Leslie’s Notebook

Here are some shale sound bites from the 36th annual Howard Weil energy investment conference in New Orleans, held in early April.

Barnett shale “In the Barnett, our goal is to have our wells onstream in just two days. Our midstream division is an asset that has clear value and I don’t know of anyone with this kind of advantage.

“This month (April) we’ll reach 1 Bcf a day net to our interest in the Barnett. I don’t understand companies that report gross production numbers–I wouldn’t brag about what I’m producing for someone else. Net to Devon we have 18 Tcf on a risked basis. We have 7,500 risked undrilled locations and a 13-year inventory. We think we can get to 1.6- or 2 Bcfe a day. This is a heck of a reservoir.” Larry Nichols, Chairman and CEO, Devon Energy

New Albany shale “The New Albany in southwest Indiana is encouraging, but we have to test it by moving around on our acreage. We plan up to 20 wells there in 2008 and we anticipate EURs [estimated ultimate recoveries] of 1 Bcf per well.” Chuck Davidson, CEO, Noble Energy

Horizontal drilling “I believe we are now undergoing a sea change in the onshore E&P business that makes it quite possible to tap huge oil and gas accumulations with horizontal drilling, compared to what we could do five years ago. This is the most significant thing I’ve seen in my career. A lot of these hydrocarbons are in crummy rock. We realized this was changing about three years ago…this is going to go to Canada next and ultimately, worldwide. We are an industry leader in identifying unconventional reservoirs amenable to horizontal drilling. We have found seven of these…” Mark Papa, chairman and CEO, EOG Resources 

Marcellus shale “The Appalachian Basin will develop slower than the rapid leasing going on there, due to its topography and the lack of infrastructure…so I don’t think we’re in danger of swamping the U.S. with gas…” Aubrey McClendon, chairman and CEO, Chesapeake Energy Corp.

Haynesville, Huron and Marcellus shales “We have 10 or 15 people competing on acreage in the Marcellus shale but it is clear that Range Resources is ahead of everybody else. I wish Range had not come out of the closet with it because the price of poker went up, and Chesapeake went crazy up there.  We have about 120,000 acres in the Huron shale also..The third big play everybody is talking about is the Haynesville. We’ve been in there since 1998..we’ve got 350,000 acres…we think the neighborhood is messed up since Aubrey hit the tape. They must have figured out cloning, because there are 8 Aubreys running around the country–he is always everywhere we want to be.” Doug Miller, chairman and CEO, Exco Resources

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