Floyd C. Wilson
Analyst · Stephens
Good morning, everyone. This conference call contains forward-looking statements. For a detailed description of our disclaimer, see our earnings release issued yesterday and posted on our website. So our second quarter results were an indication of enhancements achieved in every area of the company. Our 3 main plays: the Williston Basin, the El Halcón in East Texas, TMS are all moving ahead. All of our production is coming out of the Williston Basin and El Halcón at this time. So second quarter of '14 production of over 42,000 barrels a day equivalent was a record, despite selling 3,700 barrel a day of equivalent in May. This is 15% quarter-over-quarter growth. We have -- company-wide we've got 14 operated wells being completed or waiting on completion and probably 3x as many non-op wells as that. We're running 8 rigs right now, 3 in the Williston, 3 in East Texas, El Halcón and 2 in the TMS. A few couple of comments about each area. The Middle Bakken and the Three Forks in the Williston Basin had an outstanding quarter. Congratulations to John Wright and his great staff for that. Production grew 87% for that business unit year-over-year, and 22% quarter-over-quarter. We're in an average of 4 rigs during the second quarter, but we recently dropped a rig due to efficiency gains. We're drilling the wells more quickly so we're getting just as many wells completed with fewer rigs. We continue to make progress towards solving for even more efficiencies. Some of those are having to do with pad drilling, simultaneous operations and a few completion tweaks. On average, the 18 wells we put online, and they were all in the Fort Berthold area during the second quarter, are outperforming our 801,000 barrel of oil equivalent type curve. Currently, we're focused on continued improvements and improving economics by lowering completed well costs but without impacting production rates in EURs. Downspacing test have yielded really interesting results and positive. Based on our own work and looking at our own acreage, our current development plans are to proceeded with spacing wells at either 660 feet or 880 feet apart depending on where that well lies within the basin. In summary, the Williston Basin continues to improve. Our assets there and staff are performing outrageously well. El Halcón in East Texas, the Eagle Ford of East Texas, a great quarter for the staff. Thanks to Nick Koch and his great staff for that -- production grew over 450% year-over-year and 30% quarter-to-quarter. Progressively, the wells are getting better every single quarter. The wells put on line during the second quarter are performing in line with expectations, but are outperforming the wells in the first quarter. And the wells that we've drilled so far and completed so for in the third quarter, outperforming those in the second quarter. So results continue to improve, and all the wells we've put on this quarter are outperforming our 452,000 barrels of oil equivalent type curve. A couple of data points on IPs. IP rates for wells put online in 2Q were -- was 804 barrels a day, better than the average IP of the wells put on in one -- first quarter. Average 30-day IPs for wells from the second quarter was 620 barrel of oil equivalent per day, also a large improvement compared to first quarter. We're still working -- changes and variations and enhancements and looking for inefficiencies. We are doing very little pad drilling here. We're not doing any spacing test right now. We're capturing leases and making sure that we have idle work accomplished, so that we can continue to drill. Title in East Texas is difficult. We're testing increasing stage link, tighter per cluster spacing, increasing the percentage of resin-coated sand relative to total profit. We're using different surfactants and then starting installing large bore frac plugs during the completion. Several artificial lift modifications continue to be tested and evaluated. And we continue to find -- to work to find the most economic completed lateral length. A lot of the length of laterals in East Texas often depends on the shape of leases. Our target is 7,500 to 8,000 feet if the lease shape allows. Oftentimes, we have hundreds of leases under one drilling unit. We have several wells that are drilling at 9,000 feet and we have a few that are drilling less, but our target is 7,500 to 8,000 feet if the lease shape allows. Interestingly, industry activity has really ramped up in this area. And currently, there are nearly 20 rigs drilling in the play. Our entire 100,000 net acre position has been de-risked in our estimation, and we believe our El Halcón potential is second to none in the area. Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, of course, is on everybody's radar screen these days. We're running 2 rigs in the play. And with continued progress and success, our rig count could easily double early next year. Economics are expected to improve over time as they have in every other resource play in the United States. We believe the quick win -- we believe we can reduce the number of drilling days by 15% to 20% on average throughout the remainder of this year. We understand that other operators expect to increase rig counts and all this leads to a lot more information in the field. If you think about the play, I guess there's been about 50 wells drilled so far. The first large number of those were not so good. A few good ones in there. The last 10 wells drilled in the play has been mostly good wells, so it's a traditional learning curve situation that's going on there and we're pretty happy to be there. We are working interest partner in several wells that are performing to expectations and give us added confidence that the industry as a whole has continued and will continue to make progress in this play. Specifically, the average IP rate of the producing non-op wells that are near us, that we have an interest in, has been about 1,100 barrels of oil a day, not including gas. Include gas as over 1,300 barrel of oil equivalent. So it's an early stage play and, as I said, we're very happy to be there. Our field services unit continues to work on several initiatives they have the potential to improve, realize prices and margins in all of our plays. Our first compression natural gas facility is expected to be in service by end of this quarter at El Halcón. We'll use CNG to displace diesel fuel. This isn't only green but is also could result in a nearly 50% savings on fuel cost in frac-ed jobs and with drilling rigs. We expect to build similar facilities and service operations at the Williston Basin and in the TMS next year. HFS continues to provide low pressure gathering services in El Halcón and plans to support the TMS by building a 3-phase gathering system in centralized gathering facilities located throughout the play where we have clusters of wells. Centralized aggregation points are expected to reduce the overall cost of facilities and allow for more efficient transportation of both crude oil natural gas and produced water. Our central facilities will be located with access to one or more gas pipelines as well. The system design and layout are both substantially complete, and we plan to begin permitting for a processing plant at our facilities during this quarter. We also continue to develop a crude oil handling facility at the Port of Natchez in Mississippi. This is in the planning stage. That will be a facility capable of handling truck and pipe offloading from the TMS. And to market the crude via barge on Mississippi River or by rail. We're working on that as we speak as well. Mark Mize will now through our financial results.