Rosetta Resources is undergoing significant change. The company is hitting its stride in development and driving down well costs. 2013 should be a year of continued growth, but it will be done with a new boss at the helm. Randy Limbacher announced his retirement while releasing year-end results.
The company had completed 126 horizontal Eagle Ford wells as of the end of 2012. Currently producing wells represent less than 13% of the companies drilling inventory in the play. Approximately 332 locations are left to be drilled at the company's Gates Ranch properties in Webb County, TX.
The company has reset it's capital budget to a range of $640-700 million compared to initial plans of $700 million. The revised budget reflects expected savings of $1 million dollars on Eagle Ford wells in 2013 compared to 2012. Plans call for drilling of 75-80 Eagle Ford wells and completion of 60-65 wells. Rosetta will continue to run 5-6 rigs in the area.
"The momentum of our Eagle Ford development activities accelerated during 2012 as we achieved record levels of production, reserves, and cash flow, and ended the year with a fully self-funding Eagle Ford program," said Randy Limbacher, Rosetta's chairman, CEO and president. "Rosetta is on track to deliver another year of double-digit production growth. In addition, we continue to advance our efforts to capture new opportunities and further expand our substantial inventory of projects."
The company's production rose to 44.3 mboe/d in the fourth quarter of 2012, which represents growth of 38% over Q4 2011. More specifically, oil and NGL production grew 87% and 69% year-over-year, respectively.
Proved reserves grew at a rate of 25% to eclipse 200 million boe. The 201 million boe are comprised of 44.4 mmbbls of oil, 71.6 mmbbls of NGLs, and 509 Bcf of natural gas.
Rosetta has 67,000 net acres prospective for the Eagle Ford and 53,000 are expected to yield liquids-rich production.