IMO, most people are too focused on 'horizontal' wells and fail...

IMO, most people are too focused on 'horizontal' wells and fail to realise that vertical wells with the aid of fracking also provides exceptional returns. I have mentioned this fact before but it is good to see a top US finance website highlighting it as well.

AOK can potentially drill 100 vertical wells just in the Snake River Project in Oklahoma alone (5500 acres) and not including Kansas (17000 acres). While these vertical wells only generate around 40 to 50bopd per well, they are cheap to drill with estimated Internal Rate of Returns of 60 to 70% and NPVs of $1.2million per well.

No details yet on how many verticals AOK can drill in Kansas but from the latest presentation, the IRR and NPV for vertical wells there are even better at 80% and $1.7million respectively.

Of course, horizontals are exciting as well but everyone already knows that and with our first horizontal already showing excellent flow rates, things are looking very positive for AOK.