Noble Energy (NBL) reported earnings for the second quarter of 2010 and discussed its activities in the Niobrara Shale during the quarterly conference call held on July 29, 2010.
Noble Energy is drilling laterals from 4000 to 4500 feet, and utilizing 14 to 16 stage hydraulic fracturing stages on the wells. The company indicated that wells costs are approximately $3.5 million per well.
“Some of these more recent wells have much higher liquid contents than what we have seen earlier… wells with the higher liquid content, gives you a little different producing mechanism where you don't have the gas to lift it, so we will have to go in on some of these areas and put artificial lift on some of these fields. So that will spread out some of the timing of the decline understanding.”
“I think by the end of this year we will have 15 to 20 horizontal wells in Wattenberg, we will have six or seven in this Grover area that's kind of northeast of Wattenberg and we will have three in southern Wyoming.”
