Eclipse Resources, a Marcellus/Utica pure play driller headquartered in State College, PA that drills mostly in Ohio, released their third quarter 2016 update yesterday. In 2Q16 Eclipse resumed drilling with one rig, allocated a drilling budget of $196 million, and began completing previously drilled but uncompleted (DUC) wells in their portfolio (see Eclipse Resources Loses $73M in 2Q16, Resumes Utica Drilling). How did that play out in 3Q16? Natural gas production was up year over year, from 13.4 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in 3Q15 to 15.4 Bcf in 3Q16. However, both natural gas liquids (NGL) and oil production slipped year over year. So when you combine all categories of hydrocarbons together, Eclipse’s production slipped just a bit. Frankly, Eclipse is still mostly in wait mode. So far in 2016 they’ve drilled 5 Utica wells, completing two of them, bringing 0 wells online into new production. They have, however, brought 14 condensate (very light oil) wells online in 2016 thus far. As for finances, the company lost $26.8 million in 3Q16, but that’s a big improvement over 3Q15 when they lost $81.5 million. Here’s the update from Eclipse, including details on the company’s first “super-lateral” well, the Purple Hayes…
