Shale player Bill Barrett raises production guidance

Bill Barrett said Wednesday it raised its 2017 production guidance to between 6.9 million and 7.1 million barrels of oil equivalent.

"We now anticipate 2017 production growing over 20 percent relative to 2016 and expect to generate greater than 30 percent growth in 2018," President and CEO Scot Woodall said in a statement.

The revision announced Wednesday is higher than declared in September, when the company said it would produce between 6.4 million and 6.6 million barrels of oil equivalent. The September guidance was a 4 percent increase from its previous estimate and 12 percent higher than last year.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that Colorado produces around 374,000 barrels of oil per day.

Colorado is rich in shale oil reserves, supplying about 3 percent of total U.S. crude oil production in large part from its Niobrara and Denver-Julesberg basins. Production quadrupled from 2010 to 2015, but slowed down last year because of the strains of lower crude oil prices.

The company said Wednesday the cost of doing business was moving lower, with the lease operating expense of $3.08 per barrel of oil equivalent marking a 15 percent drop from the last quarter. Expenses in the Denver-Julesberg basin were lower by 18 percent.

Total third quarter production was 1.92 million barrels of oil equivalent, beating its guidance for the quarter by 10 percent. About 60 percent of the company's output was in the form of oil.

Nevertheless, the company said adjusted net income for the quarter reflected a loss of $5.9 million.

The production trends come as the price for crude oil presses two-year highs. Lower crude oil prices crimped spending on exploration and production. Drilling services company Baker Hughes last week counted 33 rigs working in Colorado, a loss of 1 from the previous week, but twice as high as the same period last year.