Chesapeake plans to keep three rigs running in the Eagle Ford through the rest of the year.

Related: Chesapeake to Pay Record Royalty Settlement

During a second quarter earnings call, Chesapeake executives said that their focus on cost and technology improvements on their high quality assets have allowed them to remain competitive.

Eagle Ford Operations

Chesapeake announced they have slashed the cost to drill Eagle Ford wells that are 9,000 feet long by 50%, down to $4 million. This savings will allow them to increase their drilling program for the rest of the year in the Eagle Ford. During the quarter, they also reduced the time to drill down to 9.7 days.

For the rest of the year the company plans to drill 100 more wells, roughly twice the number of wells originally planned for 2016. Primarily this will occur as we keep three rigs running in the Eagle Ford when we had previously expected to release those rigs earlier this summer.

Second quarter highlights include:

• Total debt reduction of more than $1.0 billion year to date
• Revenues declined by 54% year over year
• Production averaged approximately 657,100 boe per day
• Cost structure improvements lead to lower full-year 2016 production expense guidance

Read more at chk.com