Production and reserves along with cash flow are expected to more than double by 2018 for Noble Energy, which is set to start production at three fields in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GoM) within two years.

About four years from now, the company anticipates it will be producing more than 600,000 bbl/d of oil thanks to a string of successful discoveries across the world in recent years—including the giant Leviathan Field in the Eastern Mediterranean—and growth from onshore developments, particularly assets in U.S. shale plays.

“We’re a big believer in a diversified portfolio,” Dave Stover, president and COO of Noble, said during the Johnson Rice & Co. Energy Conference this week. “When you look at it we’ve got five core areas: two of them in the onshore basin in the U.S. between the DJ [Denver-Julesburg] Basin and the Marcellus, and three core offshore positions between the Gulf of Mexico, offshore West Africa—underpinned with our holdings offshore Equatorial Guinea—and offshore the east Mediterranean. … The diversified portfolio gives us choices and doesn’t make us dependent on any one area in any one condition. We think that’s great for managing risk.”

In these days of heightened budget scrutiny and cutbacks, Noble has expanded both onshore and offshore, having recently picked up a license in Gabon. While doing so the company has relied on technology and new techniques to drive production higher. In the DJ and Marcellus shale plays, thefocus has been on completion technology, while deepwater U.S. GoM exploration has benefited from seismic.

“It’s been kind of our anchor of building knowledge, tying in and tapping into the technology as it comes out, especially in below-salts and around-salts seismic,” Stover said of the GoM, adding, “And then using that to expand our knowledge and improve our position around the world, whether [it’s] offshore West Africa or offshore the eastern Mediterranean or some other new venture opportunities,” such as the multistacked Humpback prospect offshore the Falkland Islands where Noble said exploration drilling will resume in 2015 following a 3-D seismic program.

But the combination of extended-reach laterals (ERLs), optimal downspacing and enhanced completion techniques has led to a 200% production growth in the last two years in both the DJ Basin and Marcellus, according to Stover.

With nine drilling rigs operating, more than 100 Mboe/d is produced in the DJ Basin. Stover said enhanced completion techniques have delivered strong results, initial results from a basin-wide downspacing program are encouraging and the ERL program is accelerating.

In the DJ, ERLs have gone from about 1,219 m (4,000 ft) to 1,372 m (4,500 ft) to about 2,134 m (7,000 ft) to 2,743 m (9,000 ft), sometimes close to 3,048 m (10,000 ft), increasing the EUR from about 305 MBoe for a 1,219-m (4,000-ft) lateral to about 750 Mboe for a 2,743-m (9,000-ft) lateral.

Stover also spoke about the company’s upside to total recovery with its downspacing program. Noble started with four wells per section three or four years ago; however, the number has jumped to 16 wells per section with testing underway for 24 to 32 wells per section. In addition, plug-and-perf wells are allowing the operator to get sand placement exactly where wanted, and a second underground lab online is helping the effort.

“You’ve got fiber optics under there that can really see where you’re putting the sand and where the production is coming back from,” Stover explained. “So you can continue to tailor this completion activity to the best possible place going forward.”

Similar progress is being made in the Marcellus, which Stover said has seen flatter declines on legacy wells and 2,134-m (7,000-ft) lateral wells have a projected recovery of 283 MMcm (10 Bcfe). Wells here have also responded favorably to enhanced completion designs with reduced stage and cluster space average initial rates up 15% to 40%.

Noble aims for a recovery rate in the mid-teens for the onshore plays.

GoM: Plans are progressing for five discoveries—Big Bend, Dantzler, Gunflint, Troubador and, the latest, Katmai with a gross resource potential of between 40 MMboe and 100 MMboe. First production for Big Bend, which has a gross potential of between 60 MMboe and 115 MMboe, is scheduled for late 2015, followed by Dantzler (65 MMboe to 100 MMboe) in first-quarter 2016 and Gunflint in 2016. First production for Troubadour (15 MMboe and 25 MMboe) is planned for 2017.

“Over the next year and a half we will double production here from very highly prolific Miocene wells,” Stover said, later adding the next GoM prospect—Madison—will be drilled either in fourth-quarter 2014 or early 2015 in the Miocene play near the Big Bend and Dantzler discoveries.

West Africa: Operations at the Alen condensate gas-cycling and Aseng oil projects are running well and are continuing to generate cash, according to Stover, as the company pursues updated seismic to assess potential in other parts of West Africa. The company is exploring the multistacked Humpback prospect offshore the Falkland Islands where exploration drilling will resume in 2015 following a 3-D seismic program.

In addition, Noble recently picked up a license in Gabon, and an exploration well is set to be drilled in Cameroon next year.

Eastern Mediterranean: Stover described Noble’s East Mediterranean finds as discoveries that have gotten bigger. “When we initially found Tamar we were targeting a 3-Tcf [85-Bcm] opportunity, but it’s turned into a 10-Tcf [283-Bcm] discovery,” he said noting that production has averaged 23 MMcm/d (750 MMcf/d). “Downtime is measured in minutes and hours rather than days.” Presently, the AOT compression project is underway, which could increase field deliverability up to about 39 MMcm (1.3 Bcf/d) next year with further plans to expand to 60 MMcm/d (2 Bcf/d).

The focus at Leviathan, which ballooned from 453 Bcm (16 Tcf) during appraisal drilling to 623 Bcm (22 Tcf), is getting letters of intent and regional contracts in place for gas, he added. Already, a contract is in place with BG for an LNG facility in Egypt, and another contract is lined up with Jordan. The field, set to go onstream in late 2017 or early 2018, is expected to deliver 36 MMcm/d (1.2 Bcf/d) of gas in the first phase, “so there are phases yet to come,” Stover said.

In all, Noble expects overall production from discoveries to be about 170 Mboe/d by 2018.

“We’re excited about where we’re at. We’re excited about [our] portfolio,” Stover said. “Four of our five core areas are going to double over the next four to five years [demonstrating strong growth and] how a diversified portfolio pulls together to blend into what we feel is a very strong, sustainable company going forward and one with an extremely bright future.”

Contact the author, Velda Addison, at vaddison@hartenergy.com.