Taylor, one of the more interesting comments by Petrohawk is their intent to move toward 15-stage frac jobs which should reduce well count to 5-6 per section. This is consistent with my guess about why they (and others) were increasing the number of frac stages. Also, additional gas pipeline takeaway capacity will be required by end 2009 or 1st Qtr 2010.
Finally, it is clear Petrohawk has shifted all their focus to the Haynesville Shale with limited money being spent in other areas such as the Fayetteville Shale.
I'm glad about the 5-6 per section. The less holes the better. I know the mailbox money is nice, but the stuff is a terrible eyesore IMO. You can't plant pine trees or feed cows on those rocks! 600 millions is a pretty good budget-I did notice the budget for the "Western area" came in 2nd at 125 million-- not even close.
Parker, I'm not convinced that the EUR's for the section are increasing with the bigger fracs if they only drill 5 wells per section rather than 8. It would seem to mainly be a matter of economics for the HK's of the world. Five $9 million wells per section with each well having an EUR of say 10.2 billion cu ft equals 52 Billion Cubic ft of recoverable reserves for $45million drilling and completion expense versus eight $7 million wells each having an EUR of 6.5 Billion equals 52 billion cu ft of recoverable reserves for $56 million drilling and completion costs. The ultimate EUR's per section are much more important, obviously, than the EUR's per well.