Range Resources Reports 14% Production Increase

This article is relevant because it indicated the production potential of shale gas fields, despite what the skeptics have said. Range Resources have reported a 14% increase in production, namely from Barnett and Marcellus Shales, despite scaling back on gas drilling by HALF.

Here's the scoop:

Despite cutting drilling in half in response to a deep downturn in natural gas prices, Fort Worth-based Range Resources Corp. says its second-quarter production is up 14 percent compared to a year earlier.

The Fort Worth-based natural gas and oil exploration and production firm said it achieved the production gains primarily as a result of “better than expected drilling results” in the Barnett and Marcellus shale-gas plays, two of the nation’s primary hotbeds for drilling activity.

“Our second-quarter production and drilling results were superb,” Range Chairman and CEO John Pinkerton said in a company announcement described as an
“operations update.”

Oh well, they lost money...

Despite the strong producton numbers, Range Senior Vice President Rodney Waller said the company expects to report a net loss as a result of depressed natural gas prices and a corresponding $22 million writedown in the value of leases in the Barnett Shale.

But they're not losing gas:

Range has recorded 26 consecutive quarters of production growth, the company said. Its second-quarter production averaged the equivalent of 434 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

It is drilling in the Barnett Shale in North Texas and in the Marcellus Shale in southwestern Pennsylvania. Range has drilled and completed 46 horizontal Marcellus gas wells, of which 41 are on production.

The company estimates that 24 of the wells that have been on production for at least four months and as long as two years will yield an average of 4.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas over their producing lifetime.

- Brewskie