The “Great Land Rush”
With the combination of higher natural gas prices and advances in drilling and completion technology, we were able to see an opportunity for future drilling in various shale plays throughout the country. Shale formations had long been understood to hold vast supplies of natural gas, the industry had just not yet cracked the technological code to be able to profitably extract the natural gas. However, during the past few years, this code was cracked, and so we began an aggressive lease acquisition program, which we refer to as the "Great Land Rush." We believed the winner of the land rush would enjoy a distinctive competitive advantage for decades to come as other companies would be locked out of the best new shale plays in the U.S.
The Result
As a result of our land rush, we now own approximately 14 million net acres of leasehold in the U.S. and have identified approximately 36,000 net drilling opportunities on this leasehold. This deep backlog of drilling, more than 10 years worth at current drilling levels, provides unusual confidence and transparency into our future growth capabilities.