U.S. shale player Sanchez Energy said it's production estimate is unchanged despite the impacts from Hurricane Harvey. Photo by PO1 Patrick Kelley/U.S. Coast Guard/UPI |
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Sept. 27 (UPI) -- U.S. shale exploration and production company Sanchez Energy said its production from its assets in Texas was accelerating even after Hurricane Harvey.
"Despite the previously announced temporary suspension of completion operations due to Hurricane Harvey, strong well results across all of our western Eagle Ford acreage have led to a steady increase in production during the quarter," CEO Tony Sanchez III said in a statement. "We are currently producing at a rate of over 75,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, which has us on pace to deliver production results that are in-line with our third quarter 2017 forecast."
The announcement from Sanchez followed a statement from Chesapeake Energy, which said it expected a shortfall in third quarter production because of the impacts from Hurricane Harvey, which hit Texas in late August and ran through parts of the Eagle Ford shale basin.
Chesapeake has assets in the Eagle Ford shale basin in Texas and the Haynesville shale, situated mostly in Louisiana. Both states were in the direct line of Harvey. The company said third quarter production for oil should be around 86,000 barrels per day, compared with 88,400 barrels per day last year.
Sanchez said its assets in the Catarina section of the Eagle Ford shale were outperforming its forecasts by about 20 percent. Based on that, the company said it expected to produce as much as 84,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by the fourth quarter. Production is mixed more or less evenly between oil, natural gas liquids and natural gas.
Sanchez is one of the larger operators in the Eagle Ford shale basin in Texas and added more than 300,000 acres to its portfolio through a March acquisition from rival shale player Anadarko Petroleum.
Total second quarter production of around 6.7 million barrels of oil equivalent for Sanchez was 43 percent higher than the first quarter and revenue increased 31 percent, improvements driven in large part by the acquisition from Anadarko.
A drilling productivity report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts a slight decline in production from Eagle Ford through October.
