Rigs, Frac Crews, and Efficiency Advances Among Leading Natural Gas Producers

We compiled this using the latest round of earnings call transcripts. Use the bot below to ask more pointed questions.

Comstock Resources:

• Current: 5 rigs

• Dropping to 3 rigs in December 2023

• Quote: "We're going to drop two more rigs in December. So we'll end up with three rigs running at the end of the year."

• Will maintain 3 rigs into 2025 unless gas prices improve

• Using 3D seismic technology:

  • Quote: "We do have 3D seismic over almost the entire acreage position that we have."

• Cost Efficiency:

  • Quote: "Cost per-foot would have been a little bit higher at 9,000 foot lateral, and lower at 12,000 foot"

  • Quote: "When we start doing pad drilling with this performance, we're going to generate numbers lower than this $2,800 per-foot"

Antero Resources:

• Current: 3 drilling rigs and 2 completion crews

• Quote: "We're running three drilling rigs and two completion crews today. That's going to be our run rate through the end of the year and into 2025."

• No indicated changes for 2024/2025

• Drilling Efficiency:

  • Quote: "Antero has the lowest maintenance capital per Mcfe of its peer group at just $0.52 per Mcfe. This is 41% below the peer average of $0.88 per Mcfe."

• Operational Flexibility:

  • Currently deferring completion of two pads

  • Quote: "Given current natural gas pricing, we elected to defer the completion of a pad from the third quarter until the end of the year while still maintaining our previously raised production guidance."

  • Quote: "In addition, we now plan to defer completion of a second pad that has been drilled and was originally scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2025."

  • These are drier gas pads requiring higher gas prices to incentivize completion

Range Resources:

• 2 drilling rigs, 1 frac crew [Quote: "We're running two rigs today. That's what we plan to run through the end of the year."]

• Maintaining one frac crew

• Quote: "Ability to hold 2.2 Bcf equivalent per day with one frac crew"

• No indicated changes for 2025

• Drilling Efficiency:

  • Quote: "Our drilling team continues to set new records with lateral lengths now reaching over 18,000 feet"

  • Increased from 10,000 foot laterals at start of 2023 to almost 13,000 foot laterals by end of 2023

• Completion Efficiency:

  • Quote: "We're seeing nine to 10 frac stages a day on a quarter-in, quarter-out basis now"

  • Maintaining flat production of 2.2 Bcf equivalent per day with one frac crew

• Water Management:

  • Implementing water recycling technology

  • Reducing overall completion costs through water management

• Overall Efficiency:

  • Quote: "You've heard us state this before, but we continue to believe the results communicated today showcase that Range's business is in the best place in company history"

EQT:

• Current: 3-4 drilling rigs, 2 frac crews [Quote: "We're running three to four rigs right now. We've got a couple of frac crews."

• Maintaining current levels into 2025

• Significant Efficiency Gains:

  • Quote: "With continued success, we may ultimately be able to drop from three to two frac crews over time, which is remarkable given we are able to hold flat 7 Bcfe a day of gross operated production at this activity level."

  • Potential cost savings: Quote: "we believe these gains could have the potential to sustainably save approximately $50 per-foot, which could translate to $50 million to $60 million per year."

• Operational Improvements:

  • Shifted to electric frac fleets

  • Implementing combo development

  • Installing advanced emissions control devices

  • Quote: "began the year expecting to till 250 wells with 12 rigs and are now on track to till 270 wells with that same rig count, effectively adding an entire rigs worth of wells through efficiency gains."

• Completion Improvements:

  • Increased pumping hours to 22 hours per day

  • Running all dual-fuel frac fleets

  • Quote: "our Q3 TILs were 15% cheaper than last year-on a per foot basis, translating to over $1 million per well in savings."

Coterra:

• Total Activity: 9 rigs (8 Permian, 1 Anadarko) and minimum 2 frac crews

• Permian Basin:

  • 8 drilling rigs and 2 frac crews [Quote: "In the Permian, we are currently running eight drilling rigs and two frac crews"]

• Anadarko Basin:

  • 1 rig running [Quote: "In the Anadarko, we continue to run one rig and completed five wells in the third quarter"]

  • Strong liquids production helping economics

• Marcellus:

  • Currently curtailing production [Quote: "We are continuing our month-to-month curtailment in the Marcellus with a planned 340,000 MMBtu per day gross and 288,000 MMBtu per day net shut-in for the month of November"]

  • 11 wells in Dimock area waiting on better pricing

• Drilling Efficiency:

  • Started year expecting 250 wells with 12 rigs, now on track for 270 wells with same rig count [Quote: "To put this in perspective, we began the year expecting to till 250 wells with 12 rigs and are now on track to till 270 wells with that same rig count, effectively adding an entire rigs worth of wells through efficiency gains."]

• Completion Efficiency:

  • Increased pumping hours to 22 hours per day

  • Now running all dual-fuel frac fleets

  • Quote: "our Q3 TILs were 15% cheaper than last year-on a per foot basis, translating to over $1 million per well in savings."

  • Quote: "Given these reductions are mostly due to efficiencies, we expect they will be here to stay."

• Facilities Improvements:

  • Implementing new tankless battery designs

  • Evolving facilities to ensure compliance with regulatory landscape

Expand Energy:

• Current: 12 rigs total

  • 8 in Haynesville

  • 2 in Northeast Appalachia

  • 2 in Southwest Appalachia

• Current: 6 completion crews

  • 3 in Haynesville

  • 2 in Northeast Appalachia

  • 1 in Southwest Appalachia

• Future: Dropping to 10 rigs in Q1 2025

• Has 58 DUCs and 58 deferred TILs

• Drilling Synergies:

  • $130 million of $400 million total synergy target attributed to drilling improvements

  • Quote: "moving to go back to our original synergy target of the $400 million a year, $130 million of that was attributed to what we described as drilling and completion synergies"

• Completion Design:

  • Carefully evaluating completion designs post-merger

  • Quote: "we decided to not at the time include any completion synergies is we just know how sensitive completion designs are to productivity and therefore, well economics."

  • Integrating best practices from both companies

• Future Improvements:

  • Quote: "I think the scorecard that you've seen, we'll figure out a way to communicate some of these, some of these wins over time. But the big ones that we promised in February of this year, we've already delivered."

Industry Trends:

• Most producers maintaining or reducing rig counts due to low gas prices

• Several companies actively curtailing production

• Focus on efficiency gains rather than adding rigs

• Companies maintaining flexibility to adjust rig counts based on commodity prices