Range Resources’ Jeff Ventura and Cabot’s Scott Schroeder talk operations
EnerCom’s 22nd Annual Oil & Gas Conference kicked off today with presentations from Marcellus leaders, with executives from Range Resources (ticker: RRC) and Cabot Oil & Gas (ticker: COG) speaking to investors.
Range Resources Chairman, President and CEO Jeff Ventura opened the day by outlining the company’s Marcellus and Louisiana operations. “The Marcellus Shale is the engine of the company,” Ventura remarked. Range Resources has been active in the Marcellus since 2004, when the company drilled the first vertical successful well in the formation. Since then, the company has been active throughout the Marcellus.
Range recently drilled successful wells at the extreme ends of its acreage in the Marcellus, proving the strength of its acreage throughout the play. In addition, Range still has a significant amount of drilling locations available. Ventura reported that the company has 124 pads with five wells each, and another 59 pads with 6-9 wells. Most of these pads can accommodate about 20 wells, with potential targets in multiple zones.
Doing more stages with fewer crews
Cabot executive Vice President and CFO Scott Schroeder commented on the rates of improvement in the company’s operations. The commodity price downturn forced many companies to rapidly improve their operations in an effort to stay profitable, and efficiency improvements abounded. Now, companies have to continue to improve beyond the current levels of effectiveness. Cabot is now “looking for singles and doubles, not home runs,” Schroeder remarked.
However, the company has still managed to make big improvements. Several years ago, the Cabot would often complete about 400 stages per quarter, which would typically take two or three completions crews to accomplish. During Q2 2017, Schroeder reported, Cabot completed about 700 stages using only one completions crew, illustrating just how far the company has come in improving operations.
Both companies are continuing to improve differentials as pipeline capacity expands. For Cabot, Schroeder mentioned that Cabot will increase its takeaway capacity by 85% in the next two years, and Ventura reported similar expansion. Overall, both companies began The Oil & Gas Conference ® 22 on a strong note, with modern technologies and techniques driving good results even in a time of trying commodity prices.
