Beach Secures Rigs for Shale Gas Plays in Cooper Basin

- Beach Secures Rigs for Shale Gas Plays in Cooper Basin

Monday, August 29, 2011
Beach Energy Ltd.

Beach has secured two Ensign rigs, Ensign#65 and Ensign#16, to drill both horizontal and vertical wells targeting its unconventional gas play in the Nappamerri Trough of the Cooper Basin. From recent drilling results, it is clear that the target zone in PEL 218 (Beach 90%) goes beyond shale and incorporates other lithologies that are also gas saturated. Beach believes, that in addition to the substantial shale gas potential, it is now dealing with an unconventional basin centered gas play.

The 2012 program for these rigs will focus on pilot horizontal production wells in both ATP 855P (Beach 40%) and PEL 218, as well as a series of vertical delineation wells in PEL 218. The program is designed to test the significant potential of the basin centered play in what is now considered a thick, continuous, multi lithology gas accumulation across the PEL 218 permit and potentially ATP 855P.
Details of the rigs and the two separate programs are as follows:

Ensign#65 (ADR1500):

• New build 1,500 horsepower rig out of Canada and the US which is expected to arrive around April 2012;
• Encompasses the latest proven technology being used for drilling horizontal wells in the Haynesville shale province in the US;
• Will be built to meet Australian standards and conditions and has the capability to drill 1,500 meter laterals from a depth of 4,000 meters; and
• Will drill the first horizontal well in ATP 855P to target shale and other lithology target zones. Upon completion of this well, the rig will commence the horizontal pilot well program in PEL218, with two pilot horizontal wells planned adjacent to Holdfast-1 and Encounter-1.

Ensign#16:

• 1,200 horsepower rig used to drill Holdfast-1 and Encounter-1, which is currently in the Officer Basin and expected to be available around January 2012;
• Will drill a series of vertical wells in PEL 218 to continue the evaluation of the continuous basin centred gas play in the permit; and
• Has the capability of drilling to 4,270 meters, with the vertical program set to increase the size of the resource in PEL 218 beyond the initial booking of 2 trillion cubic feet. This booking relates to a restricted area of 100km2 around each of Holdfast-1 and Encounter-1.

Beach Managing Director Reg Nelson said, “Beach has started to unlock a significant basin centred unconventional gas play in the Cooper Basin. These two rigs will take us a step closer to understanding the extent of the gas resource that resides within our permits. The horizontal pilot wells to be drilled by Ensign#65 will be production style wells designed to flow gas at commercial rates. Should these wells be successful we will seek to commence a pilot development program as soon as possible.”

• PEL 218 (Permian JV): Beach (90% and Operator), Adelaide Energy Ltd (10%)
• ATP 855P: Beach (40% and Operator), Icon Energy Ltd (40%) and Adelaide Energy Ltd (20%)

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Shale Plays, Foreign Investments Drive U.S. Oil & Gas M&A Value

- Shale Plays, Foreign Investments Drive U.S. Oil & Gas M&A Value

Thursday, August 11, 2011
PwC

Ongoing interest in shale acreage, deals for midstream assets and increased investments from foreign buyers in the U.S. oil and gas industry helped drive U.S. oil and gas mergers and acquisitions (M&A) value to $39 billion in the second quarter of 2011, according to PwC US.

In the second quarter of 2011, there were 51 deals with values greater than $50 million, compared to 61 announced deals totaling $41 billion in the same period last year. While the volume and value of transactions dipped slightly in the second quarter of 2011 when compared to the same period last year, average deal value for deals over $50 million jumped to $765 million in the second quarter 2011, a 14 percent increase over the same period last year when average deal value was $672 million.

"There continues to be steady M&A activity in the oil and gas sector with strong competition for prized assets, which has maintained the deal momentum throughout the first half of the year. The second half of the year has already kicked off with one mega deal announced, and we expect that deal momentum to continue," said Rick Roberge, principal in PwC's energy M&A practice. "Foreign and private equity interest in North American oil and gas assets remains very high and will likely be a driver of ongoing activity."

Foreign buyers announced 18 deals valued at over $50 million or more in the second quarter of 2011, which contributed $36.2 billion or 72 percent of total deal value, versus 27 deals valued at $24.2 billion in the same period last year.

