FORT WORTH, Texas – The Permian Basin dominated the discussion most days at Hart Energy’s SUPER DUG Conference, but a scrappy Oklahoma E&P pointed to its gains in the Anadarko Basin—and the inevitable need for inventory—that may one day lure companies north to the Midcontinent.
“We see inventory in the Permian and Haynesville, in particular, starting to shrink,” Citizen Energy CFO Tim Helms told the audience at SUPER DUG on May 22. “For others to come into the [Anadarko] Basin, we're well positioned, we'll have the inventory and we'll be a great target there.”
Helms described the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based company as hustling since its creation 11 years ago to “consolidate” the Anadarko Basin in west Oklahoma, working up to about 585 horizontal wells producing 80,000 bbl/d on 350,000 net acres. The company is backed by Warburg Pincus.
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Gas prices remained low in April, averaging $2.31/MMBtu, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and Helms said Citizen Energy dropped from five rigs to three. But he argued that the company is in a strong position when, he believes, gas prices rebound in 3 years to 5 years.
“We don’t see [demand] dwindling. We see it coming back,” he said.
He detailed his company’s discipline, vertical integration and presence across the Anadarko.
“We can go drill for some monstrous dry gas wells in the deeper part of our basin, and 15 miles away we've got significant, liquids-rich production,” Helms said, adding that some of the company’s shallow wells are attractive when low gas prices make deep drilling too expensive.
Helms said the company operates well within cash flow and drove its capex down at least 20% lower than it was in fourth-quarter 2022.
Helms also boasted of the company’s vertical integration, including its own gas processing plant. He said the acquisition of Blue Mountain Midstream in 2020 helped Citizen Energy more than double its production. The company has drilled to 15,000 ft vertical depths and two-mile laterals.
The company has also protected itself from diminished prices through aggressive hedging.
“As we put production online, we make sure that we hedge the heck out of it. We've got plenty of commodity exposure in the ground and, as a private company that's yielding distributions and managing a debt portfolio," he said, "that process has worked really well for us.”