Apache Management Discusses Q2 2012 Results - Earnings Call Transcript

Moreover, if you count the land drilling rigs operating in the United States from the Rockies to East Coast, Apache has 62 rigs running, which is the second most active operator out of all the independents and majors, and that's only behind Chesapeake, which really has a different focus and business model. I might point out that not a single 1 of the 62 rigs is drilling a gas target. We said we were going to step up our U.S. drilling activity to exploit our large portfolio, and we're doing just that.

Our total reported production in the second quarter was reduced by a 16 -- which is the difference between a hit and a miss on our production growth. We had offline about 16,000 barrels oil equivalent a day. This includes 4,800 barrels a day due to unscheduled downtime at our third-party operated St. James [ph] plant in Kaybob in Canada. We had 2,000 barrels of oil a day down in the Gulf Coast Onshore due to a third-party pipeline outage in the Lake Paige Field, 3,200 barrels of downtime due to unscheduled facility repairs at Grand Isle 43, which is the complex in the Gulf of Mexico, and 6,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day out of service due to ESP failures for this year.

Most of the 16,000 barrels a day is already back on stream or is expected to be back before the end of the year. I know downtime happens as part of our business. The important thing is that we have a robust portfolio. So it really doesn't impact us over the longer term with the performance of the company.

We remain on track to deliver our production growth guidance in 2012 without any need to significantly increase our capital program for the year. We have a very active exploration program through the rest of the year, and we expect to further accelerate our exploration activities in next year and beyond.

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