gross producing wells, 8 awaiting/undergoing completion
Palmetto Project - 57 gross producing wells, 3 awaiting/undergoing completion
Cotulla Project - 93 gross producing wells
Wycross Project - 16 gross producing wells, 2 awaiting/undergoing completion

At the beginning of April 2014, the company's Marquis project area (~69,000 net acres) had 7 wells awaiting or undergoing completion. Sanchez continues to monitor production in the lower Eagle Ford section of its' Sante-area wells in Fayette County, and plans to shift some of its' focus to other horizons, including the upper Eagle Ford and Austin Chalk in the greater Sante area. Company officials say expectations are positive for additional resource potential from these other horizons.

In the company's Wycross project area , a multi-well pad program in the first quarter lowered drilling costs to $3 million versus the previous operator's average cost of $3.3 million. The last well on this pad is expected to have a drilling cost of below $3 million according to company officials.

Forest Oil Will Double Oil Production in 2014 - Securing Eagle Ford Acreage

December 3, 2013 R.T. Dukes

Forest Oil Eagle Ford Acreage Map Year-end 2013

Forest Oil expects to grow company-wide production by 11% next year, with oil production growing 90-100%.

Sales volumes from the Eagle Ford will drive growth. The company expects production from South Texas to more than double to 6,250 boe/d in 2014.

Forest is planning to spend 77% of its $290-310 million capital budget in the Eagle Ford.

A budget of ~$230 million includes the drilling of 80 gross (40 net) Eagle Ford wells. Forest will operate three rigs in the Eagle Ford and one in the Ark-La-Tex Basin.

“Following the completion of the Texas Panhandle asset sale, we are focused on the development and expansion of our Eagle Ford operations along with attention to our asset positions in Ark-La-Tex and the Permian Basin.”

— Patrick R. McDonald, President and CEO

Well Costs Fall & Forest Looks To Add Acreage

Forest Oil Eagle Ford Pad Drilling Graphic

Well costs fell 10% in the third quarter to $5.75 million. The company expects additional savings through pad drilling, centralized production facilities, and continued optimization of completions.

Forest will transition to development drilling early next year once its acreage position is held-by-production.

Once acreage is held, Forest will focus on determining the optimal drilling density and well spacing for each area of the field.

Mr. McDonald further stated, “...We are presently seeking opportunities to add acreage to increase the scale of our Eagle Ford resource development opportunity.”

Read the full press release at forestoil.com

ConocoPhillips' Eagle Ford Production Doubles Over Past Year

August 12, 2013 R.T. Dukes

ConocoPhillips produced 121,000 boe/d from the Eagle Ford in the second quarter of 2013, or roughly double the rate the company produced during the same period in 2012. Maybe even more impressively, production grew almost 20% from the first quarter.

Operators are literally hitting their stride in development mode in the Eagle Ford. Don't be surprised to see similar performance throughout the year as companies work to make their operations more efficient.

“We had a very strong quarter, with our base operations and turnaround activity performing as planned,” added Ryan Lance, CEO. “Production exceeded expectations as growth continued from our development programs, notably in the Eagle Ford.”

Conoco is running 11 rigs in the region and expects to it will hold all of its acreage with production by year-end. Rigs will begin to shift to pad drilling and we'll likely see additional efficiency gains.

Other notable highlights from the company's quarterly earnings release include:

Statement that "..our (COP) Eagle Ford position is truly best in class"
Established Eagle Ford position at a cost of $300/ acre
Reported peer leading average of 69% oil production from Eagle Ford wells
65 operated wells were brought to production in Q2
Pumping more frac stages and seeing better results
227,00 net acre position with potential 1.8 billion boe of resource
1,900 identified drilling locations
Expects to hit 130,000 boe/d by 2017 (I'll say that's conservative)

Read the full press release at conocophillips.com

Marathon Oil's Eagle Ford Production Jumps 11% - Other Plays Look Promising

August 8, 2013 R.T. Dukes

Marathon Oil's Eagle Ford production jumped 11% to 80,000 boe/d during the second quarter.

Marathon drilled 82 gross Eagle Ford wells and brought 70 wells to production over the three month period. Marathon averaged more than three wells per Eagle Ford pad and 85% of its wells were drilled from pads in the second quarter. The company's spud to total depth drilling time as fallen to 12 days and spud-to-spud time averaged 18 days.

Expect well results from the company's 40-60 acre well pilots at the end of 2013.

Additional notes from the second quarter:

Production grew from 72,000 to 80,000 boe/d
Producing more gas. The percentage of oil production fell from 64% to 62%
Amount of production moving by pipeline grew from 65% to 70%

Austin Chalk & Pearsall Formations Proving Viable

Marathon has completed four Austin Chalk wells with horizontal laterals of a little more than 4,000 ft and initial production rates of almost 1,000 boe/d. A little less than half of the production stream is oil and condensate. The company compares the production stream to that of many Eagle Ford condensate wells.

The company also completed a Pearsall Shale well in the second quarter. The well came online at a 24-hour initial production rate of 580 boe/d.

Read the company's full press release at marathonoil.com