Rex Energy Corporation, an energy company drilling in the Marcellus Shale, today announced its fourth quarter and year-end 2009 results. The portion of the press release dealing with Marcellus drilling activity is reproduced below.
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In the Appalachian Region, Rex Energy has drilled and completed nine horizontal Marcellus Shale wells to date. The company drilled and completed two of these as test wells in a different zone of the shale, which resulted in lower recoveries. Excluding the two test wells, the seven day average test rate after peak production was reached has averaged 3.1 MMcfe per day with an average lateral length of 2,200 feet. The company has experimented with six to twelve stage fracture stimulations. The average gross EUR of these wells was estimated to be 3.2 Bcfe per well at an average cost of $4.6 million.
Currently, Rex Energy is running two horizontal drilling rigs in the play. The company recently completed the drilling of two horizontal wells in Butler County. The wells have an average lateral length of 3,500 feet and were drilled in under 21 days per well. The company expects to simultaneously fracture stimulate these wells during the first quarter of 2010. The company has budgeted $4.0 million per well for its 2010 wells and it expects the wells to have average lateral lengths of 3,000 to 4,000 feet. The company is currently drilling two wells in Butler County and one well in Westmoreland County. During 2010, the company expects to drill and complete 10 gross (10 net) operated horizontal Marcellus Shale wells, and to participate in 9 gross (4.5 net) horizontal Marcellus Shale wells with our partner.
[Rex Energy’s President and CEO Benjamin] Hulburt continued, “The build-out of our Marcellus midstream infrastructure is progressing as scheduled. We expect our two Clearfield County wells to be connected to our initial gathering system in April 2010. In Butler County, we expect our midstream joint venture to put our cryogenic processing facility into operation during the fourth quarter of 2010. We expect the plant will have a processing capacity of 40 MMcf per day. We plan to install compression to permit the plant to process 20 MMcf per day initially, which will be scaled up as additional wells are brought online.”
The company has continued to lease additional acreage in its three Marcellus Shale project areas in southwestern and central Pennsylvania. Rex Energy’s current total acreage under control in the Marcellus Shale fairway is 68,700 acres, an increase of approximately 15% compared with the company’s previous leasing update in January 2010. The net acreage amount excludes approximately 22,000 acres, which can be earned by Williams pursuant to the Participation and Exploration Agreement entered into on June 18, 2009, and includes approximately 8,300 acres covered by oil and gas leases that are pending title verification and final closing.
From: MarketWatch (Mar 2) – Rex Energy Corporation Announces Fourth Quarter and Year-End 2009 Results
Rex Energy has just completed drilling and fracking its first horizontal Utica Shale well in western Pennsylvania and plans to bring it online once a gathering pipeline to the well is completed in January.