Bakken Shale vs Eagle Ford Shale - COP - ConocoPhillips (COP)

ConocoPhillips (COP) released earnings and their operational update yesterday and provided details on their Bakken Shale acreage vs Eagle Ford Shale.

And then if you can just contrast the Bakken to the Eagle Ford for a second here, because in the Eagle Ford, you guys are running 16 rigs. You're doing 50,000 barrels a day, going to 100,000. In the Bakken, you're going from 10 to 15 rigs and you're only doing about 18,000. I mean is -- are the economics that much better in the Eagle Ford for you than in the Bakken? Or is there some sort of a ramp-up period or well backlog that we're waiting for in the Bakken to come online?

It's both of those things, Faisel. The economics are better for us in the Eagle Ford than they are in the Bakken so that will have priority as we think about where we're allocating our capital. We hold our leases in theBakken on a long-term basis and don't need to do drilling there in order to maintain our acreage position. So we're taking a very measured approach there. We don't want to get ahead of infrastructure in the Bakken. So you'll see us continue to ramp up our activities there. They're good strong return projects, but it's not as strong as what's -- what we have in the Eagle Ford.


January 26, 2012