Denver-based Bill Barrett Corp. will revive its horizontal drilling program in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, with plans to bring a dozen new wells into production by the first quarter of next year.
Company president and CEO Scot Woodall, in a presentation at EnerCom’s The Oil and Gas Conference in Denver Monday, said the company has found a way to drill wells at nearly half the cost and in half the time versus 2014.
Strong hedging contracts will permit the company to sell up to 70 percent of its expected oil production for the remainder of the year at $72.57 a barrel, a significant premium to the $45 a barrel that a barrel of West Texas intermediate crude currently commands.
Woodall said the company had $100 million in cash on hand and $335 million available on its credit line, although it doesn’t expect it will need to draw it down through 2017. Capital spending for the year will be in the $75 million to $100 million range, on the higher end of revised estimates, and the company should be cash flow positive this year.
Bill Barrett let go of the in the year, sold assets and let go of its chief financial officer to cope with oil prices that went below $30 a barrel in the first quarter.
Shares of Bill Barrett rose 41 cents or 7.2 percent on Monday to close at $6.09.
