Hess Corp. reported a net loss of $205 million in this year’s third quarter compared with a net loss of $42 million in third-quarter 2018. On an adjusted basis, Hess reported a net loss of $98 million in the third quarter compared with an adjusted net income of $29 million in last year’s same quarter. The decrease in after-tax adjusted results primarily reflects lower realized selling prices, partially offset by reduced exploration expenses, the company said.
Exploration and production net loss was $53 million in the third quarter compared with net income of $50 million in third-quarter 2018. On an adjusted basis, third-quarter net loss was $34 million compared with net income of $109 million in the prior-year quarter.
Net production, excluding Libya, was 290,000 boe/d in the third quarter, up from third-quarter 2018 net production of 279,000 boe/d, or 269,000 boe/d excluding assets sold. The higher production was mainly driven by the Bakken, partially offset by hurricane-related downtime in the Gulf of Mexico and increased planned downtime at the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development Area. Libya net production was 22,000 boe/d in the third quarter compared with 18,000 boe/d in the prior-year quarter.
Net production from the Bakken increased 38% to 163,000 boe/d from 118,000 boe/d in the prior-year quarter, with net oil production up 26% to 96,000 b/d of oil from 76,000 bo/d in the year-ago period, primarily because of increased drilling activity and new plug and perf completion design.
Natural gas and NGL production was also higher because of increased drilling as well as additional natural gas captured with the start-up of the Little Missouri 4 gas processing plant in late July and additional NGLs received under percentage of proceeds contracts resulting from lower NGL commodity pricing.
The company operated 6 rigs in the third quarter, drilling 41 wells, completing 43 wells, and bringing 33 new wells online. Full-year net production for the Bakken is expected to be 150,000 boe/d, up from the previous guidance range of 140,000-145,000 boe/d.
Net production from the Gulf of Mexico was 59,000 boe/d compared with 71,000 boe/d in the prior-year quarter, primarily reflecting hurricane-related downtime that reduced third-quarter net production by 6,000 boe/d, as well as higher planned maintenance.
Ongoing discoveries
At the Stabroek block, offshore Guyana, operator Esso Exploration & Production Guyana Ltd. announced a 14th discovery with the Tripletail-1 exploration well, which encountered 108 ft of high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoir. Additional hydrocarbon bearing reservoirs were subsequently encountered below the Tripletail discovery, which are still under evaluation.
The Liza Phase 1 development is targeted to begin production in December and will produce as much as 120,000 gross bo/d utilizing the Liza Destiny floating production, storage, and offloading vessel, which arrived in Guyana on Aug. 29.
The Liza Phase 2 development was sanctioned in May and will use the Liza Unity FPSO to produce as much as 220,000 gross bo/d, with first oil expected by mid-2022.
Pending government approvals, a third development, Payara, is expected to produce as much as 220,000 bo/d with startup in 2023.
After completion of operations at Tripletail, the Noble Tom Madden drillship will drill the Uaru-1 exploration well 10 miles east of Liza-1.
The Stena Carron drillship is continuing drilling and evaluation activity at Ranger-2. The drillship will next conduct a production test at Yellowtail-1.
The Noble Bob Douglas drillship is conducting development drilling operations for the Liza Phase 1 project. A fourth drillship, the Noble Don Taylor, is expected to arrive in Guyana in November to drill the Mako-1 exploration well 6 miles south of Liza-1.
E&P capital and exploratory expenditures were $661 million in the third quarter compared with $542 million in the prior-year quarter, primarily reflecting increased drilling in the Bakken and greater activity in Guyana.