Jeffrey L. Ventura
Analyst · Simmons and Company
Thanks, John. Range's development of the Marcellus Shale play continues to successfully move forward on all fronts. During the third quarter, 28 wells were brought online in the Southwest part of the play. The peak 24-hour rate to sales for these wells averaged 7.1 million per day. That's comprised of approximately 4.6 million per day of gas and 420 barrels of liquids per day. In Lycoming County, 10 wells were brought online and their peak 24-hour rates to sales averaged 9 million per day. Importantly, the infrastructure buildout continues on plan as well. In the Southwest, we currently have 390 million per day of dedicated cryogenic gas processing capacity. We also currently have access to another 100 million per day of interruptible processing capacity. Gathering and compression for the processing capacity is planned to be built to stay ahead of our needs in this area. In the dry gas area of the Southwest, we currently have 40 million per day of gas gathering and compression capacity, which is on track to be expanded to 80 million per day by year end. In Lycoming County, we currently have 90 million per day of gathering capacity with plans to increase that capacity to 150 million per day by year end. Additional compression will be added as needed. For Southwest Pennsylvania, we currently have commitments for over 420 million per day to transport natural gas to market either with Range-owned firm transportation or firm sales arrangements with customers who hold firm transportation. Transportation commitments in the Southwest are planned increase to 550 million per day during 2012 to accommodate the expected increase in production from the region. In the Northeast, along the Transco-Leidy transmission line, we currently have commitments of 80 million per day, increasing to 100 million per day during 2012 in the form of firm sales arrangements with customers owning existing firm sales transportation on Transco and storage at Leidy. We believe that our existing firm sales arrangements both in the Southwest and Northeast can further be increased as we demonstrate that additional production volumes are available. For the third quarter, Range's bases in the Southwest area of the Marcellus continue to be flat to a positive $0.08 per Mcf range, above the NYMEX Henry Hub index price. In the Northeast, along the Transco-Leidy transmission system, our bases for the third quarter continue to be in the positive $0.10 to 15% range above the NYMEX Henry Hub index price. Range has ramped up volumes in the play from $100 million per day net exit rate in 2009 to 200 million per day net exit rate in 2010, and we're currently on plan to exit 2011 at 400 million per day net. We're currently growing volumes, and as Roger has just mentioned, we're driving down our unit costs. At the same time, our marketing team is doing an excellent job of not only selling our gas but doing so at good relative prices. The achievements above are the result of having a really talented technical team that works well together and being the first mover in the play combined with long-term vision and planning. Said another way, it's a culmination of analyzing data, acting quickly and handling ourselves and business in a way that would make our parents proud. Specifically, having our operations and marketing groups work well together early on in the play has resulted in Range being able to receive higher sales prices due to the following accomplishments. Early on, we worked with MarkWest, who is already the largest liquid company in the basin. This allowed us to fill existing capacity that they had at Salem, Kentucky and also to build new infrastructure and capacity. Early on, we obtained necessary gas quality waivers from pipelines to delay taking ethane out of the gas until market could be developed. The first ethane project is now moving forward and others will follow. We realized that the Marcellus was a different animal in size early on and contracted for key capacity on pipes at lower rates than was currently available. We were also able to negotiate long-term sales contracts with key capacity holders on the system at terms that were favorable to both parties. Importantly, we started in Southwest Pennsylvania because we knew there was a better market and more pipeline capacity, especially in the summertime, and we also realized that liquids were very valuable. Lastly, we had a philosophy of more than one sales meter into diversion interstate pipelines or local markets, which allows us to move gas around to maximize flow in price. Being first in the play and believing in it quickly allowed us to execute deals early on before others could get to their feet under them. Let me give a little more technical detail about the Marcellus before moving on to another division. In the Northeast portion of the play, we brought online our first 5 horizontal wells in the first quarter of this year. On the second quarter call, I said that our average estimated ultimate recovery for those 5 wells is 6 Bcf. The average lateral length of the wells is 2,573 feet with a 9 stage frac. Those wells are performing better than expected, and our currently estimate for those 5 wells has been revised upward to 6.5 Bcf per well. For the first 5 wells, that's very encouraging. Looking at the EURs on a per lateral length or per stage basis, these