Eclipse Resources, a small but growing driller headquartered in State College, PA but drilling exclusively in the Ohio Utica Shale, released their fourth quarter and full year 2015 update yesterday. Among the highlights: Production was up 186% in 2015 over 2014. Revenue was up 97% over 2014. Eclipsed drilled 31 wells, completed 51 wells and brought 76 wells online in 2015. The company will continue to focus exclusively on the Utica in 2016, as they did in 2015. They plan to spend $168 million in 2016, of which $130 million is for drilling and completions, and with that money they will drill 7.6 net Utica wells, complete 9.4 net Utica wells and exit the year with 11.5 net Utica wells drilled but uncompleted (DUCs). The elephant in the room is that Eclipse lost nearly $1 billion in 2015. However, as with many other drillers, the loss was on paper only–not out of pocket. With impairments (write-down of lease values) and with depreciation and other accounting shenanigans, almost all of the loss was on paper. Hey, at least they will keep on drillin’ in 2016! Here’s the update with the details…
