Barnett Shale

Conoco Phillips Sells Barnett Shale Assets To KKR

Conoco Phillips (COP) announced that the company has sold properties in the Barnett Shale to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR).  The company did not disclose a purchase price.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co is purchasing producing properties in Texas with 93 Bcfe of proved reserves.  More than 90% of the reserves are categorized as proved developed producing.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co has a partnership with Premier Natural Resources to make investments in oil and gas assets and operates as KKR Natural Resources.

Quicksilver Resources - Barnett Shale

Quicksilver Resources (KWK) reported earnings for the second quarter of 2009, and updated its operations in the Barnett Shale of the Fort Worth Basin. The company has 175,000 net acres under lease and drilled 29 (22.9 net) wells during the quarter. The company also connected 27 (25.2 net) wells to sales.

Although many exploration and production companies are shifting away from the Barnett Shale to other shale plays in North America, Quicksilver Resources defended the Barnett Shale during its second quarter conference call.

“The Barnett continues to be the focus of our development activity. Despite speculation of its demise, the Fort Worth Basin is alive and well and providing increasing opportunities for Quicksilver. The Fort Worth Basin-Barnett is a proven area of low risk, low cost development with readily available infrastructure and access to services,” said Glenn Darden, the CEO of Quicksilver Resources.

Many operators are drilling but not completing wells as they anticipate higher natural gas prices later on in 2009 or 2010, and Quicksilver Resources is no exception.

“We project our inventory of drilled and cased but uncompleted wells in the Barnett to increase to approximately 150 wells by year end.” Costs are also falling, and the management of Quicksilver Resources indicated that year over year, the cost to drill is down 25%. ___________________________________________________________________

Do you use technical analysis to find the proper entry point before you buy a stock? Then Click Here for a free Trend Analysis.

The Barnett Shale - Top Producers

During 2008, the Barnett Shale produced 1.396 Tcf of natural gas.  The top ten producers accounted for most of this production.  The top ten producers of natural gas, according to the Texas Railroad Commission are:

Company MMcf

Devon Energy - 414,413
XTO Energy - 216,929
Chesapeake Energy - 195,270
EOG Resources - 160,454
Encana - 67,409
Quicksilver Resources -  65,273
Range Resources -  41,080
Burlington - 35,170
Denbury -  28,132
Williams - 22,408

Burlington was purchased by Conoco-Phillips in 2006, but the state authorities still list Burlington as the operator of record. 

Denbury Resources recently sold 60% of its Barnett assets to a private company.

___________________________________________________________________

Do you use technical analysis to find the proper entry point before you buy a stock? Click Here for a free Trend Analysis.