David Sambrooks
Analyst · Amer Tiwana
Right. Yes, I'd say we don't really have much to report on that right now. It's the same -- we're kind of in the same spot we were last quarter, where our strategy with that is to watch the activity around us. There's a lot going on in the area. So every quarter, we kind of see something additional. I reviewed kind of the technical basis across those properties last quarter in some detail. So we continue to review the opportunity and watch as kind of more wells come on the map. And I can't comment specifically about SandRidge. But as you know, and we've announced or acknowledged, we're in that process. And so they have some complementary assets in that same area. So I would say we're continuing to follow the play pretty closely, but do not have any immediate plans to capitalize or to drill any wells there right now, but still kind of wait and see mode.
Q – Unidentified Analyst: Sure. And my next question is, in terms of the gas price realizations, and, obviously, that's going to be a significant negative here in terms of the basis, what are you guys are seeing? Is there anything in particular that's hitting you hard there? Or -- and going forward, what are the positives or negatives that we can sort of look to? A - Jason McGlynn Yes. Thanks, Amer. I'll take that question. The biggest piece of it is we're just experiencing the PPL blowout from NYMEX HENRY HUB that happened starting at the end of January that kind of persisted through the first half of the year. The good news is that basis diff has contracted over the last month or so, and not back to the historical norms, but definitely a significant contraction from where it was earlier this year. So hopefully pricing gets a little bit better for us on the realization side of it. It's obviously some stuff -- things we're moderating on a go-forward basis. And we'll anticipate a little bit more forward guidance on that as we move forward just to see exactly where that is. And we're looking at some different options of what we can do there, but nothing to report at this point in time. Operator [Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of David Beard.
Q –Indented Analyst: A bunch of good questions previously, so I'll focus in on these 2-mile laterals. It just seems when I look at the cost metrics, the eyepiece, that this is a step-up in your IRRs. Just would you agree with that? Or how would you characterize just the influence on IRRs as it relates going to 2-miles? A - David Sambrooks Yes. No, no doubt that's is correct. We see kind of enhanced economic returns to these 2-miles. I mean, it's -- there's 2 components there that play into it. One, very strongly on the cost side. And clearly, on a per 1-mile basis, we're -- this is going to be as cheap as we can get. It's really good compared to the 1-mile basis. So that's a big head start and kind of economic enhancement. The other side, which, frankly, it's very early times on, so we're a little bit cautious, but so what do you get out of the wells? I mean, are you getting a full kind of 2x in terms of the type curve? Are you getting type curve that maybe it's 2x over time, but maybe you don't get a full 2x of initial rate? Those are the things that we'll have to get a little bit more data on. We didn't go into -- we went into this with a good amount of analysis around those issues. And like I stated, from 2-mile laterals in the greater Miss Lime area, we see a pre-reliable 2x on EUR. So that's good. We see probably, on average, about all the -- the data is a little more scattered on this, about a 1.5x on initial rate. And our 2 2-milers, we're just at initial rate right now. And when we compare those to the offset wells, we're kind of in that 1.5 to 2.0 range. So it kind of checkmarks on expectations so far. And yes, I mean, I think we'll do the combined cost reductions. And kind of what we're seeing on expectations on rates, it's definitely going to be or we expect it to be a step-up in economic return over the 1-milers.
Q –Indented Analyst: Good. And would you care to share or take a guess at IRRs assuming normal basis differentials for oil and gas? A - David Sambrooks If you'd give us a little more time on that, we'd really appreciate it. We think -- yes, we called these the first steps right now. And so we have -- we've obviously kind of real-time with the initial rates at our first looks at that. And that gives us confidence in the discussion just previously that we think the economics are enhanced. But it's really variable with early time. And so we don't think we can give you any reliable guidance on that. We do think with the additional work that we're going to do, that kind of by year-end, we should have enough data to be more descriptive of that. I might add that we didn't speak much about it, but the same applications on the 2-mile laterals were executing on the 1-mile laterals, where we're trying to get that cost basis down through more focused completions. So we think we'll have a collection of, call them, new-generation 1-mile and 2-mile laterals by the end of the year that should give us enough data to be a little bit more descriptive on that.
Q –Indented Analyst: Again, kind of early time, but I'll give some description around that question. I guess, maybe obviously, but our inventory that we have right now is going to be a combination of kind of 2-miles and 1-miles. I mean, the 2-mile lateral inventory's going to be a subset of our total. There's just some areas, like in the core in Tacoma that's more fully developed, where we're not going to have the lanes for 2-mile laterals. But then when you go South into our Carmen area or the western extension area that we did the initial testing in about a year ago, those areas we're going to have much more availability for the 2-mile lanes. Our view right now is we're going to be doing both as we move forward. We probably are going to, at least from our early results, have a prior organization towards 2-mile laterals. So as we build our 2019 budget, I think you'll see both in there, but I think we will be emphasizing the 2-mile laterals as much as possible.
Q –Indented Analyst: Great. That's helpful. And if I could squeeze another one in and shift subjects over to just hedging, hedging philosophy. You do have a strong balance sheet, which may be -- would mitigate the needs for hedging. Going forward, I mean, you've got your book set as it is, what is your thought to hedging out in '19 and '20, given you could argue you don't need to hedge with a strong balance sheet?
David Sambrooks\: Yes, yes. I mean, I think it's always a kind of healthy debate with our board. And the point that you made is that there are -- there's a view that we definitely have a lot of flexibility given our very clean balance sheet. I think that -- I don't think we're overly aggressive in terms of hedging. And I think of the way I always look at it is your hedge kind of more in the near term versus long term. So in terms of kind of exposure to the price market over a longer time frame, we will always have that. And I think what we're more trying to do with the hedging is kind of protect the cash flows to be able to kind of execute the program that we have for the year and kind of looking out a year. So I think we'll continue to -- I imagine that the schedule will go on with the board, but I think we'll continue to have a hedging program similar to what we do now in the go-forward.