CLR Is Blowing Away The Competition In The Bakken -- SeekingAlpha -- June 6, 2018

I've been updating a lot of old wells, and was quite surprised how well CLR seemed to be doing. It seemed the Syracuse wells were a great example of CLR's program in the Bakken. It was a pleasant surprise to see this story over at SeekingAlpha -- not a surprise with regard to CLR's success in the Bakken but a surprise that someone else has noted it and has posted an article over at SeekingAlpha.

The writer of that article immediately moves to the top of my list of favorite contributors over at SeekingAlpha. I haven't read the article yet, but he may have scooped Mike Filloon which is a real surprise. Mike Filloon recently "named" Newfield as the outstanding operator in the Bakken. I did not agree at the time, but did not say anything. I was more impressed with Whiting at the time.

Anyway, back to the linked article over at SeekingAlpha. Summary:

• Continental Resources is blowing away competition in North Dakota and Oklahoma
• costs savings and new well optimizations are driving record results
• an expanding global economy, along with strong WTI prices and a superior production strategy, makes Continental a compelling investment idea

I've been building positions in two or three other publicly traded Bakken operators but I did not include CLR. I may have missed an opportunity. That's why -- disclaimer -- this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.

Now the article: according to the writer, CLR is now in an all-out manufacturing mode:

Picture a huge yard right before you have to mow it, and that’s how Continental is approaching their Springer play in Oklahoma (SCOOP region). Springer economics are compelling. Due to innovations such as pad drilling, drill times are coming down significantly, and rates of return are exceeding 180%. Mowing a yard row by row is analogous to what Continental is doing in Springer, except one row, alone, spans almost nine miles wide. That's just the Springer area, or “Project Springboard”, as Hamm ambitiously calls it. The company plans to replicate the same process in the Woodford and Sycamore areas, next.

The prolific Bakken basin, in North Dakota, is also in all-out manufacturing mode for Continental. Like in the SCOOP, drilling times are dropping significantly, being measured in days now instead of weeks, and new completions designs are almost doubling oil & gas output. This step change in completions technology employed by CLR catapults them over peers to the number one spot as top producer in the Bakken, representing 15% of total production there. In addition, Bakken output was up 48% year over year from optimized completions, and those in turn, have lowered breakevens in the region to $28 per barrel. Rates of return in North Dakota are less than in Oklahoma, but are still pushing north of 140% for CLR. 

That's just the first page. The article is six pages long. 

Enjoy. You may want to archive. SeekingAlpha articles disappear behind a paywall after awhile.

By the way, the article at SeekingAlpha is not just an "investment article -- what makes it a great article is all the "education" one gets from the article with regard to how the shale industry is innovating.


Self Control, Laura Branigan