Paramount Resources Ltd. provided updates on December 2015 sales volumes and 2015 production, the company said Jan. 20.

For December 2015, the estimated average sales volumes totaled about 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (Mboe/d) including about 12Mbbl/d of condensate.

Throughout the fourth quarter of 2015, sales volumes averaged about 45Mboe/d including 10Mboe/d of condensate. To date in January, sales volumes have averaged about 50Mboe/d, about 50% liquids.

The 2-34 and 3-33 six-well ultrarich Montney pads were completed in fourth-quarter 2015, and the total costs to drill, complete, equip and tie them in will average about $8.5 million each.

The aggregate test rates are 44.9MMcf/d of natural gas and 16,317bbl/d of liquids on the 2-34 pad, and 61.4MMcf/d of natural gas and 13,360bbl/d of liquids on the 3-33 pad.

The wells were fracked with water-based fluids and higher intensity fracks, and completion costs were reduced by about 40%, Paramount said. To date, nine of the 12 wells have been brought on production and six of them have been on production for more than 25 days.

Production in the fourth quarter was impacted by a scheduled NGL pipeline outage requiring most Kaybob wells to be shut in for 10 days beginning Oct. 20, 2015, and by downtime in the first two weeks of November as the Musreau Deep Cut facility was brought back online following maintenance work during the October NGL pipeline outage.

Gas lift production equipment was installed on 11 Musreau wells during fourth-quarter 2015, and by mid-2016 the company plans to have 44 Kaybob and Grande Prairie wells equipped with gas lift.

An unscheduled outage at the third-party operated Smoky Deep Cut plant shut in about 2Mboe/d of production through November and December 2015, and there were delays in commissioning the new third-party operated compression facility at Birch, British Columbia, delaying about 1Mboe/d of new production by one month.

Total capex for 2015 will be in line with the previous guidance of $490 million, Paramount said. Paramount said that employee salaries have been reduced by 5% in 2016, and labor and travel costs for field operations have been reduced by 12% to 15%.

Paramount said it is currently conducting a process for the potential sale of certain midstream assets in the Kaybob operating unit and will provide more information as appropriate.

Paramount Resources Ltd. is based in Calgary, Alberta.