Whiting Petroleum presents at EnerCom’s The Oil & Gas Conference®
During Whiting’s breakout sessions, management was asked the following questions:
- For a well with high cumulative production in the first 90 days what is the average sand loading? Change in sand loading? How long does it take for changing sand loads to make their way into financial results?
- How much water is being used in current completions?
- What is spud to spud time?
- How does faster drilling impact the DUC’s, especially going into 2017?
- Would you do another JV in Niobrara similar to the one done in the Bakken?
- Can you speak to efforts to manage LOE’s on royalty trust properties?
- Do you plan to work on reservoir engineering and pressure management?
- Are there pressure declines from infill drilling in the Bakken?
- Are the Bakken differentials decreasing?
- Should there be asset sales expected in the rest of 2016 and 2017?
- When you think about past debt decisions, how will that thinking change in the future? How does the maturity of the play matter for the amount of debt you are willing to take on?
- What is the strategy behind the last debt to stock conversion?
- Why did private trade backs of high yield bonds, last week, occur below the share price?
You can listen to Whiting’s presentation by clicking here.
For the company’s second quarter results, click here.
Whiting is an independent oil and gas company engaged in development, production, acquisition and exploration activities primarily in the Rocky Mountains region of the United States. Since 2006, it has increased its focus on organic drilling activity and on the development of previously acquired properties. The company’s focus is on projects that expected to provide the opportunity for repeatable success and production growth, while selectively pursuing acquisitions that complement our existing core properties.
The company continues to focus on capital efficiencies as production flattens. Q2 capex reached $79.4 million, 70% less than the first quarter, while discretionary cash flow exceeded capex by $72.2 million. Capital spending has been significantly reduced as a result of sustained lower crude oil prices in 2015 and the first half of 2016; the focus is now on drilling projects that provide the highest rate of return.
Whiting hopes to position itself for a recovery in oil prices by selling its higher LOE per BOE—more expensive—operations, and focusing on the Niobrara and Williston Basins. The company’s Williston Basin assets in particular continue to perform well, with Whiting reporting wells tracking at 900 MBOE EURs after 200 days. The company plans on completing 16 more wells in the Williston in the second half of the year.
Whiting is currently and continually evaluating its property portfolio and selling properties for which either the sales price realized will provide an above average rate of return for the property or when the property no longer matches the company profile (non-core assets). For example, the $300 million sale of the North Ward Estes field in July 2016 which included the producing properties and associated C02 properties and commitments.
The company also continues to strengthen its balance sheet as well. Whiting exchanged $1.6 billion of notes for new convertible notes, effectively decreasing debt by $810 million, according to the company’s presentation. Whiting’s reported liquidity was $1.8 billion as of its Q2 report.
