Woodford Shale: Newfield Exploration NFX 2009

Newfield Exploration ( NFX ) has come out and given an operational update on the Woodford Shale located in Oklahoma.

The Woodford Shale, located in the Arkoma Basin of southeastern Oklahoma, was Newfield's largest investment region in 2008 and will remain so in 2009. Total Woodford production in 2008 increased 65% over 2007 volumes. Gross operated production from the Woodford in early December exceeded the Company's year-end goal of 250 MMcfe/d. Due to longer lateral completions and efficiency gains, Newfield expects to grow its 2009 Woodford production by about 30%, despite running fewer operated rigs.

"The positive benefits of moving from the 'hold the ground' phase in the Woodford to development mode in 2008 is obvious from the improvement in our finding costs in the Mid-Continent," said Lee K. Boothby, Newfield Senior Vice President. "Our drilling and completion costs in 2008, stated on a lateral foot basis, were 38% lower than in 2007. We have drilled about 250 horizontal wells to date and our lateral lengths continue to grow. We now expect that our average lateral length in 2009 will be about 5,000', compared to just 2,428' in 2007 and 4,436' in 2008. This should result in higher initial production rates, greater recoveries per well and improved finding cost metrics."

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