Antero Resources Reports Quarterly Results, Operational Updates

From an Antero Resources press release:
Utica Shale — Antero is currently operating four drilling rigs, including one intermediate rig, in the rich gas/condensate window of the core of the Utica Shale play in southeastern Ohio.  The Company plans to add a fifth rig in the fourth quarter of 2013 and expects to maintain this rig count into 2014.  In addition to its 12 wells on line, Antero has 12 wells either in the process of drilling, completing, or waiting on completion including a 4-well pad and a 2-well pad, both located in Noble County, Ohio, that are currently being completed and expected to be placed on line in the fourth quarter of 2013.  Antero has one dedicated frac crew currently working in Ohio along with several spot crews available as needed.  Antero plans to drill a total of 24 horizontalUtica wells in 2013 with an average lateral length of 7,300 feet. 
Antero recently placed on line the Gary 2H well that produced at a 24-hour peak rate of 24.2 MMcf/d of natural gas, 162 Bbl/d of condensate and 3,053 Bbl/d of NGLs assuming full ethane recovery (per current industry practice and assuming typical ethane plant product recoveries of 85% to 90%).  The Gary 2H had a natural gas shrink of 16% associated with 1220 Btu wellhead gas and an oil-equivalent rate of 7,246 Boe/d (44% liquids). This rate is the fourth highest peak rate announced in the Utica Shale to date.  The well is located in Monroe County, Ohio, and was drilled with a lateral length of 8,900 feet.  The initial 12 horizontal Utica wells that Antero has completed and placed online to date have an average 24-hour peak rate of 5,635 Boe/d assuming ethane recovery, an average lateral length of approximately 6,500 feet, an average Btu of 1245 and an average drilling and completion cost of $12.3 million per well.  Antero expects well costs to decline as well completions have access to the Company's fresh water distribution system and drilling and completion efforts are optimized.
Rich gas production from all but one of Antero's 12 completed horizontal Utica wells, previously processed at the MarkWest Cadiz facility, is now being processed at the recently commissioned Seneca processing complex.  MarkWest recently completed Seneca I, a 200 MMcf/d cryogenic processing plant, and is also building Seneca II, a second 200 MMcf/d cryogenic processing plant, which is expected to be in service late in the fourth quarter of 2013.  Antero has firm processing capacity of 200 MMcf/d in Seneca I and an additional 50 MMcf/d of interim capacity at the Seneca II facility until early third quarter 2014.  Antero recently committed to 100 MMcf/d of firm processing capacity at a third 200 MMcf/d facility to be constructed at the Seneca complex, Seneca III, which is expected to be placed on line in the second quarter of 2014.  The Company also has the option to increase the Seneca III commitment to the full 200 MMcf/d of plant capacity by early third quarter 2014.  This results in total firm processing capacity of 350 MMcf/d by second quarter of 2014 with an option to increase to a total of 400 MMcf/d by early third quarter 2014.  Additional processing beyond this timeframe is in the planning stages.  Ethane is currently being rejected at the processing facility and left in the gas stream.  
Antero's rich gas production going into the Seneca processing complex is flowing against 1100 psi of line pressure until compression capacity comes on line, resulting in constrained production.  Antero has a compression and condensate stabilization agreement with a third-party midstream provider to construct and operate three compressor stations in Noble and Monroe Counties, Ohio that have a combined capacity of 340 MMcf/d as well as three condensate stabilization facilities with a combined capacity of 16,000 Bbl/d, all of which are fully dedicated to Antero.  The first two compressor stations and condensate stabilization facilities are expected to start up in the fourth quarter of 2013 while the third compressor station and condensate stabilization facility is expected to start up early in the second quarter of 2014.  Antero continues to lay both low- and high-pressure gas gathering pipelines to transport its future production to the Seneca complex.
Since the second quarter 2013 earnings release, Antero has added 3,000 net acres and currently holds approximately 104,000 net acres of leasehold in the core of the Utica Shale play.  Approximately 4% of this net acreage was associated with proved reserves at mid-year 2013 and approximately 75% of Antero's Uticaleasehold is prospective for processable rich gas assuming an 1100 Btu cutoff.
Antero has an additional 116,000 net acres of deep rights underlying its Marcellus acreage that has Utica dry gas resource potential.  The Company has identified 950 potential drilling locations on this acreage with approximately 5 Tcf of net resource.  Antero plans to drill a Utica dry gas well in West Virginia in early 2014.
You can read the entire press release here.

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