CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 12/10/12 -- PetroBakken Energy Ltd.("PetroBakken" or the "Company") (TSX:PBN) is pleased to provide an update on operations and our 2013 hedging program.
Production in early December 2012 has reached approximately 51,000 boepd (based on field estimates), up 6,000 boepd since early November 2012 as we continue to execute on our 2012 capital plan.
Production growth primarily came from our Bakken and Cardium business units, which are our most active areas. Since the end of the third quarter, we have drilled 67 net wells and placed 76 net wells on production. This includes 26 net wells drilled and 33 net wells placed on production in the Bakken business unit, 28 net wells drilled and 35 net wells placed on production in the Cardium business unit, 12 net wells drilled and 8 net wells placed on production in the Conventional business unit, and 1 net well drilled in our new play areas. For the remainder of December, we plan to bring on production 21 net wells, 8 in each of the Bakken and the Cardium business units and 5 in the Conventional business unit. We recently completed the Brazeau facility in the Cardium and tied-in a portion of the planned wells to this facility, which added approximately 1,200 boepd of production. We expect the completion of our tie-in program and optimization of this facility will add an additional 2,000 boepd of production prior to year-end. The results of these activities, together with the natural declines attributable to our production base, will put us on pace to achieve our 2012 exit rate production guidance of 52,000 to 56,000 boepd,
The recently announced acceleration of our 2013 capital program is underway and our continuous drilling program, which currently consists of 11 drilling rigs operating, 6 in the Cardium, 2 in the Bakken, 1 in Conventional, and 2 in our Swan Hills resource play should provide a steady inventory of new wells to bring on-stream in early 2013. New additions to our facility infrastructure and pipeline networks should also alleviate some seasonal production losses during spring break-up due to shut-in production and road bans.
In order to provide greater cash flow security, we are expanding our hedging program and are targeting to increase the net hedged production for 2013 from 12,000 bopd to 18,000 bopd. This is an increase to our past practice of hedging approximately 25% of our net production. The following table provides our current hedge position:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hedged Barrels Average Floor Average Ceiling (bbls/d) (US$) (US$)----------------------------------------------------------------------------2012 1H 20,000 $83.94 $112.45---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2H 12,000 $78.02 $118.94----------------------------------------------------------------------------2013 1H 12,250 $78.27 $119.04---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2H 12,000 $79.38 $116.46----------------------------------------------------------------------------2014 1H 7,000 $80.54 $109.51---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2H 4,250 $81.18 $109.54----------------------------------------------------------------------------2015 1H 1,250 $80.00 $102.76----------------------------------------------------------------------------