Niobrara Shale

Noble Energy - Niobrara Shale Q3 2010 Conference Call Comments - Part Two

Noble Energy (NBL) held a conference call on October 28, 2010, to discuss earnings and other information for the third quarter of 2010.  The company made extensive comments on its activities in the Niobrara Shale, where the company has assembled a position of more than 830,000 net acres.

Rig Count

“We are operating six vertical rigs at Wattenberg and our Niobrara horizontal rig count has grow to three, with two rigs currently in Wattenberg and one on our Southeastern Wyoming acreage…Based on our results today and encouragement about the play, we currently plan to add a fourth horizontal rig in the second quarter next year and a fifth in the third quarter.

Acreage

“Our net acreage in the basin is now over 830,000, an increase of 80,000 acres since June with the majority of the additions coming from areas outside of Wattenberg.”

Drilling Activity

“Our plan is to have us doubling our horizontal Niobrara drilling activity next year. We will also continue acquiring 3D seismic adding another 1,000 square miles to the 300 we expect to have by the end of this year.”

“So far this year, we have drilled 15 wells in Wattenberg, two in core and 13 tests in the northern and eastern edges of the field. Recent horizontal well results in Wattenberg continue to be encouraging with the last 11wells having initial 24 hour rates between 550 and 850 barrels of oil equivalent per day with high oil content.”

“Some of the wells drilled on the edges of the field have been in areas we would consider marginally economic for vertical well development making areas that previously didn’t work now by viable with current technology.”

“In total, we’re still planning to have about 30 horizontal Niobrara wells drilled in the Basin this year; around 21 in Wattenberg, about six in Northern Colorado and three in Southeast Wyoming.”

EUR’s

“As we continue to obtain more production history, estimated ultimate recoveries are tracking on average with our 290,000 barrel of oil equivalents scenario. In total, we have 15 horizontal wells on production in Wattenberg including the three wells that were drilled in 2009.”

“Our teams continue to improve drill times highlighted by recent wells with a spud to TD in less than 15 days. On the completion side, while lateral lengths range from 3,300 to 5,100 feet, the number of frac stages per well has increased to 18 to 20 stages.”

Gemini Well

“We recently moved one of the horizontal rigs back into the core area of Wattenberg, a few miles from our Gemini well where we will be further testing recovery in the more vertically developed portion of the field…Gemini has now produced over 160,000 barrels of oil equivalent in just seven months and is still producing over 400 barrels of oil equivalent per day with liquids representing 30% to 40% of the volume.”

Source

 

Noble Energy - Niobrara Shale Q3 2010 Conference Call Comments - Part One

Noble Energy (NBL) held a conference call on October 28, 2010, to discuss earnings and other information for the third quarter of 2010.  The company made extensive comments on its activities in the Niobrara Shale, where the company is one of the leaders in developing this liquids rich play. Noble Energy has built up its acreage in four separate areas in the Niobrara Shale.

Project Areas

“We view the horizontal Niobrara program in four distinct parts. First off is the core Wattenberg where a substantial amount of vertical development have taken place over the years and we’re now identifying locations for additional horizontal wells. The horizontal potential in the Wattenberg core was highlighted earlier this year by our Gemini well success and we expect to drill more Gemini type wells by the end of the year.”

“The second area is on the Northern and Eastern edges of Wattenberg where we’re focusing on expanding the economic limits of the field. A large portion of our horizontal drilling to-date has been in this area and we’ve been encouraged by flow rates with liquid contributions north of 70%.”

“Third is our position in Northern Colorado from the edges of Wattenberg basically up to the Wyoming border and the fourth area is our acreage in Southeastern Wyoming and Northwest, Weld County, Colorado. Overall, we should be adding two horizontal rigs to the DJ Basin next year and we expect to drill more than double the number of horizontal wells in 2011 than we will drill this year.”

Grover

“In our third Niobrara Shale focus area, Northern Colorado, we have drilled and completed four wells around the Grover area. The first two wells we’re targeting quiet areas identified on the 3D where we are testing metrics contribution. Despite the lack of natural fractures, initial 24-hour rates were 500 to 600 barrels of oil equivalent per day with around 85% oil contribution.”

“Our third and fourth wells were a few miles to the east in an area with more natural fractures. They were recently completed and are cleaning up after stimulation.

"In the fourth area of focus in Southeast Wyoming, we are now drilling our second of three wells, combining 3D seismic data with core and log information gained from vertical monitoring wells, all of which will help in evaluating this portion of the play. The first horizontal well was fracture-stimulated this week.”

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Noble Energy - Niobrara Shale - Conference Call Comments - Part One

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. The company has two rigs operating and has drilled a dozen horizontal wells, most of which have a high liquids content.

“In our horizontal Niobrara program, we now have two rigs drilling in the central DJ basin, both currently in the Wattenberg field…So far we have drilled 10 horizontal Niobrara wells in Wattenberg and two in the Grover area about 20 miles northeast of Wattenberg.”

“Eight of the Wattenberg wells are now on production with two awaiting completion operations. As we continue to step out to the north and the eastern portions of the Wattenberg field, we're encouraged by the early flow back in liquid content of our new wells. Recent initial 24 hour rates have ranged from 580 to 845 barrels of oil equivalent per day with a 70% to 90% liquid content.”

“Starting in September, we expect to drill a few more wells closer to the Gemini area, around the core of the field and near existing vertical producers. The Gemini well has now produced over 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent in just four months, and is currently producing about 600 barrels of oil equivalent per day."

“In southern Wyoming, we are also bringing in an additional rig to drill three horizontal Niobrara wells starting in the third quarter. Overall, our horizontal Niobrara program is on target, with about 30 total wells drilled in the play by year end.”

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