Current PQ Stock Info

PetroQuest Energy, Inc. (ticker: PQ) reported a net loss to common stockholders for Q4 2017 of $389,000, or $(0.02 per) share. This compares to Q4 2016 net loss to common stockholders of $9,659,000, or $(0.46) per share.

For 2017, the company reported a net loss to common stockholders of $11,776,000, or $(0.55) per share, compared to net loss to common shareholders of $96,245,000, or $(5.24) per share, for 2016.

Taxes

Production taxes for Q4 2017 totaled $1,312,000, as compared to $(255,000) in the fourth quarter of 2016. For 2017, production taxes were $3,302,000, as compared to $354,000 for 2016.

Production taxes during 2016 included $1,292,000 of production tax refunds on certain East Texas wells that qualified for a gas tax credit. In addition, the two-year severance tax exemption on the Thunder Bayou well expired in June 2017.

Production

In Q4 2017, PetroQuest produced 168,327 Bbls of oil, ~6.4 MMcf of gas and ~1.2 MMcfe of NGLs – total production was ~8.6 MMcfe. Daily production was 93.3 MMcfe for the quarter. Oil and gas sales during Q4 2017 were approximately $35 million.

PetroQuest Energy Cuts Loss to $0.02 for Q4

PetroQuest Reserves and Production, Feb. 2018

For 2017, the company produced 591,558 Bbls of oil, ~19.6 MMcf of gas and ~4.5 MMcfe of NGLs – total production was ~27.6 MMcfe. Daily production was 75.7 MMcfe for the year. In 2017, oil and gas sales increased 62% to $108,287,000, as compared to $66,667,000 for 2016.

Q1 2018 guidance

The company forecasts production volumes of 64-68 MMcfe/d in Q1 2018, composed of 76% gas, 9% oil and 15% NGLs. The company expects to provide its 2018 capital expenditures guidance in conjunction with its first quarter 2018 earnings release.

“Our fourth quarter 2017 results represent the culmination of a tremendous year as we accomplished numerous corporate goals, including nearly doubling our fourth quarter 2016 production rate and growing our proved reserves and PV-10 by 35% and 89%, respectively,” said Charles T. Goodson, chairman, CEO and president of PetroQuest.

“In addition, we established a 25,000 gross acre position in an area that we believe will ultimately be determined to be in the core of the Louisiana Austin Chalk oil trend. Our current plans call for us to spud our initial horizontal Austin Chalk well during the second quarter of 2018 and we are continuing to evaluate various joint venture structures in connection with our 2018 Cotton Valley development plan.”

PetroQuest Energy Cuts Loss to $0.02 for Q4

PetroQuest Austin Chalk, Feb. 2018

PetroQuest Energy Cuts Loss to $0.02 for Q4

PetroQuest Cotton Valley, Feb. 2018

Conference call Q&A excerpts

Q: Just in East Texas, absent a capital outlook provided, what should we think about activities there in terms of drilling and completion and as you think about your acreage position would most of that still be focused on your 100% acreage on the eastern side of your position?

CFO James Bond Clement: Likely most of the drilling in 2018 as we look at now is going to occur on the what we call the JV acreage which is currently owned 75% by PQ. As Charlie mentioned, our initial JV they completed the fourth and final buy-in payments so that they’ve now earned their interest in that yellow acreage.

In terms of timing, it’s hard to say right now we feel like we’ll have a lot more clarity as we get closer to 1Q earnings which will be sometime in early May. Obviously, we’re working as fast as we can. I think the GOM sale certainly slowed down our effort as we had to kind of refocus on getting that one across the goal line, but we’re moving as fast as we can to get rig back out in the field.

CEO Charles T. Goodson: And to answer your question, there are really – there are two points of development. One, the 100% acreage which is right now we feel like we have an additional 92 locations targeted there…

Q: So additionally, on the Cotton Valley, you are going to defer your CapEx announcement as you mentioned, I guess could you give some color on what options are being considered I would guess DrillCo, or farm-outs, if you want to tell us a little bit more about that?

Goodson: I think I described kind of it at the end of the first quarter, we finished the partners buy-in for the joint venture number one and that kind of put us in a position to then establish through our partners where they all participated and we’re talking little about. moving a rig back in along with, as we’ve said along, we would like to put a second joint venture in place and we have had significant discussions and that’s really all we want to say at this point of time because we’re currently discussing with the people.

And there seem to be a lot of interest. And because it is also a tax-driven return because of the joint venture and where we’re allocating all of our intangibles to those. So it’s a – it takes a while to sit down with people and explain how this thing is structured but returns have basically generated a lot of interest.

Q: On the Austin Chalk, really on the cost side here. I was curious where the well costs were on that first EOG well? And then kind of with that, how confident you feel you can hit the $9 million mark that you’ve put out there. And then also if you see the potential to push those costs even lower?

Goodson: Well the cost on the EOG well is what we reported in. Through completion of well, it was approximately $12.5 million, but it was a result of I think vertical well drilled, in core and then basically come back inside… and basically kicking the well along lateral and it’s going to frac. So it was a, it was a – there was a lot going on with that well in the first well.

We’ve – our team doing extremely good in Woodford Shale, drilling 167 wells up there and driving cost down. You saw – you heard the results of our Cotton Valley wells, latest wells were $900 per lateral foot drilled, drilling completed. Our team has had a lot of experience in this area, having drilled some 50 wells with prior employment of companies, through the Chalk into lower Tuscaloosa in this area.

And we have a lot of intellectual capital sitting in our company and we drilled a lot of wells on paper with – I’m looking at all the well results that were drilled and we’re comfortable that that we can bring our first well in, in approximately $9 million and then as we stated, we think that eventually cost of these wells because it’s fairly easy drilling down to the Austin Chalk and laterals should fall in line fairly well and we can drill these wells for $6.5 million to $7.5 million over time.

In the current commodity price environment, based on a frac that along the lines of what EOG did on Eagles Ranch Well, well the time will determine if that size frac is sufficient or is it necessary to reduce that. That’s the comment.


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