Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRZO) Since our initial purchase in February, Carrizo Oil & Gas has been a strong performer. With a solid balance sheet and a significant drilling inventory,we see Carrizo as a multi-year compounder into recovering oil prices, however long that takes.
Based in Houston, TX, Carrizo is an exploration and production company focused on oil and gas plays in the U.S. Its most important acreage is in the high quality core areas of the Eagle Ford shale in South Texas, the Delaware basin in the Permian in West Texas, and the Utica shale in Ohio. Carrizo's share price, like those of all oil and gas production companies, came under extreme price pressure in February, as the market sold off and investors feared sustained oil prices in the low-$20 per barrel range.
Carrizo is unique from our perspective as a small cap company thanks to its high quality acreage (what we call good rocks) and a strong balance sheet. It fits our criteria for creditworthiness, with a disciplined hedging program to forward sell 50% of production, and a recently re-determined borrowing base on its $600 million revolving loan versus $50 million drawn.
As for its acreage, Carrizo rocks aren't just good, their 88,000 acres in the Eagle Ford play in South Texas are great, with about 75% oil cuts and a PV103 break-even of $32.50 per barrel. Further, Carrizo has the ability to respond quickly to higher prices, with drilled but uncompleted inventory of 53 net Eagle Ford wells, which represents upwards of almost 12,000 barrels of oil equivalent production per day (B0Epd), or almost half of their current production run rate. With stronger prices, Carrizo has the balance sheet and the acreage to opportunistically increase production in 30 days through fracking and completing these wells. Moreover, it has a long horizon of drilling visibility with 53 planned Eagle Ford wells in 2016, vs. a base well inventory of 915 drilling locations and potentially an inventory of 2,100 locations with tighter spacing. Indeed, as good oil plays get better,
Carrizo has the sweet spot acreage in one of the best.
From Chip Rewey's second quarter 2016 Third Avenue Small-Cap Value Fund letter.
