ERF Reports Earnings

Link here.

Enerplus Corporation is pleased to announce the results for the first quarter of 2012. Highlights of the quarter were as follows:

• Production increased during the first quarter by 3% over the fourth quarter of 2011, averaging 79,190 BOE/day. We continued to see positive growth in our oil and liquids volumes which were up approximately 9% from the previous quarter primarily due to our successful drilling and completion activities in North Dakota. 
• we realized higher activity levels on our operated leases and more non-operated spending than anticipated in North Dakota. Approximately half of our spending was on our tight oil assets. We expect spending will moderate through the remainder of the year as the majority of our delineation activity is now complete and we have also reduced our rig count in North Dakota from four to three rigs.

• We also believe that inflation is stabilizing in the Fort Berthold region and costs appear to be in line with expectations across our other plays. Capital spending was higher than anticipated on both our operated leases and by our non-operated partners in the area. We expect this to moderate through the remainder of the year as we are dropping our rig count to three rigs from four as was originally planned.  We continue to work to reduce our well costs through changes in completion and frac design and we are also seeing evidence of costs beginning to stabilize in the region.

Another operator in the Bakken that will decrease rig count. This seems to be a common theme. Note the reason given.