Here are the highlights from Encana's earnings call yesterday. Their comments are very positive with regards to the current status and future of the play.
Douglas James Suttles - Chief Executive Officer, President
and Director
We are also putting new emphasis on our portfolio of
emerging liquids plays. We are taking a rigorous and measured approach to
funding these plays, evaluating each of our positions against their commercial
potential, scale, and ultimately, their strategic fit. We are closely
monitoring key performance parameters such as well cost, flow rate and ultimate
recoveries against very specific targets. Of note, we continue to be encouraged
by our Duvernay results and the early results in the TMS.
Greg M. Pardy - RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division
Okay. And maybe just the last one. Doug, you touched on the
TMS and the Duvernay. I know it's still earlier stages with both those plays.
But is there any color you, or Jeff rather, could just add on, on progress on
those plays right now?
Douglas James Suttles - Chief Executive Officer, President
and Director
Yes. Greg, let me ask Mike and Jeff. Maybe Mike cover the
Duvernay, then Jeff will cover the TMS.
Jeff E. Wojahn - Executive Vice President and President of
USA Division
Greg, it's Jeff. The TMS has performed very well in the last
quarter. We've had a number of significant events that have occurred in the
quarter. I think one of the key drivers for us is to look at our drilling
performance and our overall cost performance. In the last 3 wells, we have, by
and large, met -- hit our targets, our target cost projections for the play,
normalized for completion intensity. So that's very good news, and that was something
that we struggled with in the past. One other item I should add on the TMS as
well is that we have 2 wells, Anderson 17-1, Anderson 17-2 that are currently
being completed and being brought on stream. And we'll have results coming up
soon. And obviously, there's industry activity going on right now, and we've
been monitoring that closely as well. One event that occurred to TMS this year
that was very significant for us, that I may remind everyone on is House Bill
1698 that was passed by the Mississippi State House and Senate. And that was a
reduction from 6% to 1.3% on the severance tax. And that equates to about a
$700,000 savings per well. So the short on the TMS is things are progressing
well. We're feeling much more confident on our ability to execute on our cost
structures. We have a line of sight to our long-term projection of $12.8
million, and we feel the upcoming 2 Anderson wells are really going to be
indicative of the future of the play.
Jeff E. Wojahn - Executive Vice President and President of
USA Division
Sure. Current production is about around 14,000 barrels a
day on oil, 9.1 thousand on NGLs. And our growth is really widespread. You're
going to see growth in our NGLs and condensate in the Piceance Basin and Jonah.
And to a lesser extent, you'll see growth coming from some of our emerging
plays, like the San Juan, Eaglebine and TMS. But it's really broad based and
primarily coming from, what we call, our base commercial assets.
John P. Herrlin - Societe Generale Cross Asset Research
Great. And then just the last question for me, I was hoping
to get an update on how you guys are thinking about the Eaglebine, the well
results you've seen so far, maybe a little update on the EURs? And then I guess
my second question would just be on the TMS. I know you talked about the
initial well results being encouraging. I was hoping to get maybe a little bit
more color on how those results are tracking versus your expected EURs in the
play given some of the longer production data you have?
Douglas James Suttles - Chief Executive Officer, President
and Director
On the TMS, I think as Jeff described earlier, there were 2
important elements to that program this year. One is to demonstrate that we
could drive our cost down fairly substantially, and the good news is in our
most recent wells, we're proving that we can. The latest 2 wells, which have a
new frac design, are literally just starting up right now, and so we'll share
that as those results become available.
Brian Singer - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division
Great. And my follow-up, Doug, and I followed up to, I
think, an earlier question that Bob Brackett had asked. What is the importance
of increasing oil in the production mix strategically, and what is the level of
confidence that there is sufficient organic opportunities within the portfolio
to make that happen?
Douglas James Suttles - Chief Executive Officer, President
and Director
Brian, I think that -- this is one of the questions we're
asking in the strategy, is I think that as over the last couple of years, the
company has tried to increase the amount of liquids in its portfolio. But it's
one of the questions we're going back to as we look at strategy and where does
that fit. I think as you've heard, we have a couple of opportunities that are
emerging in our portfolio, which do have real scale potential in them if we can
demonstrate the right sort of economic performance. And that's, in particular,
the Duvernay and the TMS because we have very large acreage positions there.
Some of our other positions are more modest as you recently heard Jeff
described in the DJ Basin. This will be one of the things we address in the
strategy is what role liquids play and if we believe they play an important
role in the future, what would be the plan to actually make that happen.
Your next question comes from the line of David Snow with
Energy Equities, Inc.
David Snow
I'm wondering about the, I think, you said $12.9 million
long-term TMS well cost. Evidently, you've gone away from those TMS 90 and TMS
150 super fracs to a somewhat less-intensive frac. And I guess that you're
starting to look at successfully doing wells above the rubble zone. And I'm
wondering if that combination doesn't lower the cost of your target just a
little bit.
Jeff E. Wojahn - Executive Vice President and President of
USA Division
There's a lot of parts to your question. This is Jeff Wojahn,
I'll try to answer some of those questions. We have made a significant amount
of technical improvement or understanding of the reservoir. One of the trials
that we did this year was to try out slick water frac-ing technology versus a
hybridized gel program. And we've come to -- and this is a good thing. We've
come to the conclusion that the way to go forward on the play is through hybrid
gel jobs. So we have used the terminology, TMS 150 or 90, and that represented
the amount of pounds of sand that we were using in our trials. Generally, we
are continuing with the same level of sand intensity regardless of whether it's
hybrid gel or slick water. Really, the slick water and hybrid gel component are
related to the transfer mechanism rather than the amount of sand that we put in
the wellbore. And we continue with those trials today. In regards to the
placement of the well, what we have observed is it's a very important not to
drill into the rubble zone because that's where we have lost circulation issues.
By and large, as we increase the intensity of our fracture stimulation program,
we feel that we create more stimulated rock volume, and ultimately, treat the
entire pay zone more effectively. In regards to the above the rubble zone or
below the rubble zone, I think we're gathering information on both. But what
I've seen relative to the micro seismic information and what the teams believe
relative to their modeling, work is that we really are affecting -- effectively
stimulating the entire interval. So we're making good progress technically on
where we're going, and I think we're headed down the right path.
The entire transcript:
Legendary geologist, George Mitchell, passed away at 94 years old. Not only did he pioneer the "unconventional reservoir" horizontal-fracking boom, but he also exhibited a great "gut feel" for the real estate business. Having been a resident of his development, The Woodlands, for 15 years, I can say that he was a man of great vision. It went well beyond the oil patch. His investment and revitalization of Galveston Island has been significant. The country and the oil industry will be indebted to him for many years to come.
