Quicksilver Resources stock jumps on news of Canadian well output

COMMENT: Quicksilver is not just producing natural gas from BC's shales, but is also Canada's largest producer of coalbed methane.

By JACK Z. SMITH
Star-Telegram.com (Fort Worth, TX)
Posted Tuesday, Sep. 22, 2009

The stock of Fort Worth-based Quicksilver Resources soared to a yearly high Tuesday, buoyed by an announcement of strong results from a Canadian natural gas well.

Quicksilver (ticker: KWK) closed at $14.43 a share, up $1.31, or 10 percent.

The stock vaulted as high as $15.10 in heavy early morning trading, after a company announcement late Monday that a Quicksilver horizontal well in the remote Horn River Basin of northeast British Columbia had an impressive initial production rate of 13 million cubic feet of natural gas a day and an average daily yield of 10 million cubic feet in its first month of production.

The stock’s trading volume topped 7.1 million shares Tuesday, more than quadruple its daily average of about 1.69 million shares traded over the past five years, according to Bloomberg data.

Quicksilver CEO Glenn Darden said Monday that he is "very pleased" with the well and hopes to realize "even greater production volumes per well" in future drilling there.

Quicksilver has a substantial lease holding of 127,000 net contiguous acres in the basin, which has some geological characteristics similar to the Barnett Shale of North Texas, where Quicksilver is a significant player and has a projected 10-year drilling inventory on its lease holdings of 192,000 net acres.

Quicksilver’s stock price gains since March have been especially substantial given that it is predominantly a natural gas producer. Gas prices, which have spiked recently, are still at less than one-third of their July 2008 peak of more than $13 per million British thermal units. In futures trading Tuesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, gas for October delivery settled at $3.61 per million BTUs.

Quicksilver’s stock was exceptionally volatile in 2008, trading as high as $44.98 on May 7 and as low as $3.74 on Dec. 5. The stock rose and fell largely in sync with natural gas prices, as did stocks of other independent gas producers.

On Monday in a briefing at company headquarters before a drilling site tour for three state legislators, Darden said that the gas glut should eventually dissipate, with prices likely to rebound to a "more reasonable" level of $6 to $8 per million BTUs. If that price can be sustained, drilling activity should rebound significantly, energy analysts have forecast.

Jack Z. Smith, 817-390-7724, jzsmith@star-telegram.com

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