Everything’s bigger in Texas — and oil producer Sundance Energy is super-sizing its guidance to fit the State’s unofficial motto.

The US-based onshore oil and gas producer expects September quarter production to be at the top end of its 10,000-11,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) guidance.

“Production performance during the third quarter was driven by bringing nine wells online… All initial production results to date on the Company’s acquired acreage have exceeded expectations,” Sundance said.

The stock (ASX:SEA) jumped 9 per cent to 9.6c on the news.

In the June quarter production it hit 7,900 boe/d, just over the top end of guidance for that quarter as well.

Sundance forecast the following quarter to be 14,000–15,000 boe/d — 32 per cent higher than the prior period.

It didn’t say what sales had been for the September quarter, but based on that rise it would be 9520-10,200 boe/d.

Sundance Energy shares over the last six months.

The new US oil zone

Sundance’s US operations are based in Denver, Colorado but it’s focused on its Eagle Ford acreage.

The Eagle Ford shale play is a rock formation that covers most of Texas.

It hasn’t been as popular as the Permian Basin which supported production below $US50 a barrel when the bottom fell out of global markets in 2014.

But now it’s plagued by pipeline shortages which are contributing to a glut of oil in the US as prolific Permian producers can’t get it to market, and labour and housing shortages.

In the last year or so other basins such as Eagle Ford and Anadarko have become much more interesting to oil companies.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) says daily oil production at Eagle Ford is heading towards 1.5m barrels.

Baker Hughes’ weekly rig count data, a figure that indicates the health of the oil industry in the US, was 78 last week compared to 69 this time last year and below 30 in mid-2016.

Featured Companies

You might be interested in