For deals valued at over $50 million, there were 11 midstream deals that accounted for $19.9 billion, or 51 percent of total deal value, compared to six deals worth $3.4 billion in the same period last year. Transactions in the upstream space led all oil and gas subsectors with 26 deals, or 51 percent of volume in the second quarter.

According to PwC, seven of the top 10 deals by value in the second quarter of 2011 were related to shale plays, including four upstream deals and three transactions in the midstream and oil field services space. For all deals greater than $50 million, there were 10 shale-related transactions totaling $7.5 billion, or 19 percent of total deal value, including two deals involving the Marcellus Shale totaling $2.3 billion.

"Shale-gas assets continue to be very attractive acquisition targets as multinationals look to gain technical know-how and exploit the long-term value and opportunities from rising energy needs," said Steve Haffner, a Pittsburgh-based partner with PwC's energy practice. "At the same time, there is tremendous activity developing around natural gas infrastructure, which is necessary to move the extracted gas to market. The U.S. 'shale gale' continues to attract the attention of global companies."

There were five financial sponsor-backed transactions over $50 million, representing $6.1 billion, or 16 percent of total deal value, compared to 10 financial sponsor deals contributing $6.2 billion during the same period last year. During the first six months of 2011, there were 16 financial sponsor deals contributing $20.6 billion, a whopping 129 percent increase in deal value, compared to the first half of 2010 when there were 15 financial sponsor-backed deals, valued at $9.0 billion.

"With oil prices hovering at $100, private equity funds continue to make a very strong push in the oil and gas sector," added Roberge. "The private equity deal makers, who used to largely play in the midstream space, are now heavily involved in exploration and production (E&P), shale plays, and oil field services and equipment sector. However, along with the great opportunities and rewards of investing in oil and gas, there is still risk in this space – and new entrants need to understand the pitfalls before trying to exploit these possible opportunities."

For deals with values greater than $50 million, there were 18 corporate transactions totaling $26.8 billion or 69 percent of total second quarter deal value, compared to 22 deals that accounted for $25.9 billion in deal value in the same period last year. Thirty-three asset deals for a combined total of $12.2 billion were announced in the second quarter of 2011, versus 39 deals totaling $15.1 billion in the same period last year. However, when comparing the first six months of 2011 to the first half of 2010, the number of corporate transactions increased by three deals to 35 transactions, while total corporate deal value jumped 26 percent to $59.7 billion in 2011 from $47.6 billion in 2010.

Another potential driver for M&A activity is the desire from some oil companies to sell assets and break apart key lines of business, according to PwC.

"We believe that another factor to keep a close eye on throughout the year, which may add to the already robust M&A activity we're seeing, is the trend of integrated oil companies looking at the various options to unlock shareholder value through separating their E&P businesses," said Roberge. "While this trend could be a very positive driver of M&A activity, these are highly complex transactions with potential consequences around tax considerations, valuations and financial reporting. Companies should consider the risk with these types of transactions as every potential scenario needs to be thoroughly and diligently evaluated to succeed."

PwC's Oil & Gas M&A analysis is a quarterly report of announced U.S. transactions with value greater than $50 million analyzed by PwC using transaction data from John S. Herold, Inc.

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Bakken, Oklahoma Plays Boost PADD 2 Production

- Bakken, Oklahoma Plays Boost PADD 2 Production

Thursday, June 23, 2011
Rigzone Staff
by Karen Boman

BENTEK Energy reports that crude oil production in the U.S. PADD 2 (Midcon) region is on pace to increase 60 percent over the next five years, with continued Bakken drilling activity and emerging oil plays in Oklahoma expected to push oil production in PADD 2 to 1.4 million b/d by 2016.

The Montana and North Dakota Bakken will contribute 418,000 b/d over the five-year period, while the continued development of conventional resources in PADD 2, especially in Oklahoma, contributing 90,000 b/d to the total growth. "This rapid increase in oil production is expected to put additional pressure on the already constrained Cushing market," BENTEK noted.

PADD 2 is home to some of the hottest unconventional oil and rich-gas plays in the U.S. Besides the Bakken, PADD 2 is home to several Oklahoma plays, including the Granite Wash, Cleveland Sandstone, Tonkawa, Cana Woodford, Arkoma Woodford and Mississippi Lime plays.

"Historically, thousands of wells were drilled in the region, often bypassing the oil trapped in these tight, unconventional reservoirs," BENTEK said in its Crude Oil Production Monitor Report for June 2011. "The transfer of shale gas technology has opened the door of opportunity and producers are now employing horizontal drilling and multi-stage fracturing techniques in order to release the once reluctant oil."

