EQT Raises Estimates of Methane, NGL Production for 2017

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In December 2016 EQT, one of the largest Marcellus/Utica drillers with its headquarters in the Pittsburgh area, released a forecast for 2017 (see EQT 2017 Forecast: Drilling 119 Marcellus, 81 UD, 7 Utica Wells). At that time, EQT said they would spend $1.5 billion to drill a total of 200 Marcellus and Upper Devonian wells, and 7 exploratory Utica wells. Yesterday EQT released an update to/revision of their 2017 plans. The new plan still shows a budget of $1.5B to drill a total of 207 wells. So what changed? EQT is drilling longer laterals--from 7,000 feet on average to 8,000 feet on average, for their Marcellus wells. EQT finds by doing so their decline curves (how much a well will ultimately produce) has increased by 14% to 2.4 billion cubic feet equivalent per 1,000 feet drilled. Originally EQT forecasted they would produce 810-830 billion cubic feet equivalent (Bcfe) of natural gas. That has gone up. They now plan to produce 835-855 Bcfe of natural gas in 2017. NGLs are going up too. The original forecast was for 13,100-13,700 barrels of liquids, now raised to 17,975-18,575 barrels. The one "negative" in this updated forecast is that EQT has factored in a 15% rise in the cost of oilfield services...

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