Houston-based shale producer EOG Resources expects to ramp up operations in the Utica shale play in Ohio, Chief Operating Officer Jeff Leitzell told attendees at the Barclays CEO Energy-Power Conference in New York on Tuesday.
EOG Resources has doubled its activity in the Utica year-on-year, operating on 445,000 acres with an average entry cost of around $600 per acre, Leitzell said.
“The Utica absolutely has the opportunity to be a foundational play,” Leitzell said. “If we continue to have the success that we expect to, you can expect us to go ahead now and put more capital there.”
EOG is also developing its Dorado natural gas play in the Eagle Ford in southeast Texas. The company has managed record low gas prices in part by deferring a handful of completions to the second half of the year.
“There’s going to be long periods of low pricing with short duration periods of high pricing, and you’ve got to be able to make returns and margins all the way through those periods on the gas side,” Leitzell said.
(Reporting by Georgina McCartney in Houston Editing by Bill Berkrot)