The unconventional oil play focus in PADD 2 has pushed the active oil-rig count to a recent high of 528, passing the peak reached in the summer of 2008, mostly due to horizontal rigs moving into PADD 2. The region currently has 313 horizontal rigs drilling, compared to 199 at the peak in summer 2008.

The rapid commercialization of liquids-rich U.S. shale plays has buoyed expectations for domestic U.S. oil production, with a large part of that volume making it way to the oil pipeline hub at Cushing, Oklahoma, Barclays Capital noted in a June 21 report. While production growth from Midcontinent reservoirs is not significant yet, it has been dramatic for the localized market around PADD 2, depressing WTI prices relative to other light, sweet crude oil benchmarks.

"WTI prices recently have widened to discounts of more than $20/bbl versus Brent, unheard of until recent months," Barclays said. Barclays said it sees U.S. Midcontinent crude oil production as the biggest factors influencing WTI differentials over the next few years.

Oil-directed drilling has spread across the Midcontinent, with more drilling in the Permian and Williston basins and expansion in the Anadarko and Eagle Ford basins. The shift to oil drilling has been "steady and relentless", not surprising given current pricing differentials between oil and gas. Barclays said two main constraints, the availability of high horsepower rigs that are capable of drilling horizontally, and the scarcity of oil acreage versus gas acreage, could moderate the pace of growth in the oil rig count.

The key unconventional plays to watch in the early stage of development are the Bakken Shale and the Eagle Ford shale, Barclays said. "We foresee U.S. liquids production from these locations expanding at a rate of 200-250 thousand b/d in the coming years. We would expect to see the bulk of the growth to come from Bakken and Eagle Ford shale areas (around 100,000 b/d and 70,000 b/d) respectively."

While the presence of oil in the Bakken formation in the Williston Basin has been known for years, production did not take off until 2006 due to higher oil prices and advances in drilling techniques. North Dakota's production growth resulted in a record high of 5,200 active wells in March, and the state's oil output had grown to 350,000 b/d, 70 percent of which is Bakken production. The state has seen previous drilling booms in the past, but the current cycle has been the most prolific, thanks to horizontal drilling and enhanced recovery methods, "and is likely to be sustainable for longer, in our view."

Local and state government officials in North Dakota, where 80 percent of the Bakken play lies, welcome the oil and gas industry and the jobs and revenue it brings to the local economy, said Dan K. Eberhart, chief executive officer of Frontier Energy Corp., at Platts' 6th Annual Oil & Gas Shale Developer conference in Houston this week. The Bakken drilling boom has created a renaissance in rural North Dakota, providing revenue that's allowing the state a chance to update schools, traffic lights and other infrastructure.

Oil and gas activity is not only creating job within the sector, but creating demand for more restaurant workers, teachers, park rangers an ancillary services. The state government has had trouble filling government jobs in Williston as workers are attracted to the higher-paying oil and gas jobs, and has moved positions back from Williston, the hub for drilling activity, to Bismarck and Fargo to find workers.

However, the need to transport water, rigs and other supplies to and from drilling sites has pushed the average Bakken well cost to $6.5 million, and the combination of winter snow, heavy rains and heavy truck traffic has taken a significant toll on the state's road system. With vehicles 5,000 to 6,000 times heavier than the roads were designed to handle, roads are breaking down, with buckling and large holes as deep as six feet or more, said Eberhart.

Companies such as Hess have taken initiatives to support the local road system in North Dakota and communicate with local officials on rig movements, Eberhart said. Efforts such as Adopt-A-Road programs are needed, Eberhart said, and oil and gas producers should donate manpower and supplies to help maintain road infrastructure.

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Realm Energy, Halliburton to Jointly Evaluate Emerging Shale Plays

- Realm Energy, Halliburton to Jointly Evaluate Emerging Shale Plays

Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Halliburton Co.

In an effort to accelerate shale gas development, Realm Energy International has contracted Halliburton's Consulting and Project Management team to work with Realm Energy to significantly expand the technical evaluation and ranking of the highest-potential shale deposits found in emerging prospective basins globally.

Realm Energy and Halliburton's Consulting and Project Management team began their collaboration in 2009 with an emphasis on European basins. During this initial effort, Realm Energy, supported by Halliburton, targeted 10 discrete sedimentary basins in four European countries for evaluation. The collaboration identified key prospect trends, and Realm has now successfully acquired 650,000 gross acres and has 4.4 million acres under government application of contiguous tracts of land over significant shale resources.