are outstanding wells. We're running our own analysis of various lateral lengths and frac stages, and we're also looking at the results of other operators. Currently, we're completing a 4,500 foot lateral with 15 stages in Lycoming County. By year end, we plan on drilling a 5,000 foot lateral there. In the Southwest wet area, we have frac-ed a 3,950 foot lateral with 20 stages and 2 wells that each had 22 frac stages and 3,350 foot laterals. Most likely, we'll discuss all 5 wells during the fourth quarter conference call, since by then, we should have longer-term production results for this group of wells. In the Upper Devonian, we'll be spudding our third well into this formation beginning early in the second quarter of 2012. This well will target the wet gas portion of the play and will be drilled into the area with what we expect to be the highest combined gas and liquids content in place. In terms of liquids content, we expect the Upper Devonian will be like the Marcellus Shale. Where the Marcellus is wet, the Upper Devonian should be wet. Where the Marcellus is dry, the Upper Devonian should be dry. I also want to point out that the first 2 wells continue to perform well. In the Utica Shale, we'll spud our next well in the second quarter of 2012. Industry has drilled and will be drilling several Utica wells. Results of some of these wells will help us to delineate Range's acreage. A lot of our acreage is perspective for both the Upper Devonian and Utica shale. We hold all depth rights on our fairway acreage, so as we focus on driving up reserves and production in the low-risk highly economic Marcellus play, we'll hold the Upper Devonian and Utica potential both above and below the Marcellus. As we better understand the other 2 horizons with time, we'll then determine the optimum plan for each horizon. Moving over to the Midcontinent Division, I'll start with the discussion of our horizontal Mississippian play. To date, excluding one very short lateral, we have drilled and completed 8 horizontal wells with an average lateral length of 2,197 feet with 12 frac stages. Our current average estimated ultimate recovery for these wells is 485,000 barrels of oil equivalent. We now have 105,000 net acres in the play, which equates to approximately 2,000 potential well locations. If we keep drilling with roughly 2,000 foot laterals, we believe it will take 12 wells per section to develop the reserves. That equates to a little over 50 acre spacing. Assuming that the average recovery of 485,000 barrel holds, that's a recovery factor of 4% to 9% of the oil in place. I believe that to compare the estimate of ultimate recovery per well between operators or between areas, you have to attempt to factor in the lateral length and frac stages to get somewhat of an apples-to-apples comparison. We will observe how longer laterals are doing in other areas and what the costs are to drill and complete those types of wells. We also tried different lateral lengths and different types of completion ourselves. We'll be seeking the solution that generates the best project economics, not the highest IP or best ultimate recovery. If the optimum lateral length is longer, say, 4,000 feet instead of 2,000 feet, then the number of wells per section would most likely decrease from 12 to 6, and the spacing per well would increase from over 50 acres to over 100 acres per well. Of course, the advantage of this play, like the Marcellus, is that there's a lot of hydrocarbon in place. Given the strong technical team that we have, coupled with industry's track record of driving up the recovery factor with time, I believe that's what we'll see happen here as well. Typically, the higher recovery factor comes from down spacing and better completions. Up in the Texas Panhandle, we had excellent success with our first horizontal St. Louis well. It came online at 13.8 million per day and 903 barrels of liquids or the equivalent of about 19.2 million cubic feet equivalent per day. After producing for about 9 months, it's still making about 11.2 million per day and 694 barrels of liquids or 15.4 million cubic feet equivalent per day or 4.7 million net. So far, this well has produced 3.3 Bcf of gas, 138,000 barrels of NGLs and 76,000 barrels of condensate. The payout was within weeks. Since then, we've completed 2 more wells for a combined rate of 24.4 million per day of gas and 1,394 barrels of liquids per day or 28.8 million per day gross or 13.1 million per day net. We'll be drilling 2 additional horizontal St. Louis wells this year and have identified other prospects, which we plan to drill in 2012. To summarize, operationally, I think the team is getting the right kind of results. They're driving up production and reserves while driving down costs. We're continuing to build new infrastructure, gathering and compression for each new pad, so there's still a lot of efforts to get every new 10 million per day on production. Therefore, timing and logistics are still critical factors in the growing production. However, we're learning how to resolve those issues and accelerate our development plans. We're continuing to work on our plans for 2012, which we'll submit to our Board of Directors in December. I believe our shareholders will like what we're planning for 2012. At this point, I'll turn the call back over to John. I'll be happy to answer your questions in the Q&A.