Gulfport to keep 2024 production flat, move to more liquids-rich development

Gulfport Energy Corp. plans to deliver 2024 production in line with 2023 levels with a focus on more liquids-rich development in both its Utica shale and South Central Oklahoma Oil Province (SCOOP) positions.

The move comes as “the current natural gas pricing environment is challenged,” said John Reinhart, chief executive officer, in a release Feb. 27.

“Building on the momentum from 2023, we plan to remain focused on further optimizing our development programs cycle times and operating costs, and we laid out a program today expected to deliver similar production year over year on 10% less capital invested,” he said.

For full year 2024, the operator expects to deliver relatively flat year-over-year net production of 1,045-1,080 MMcfed (about 92% gas) on base capital expenditures of $380-420 million, including $50-60 million spend allocated to maintenance leasehold and land investment, a decrease of about 10% compared with full-year 2023.

The company plans to deliver a more capital efficient program associated with longer laterals and continued cycle time improvements as well as similar net completed lateral footage compared with 2023 while turning to sales 20% fewer gross wells.

This year, Gulfport expects to turn to sales 16 gross Utica wells during 2024. For SCOOP, the plan is to drill 5 gross wells and turn to sales 3 gross wells during 2024.

Fourth-quarter 2023

In fourth-quarter 2023, the company had total net production of 1,063 MMcfed. The company had net income of $245.7 million and generated $155.5 million of net cash provided by operating activities and $85.4 million of adjusted free cash flow. Incurred capital expenditures, excluding discretionary acreage acquisitions, was $82.9 million.