I've mentioned it before, but given its been a quiet Sunday, I...

I've mentioned it before, but given its been a quiet Sunday, I thought I would compare the timeframes for Hawk Springs & Fort Peck field development to date with:

1. The Nth Stockyard field development
2. AUT's Sugarkane field development

I've chosen to compare to AUT's Sugarkane field development for several reasons (again disclosure I dont hold or trade AUT). While Nth Stockyard provides an internal comparison, AUT's development provides an external benchmark. AUT's field was surrounded by other players also in early stage development at the time, and this field required significant learning both from within the play, but also from neighboring nearology - a similar situation to Hawk Springs and Fort Peck imo. Also, the data was easy to obtain, being an ASX listed company the reporting requirements and operations updates provided a lot of data, and the company reported regularly throughout the development period.

The results are self-explanatory, but I will highlight the following:

1. The timeframe spent at Hawk Springs and Fort Peck so far compared to both Nth Stockyard and Sugarkane is so far much shorter than in those 2 plays.

2. I have included end of quarter data in the timeline to show: EOQ closing SP, closing cash balance (as reported in 5B statements), total net boepd and % of that due to oil or condensate production where available (AUT doesnt provide it until they get some decent production going in early 2009).

3. I have included key dates showing when wells spud and when they were either completed into production or abandoned.

4. I have provided a chronology of all the problems and technical issues reported by AUT through their field development timeline. My analysis shows that once Hilcorp got involved the rate of problems decreased dramatically (in early 2010), and operations started to significantly advance the development of the field once they joined in (as can be seen by the increase in production rates from 2010).

Hope some find these comparisons useful - they have certainly put the Hawk Springs and Fort Peck developments into perspective for me:

Cheers, Sharks.