"Realm Energy is now moving into an operational phase with our European leasehold and will contract with Halliburton to leverage its extensive shale-development knowledge, gained from Halliburton's significant presence in the North American market," said Realm Energy Chairman Craig Steinke. "We could not have achieved the quality of our European portfolio without the help of Halliburton's consulting organization; this is why we have expanded our collaboration to assess and rank shale resources globally."

"Halliburton has developed a rigorous and efficient approach to the assessment, appraisal and development of shale plays, based on our
extensive experience in North America," said Paul Koeller, vice president of Halliburton Consulting and Project Management. "Our work
with Realm on the European shale plays has significantly increased our knowledge base for unconventionals, and we look forward to working with Realm on a global level."

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Cabot Charges Ahead in US Shale Plays

Cabot Charges Ahead in US Shale Plays

Thursday, April 28, 2011
Cabot O&G Corp.

Cabot O&G announced continued achievement of milestones in the Marcellus, drilling success in the Eagle Ford and agreements in principle for its Haynesville joint venture effort. "We continue to build momentum in our two areas of focus for 2011," said Dan O. Dinges, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Additionally, we have streamlined our east Texas operation with arrangements that are accretive to Cabot."

North Region

In the Marcellus, the Company ended the quarter producing at a curtailed rate of 320 Mmcf gross per day. This represents a production increase since year-end of 90 Mmcf per day as the benefits of the Lathrop expansion began to show up in production.

Contributing to these totals was the completion of several multi-well pads that were turned in line, albeit at curtailed rates. Cabot's first six-well pad added 51 Mmcf gross per day, although infrastructure limits are restricting its full productive capacity. A two-well pad with 29 completion stages is producing 36 Mmcf gross per day. "The productivity we have seen repeatedly for the last 18 months provides a great deal of confidence in our program," commented Dinges. "Tempering this excitement is the 'blocking and tackling' in the trenches to get the infrastructure in place timely to exploit these results."

In regards to the infrastructure build-out, all seven compressors at Lathrop are installed, and the Company is working on additional dehydration and more piping to reach full functionality. This effort will afford Cabot 450 Mmcf per day of takeaway capacity from this station and together with the Teel station provides a total of 550 Mmcf per day of capacity. "In conjunction with this growing capacity of Lathrop, we have identified and secured markets throughout the summer that will allow us to utilize a portion of this additional capacity," stated Dinges. "However, we will still have excess production capacity until the Springville pipeline to Transco becomes operational, which is scheduled during the third quarter."

To highlight the productivity of Cabot's Marcellus acreage, last week Cabot achieved 100 Bcf of cumulative production in Susquehanna – a feat that took just under three years. At the current production rate, it will take less than one year to achieve the next 100 Bcf of cumulative production.

In other North Region news, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PaDEP) has requested the industry to stop disposing of frac flowback fluids at certain approved sites. "We fully support this action by the PaDEP and the Pennsylvania administration," said Dinges. "Since late 2009, we have been recycling 100 percent of our frac fluid returns. We are committed to performing all our operations using best practices and endorse continuing improvements in those practices to minimize impact on the environment and communities in which we operate."

"Additionally, we converted our drilling operation to utilize a closed loop system by the fourth quarter of 2010. This eliminates the need for open pits at drill sites and significantly enhances our fluid management capabilities," added Dinges.

South Region

In the Eagle Ford shale, the Company added three more successful operated completions with 24-hour initial production rates ranging from 345 to 958 barrels of oil per day equivalent. "This range of results highlights the variability as we continue to evaluate completion techniques in the early stages of development in this play," stated Dinges. "Presently we have three more wells drilled, cased and in the queue for completion in our Buckhorn area."

At the Haynesville area, Cabot has signed two deals with industry peers that provide the Company with a carried interest in the initial well for 24 units. In the third deal, Cabot has elected to sell several non-operated units producing 4 Mmcf per day. This deal is signed and under the normal due diligence evaluation. Closing is scheduled for early May with approximately $50 to $55 million in proceeds expected from all these transactions.

"We are pleased with the joint venture outcome as we accomplished our goal of being carried by selling one-third of our acreage and eliminating the need for near term capital allocation in this area," said Dinges.