Appalachia-focused Eclipse Resources Corp. (NYSE: ECR) reported on June 16 that its operations remain ahead of schedule for 2017, as the company continues to break records in the Utica Shale.

Eclipse said it successfully drilled its third and newest “super-lateral” well, the Outlaw C 11H, in the company's Utica Shale condensate area with a total measured depth of about 27,750 ft and a lateral extension of roughly 19,500 ft. The well, drilled in 17 days from spud to total depth, set a new lateral length record for Eclipse, according to a company press release.

Based in State College, Pa., Eclipse's core acreage position is located in Noble, Guernsey, Monroe, Belmont and Harrison counties, Ohio.

The Outlaw C 11H well, along with Eclipse's recently drilled 19,300-ft Great Scott 3H well, are expected to begin completions in the third quarter of 2017, said Benjamin W. Hulburt, Eclipse chairman, president and CEO.

In addition, Eclipse also announced it recently turned its seven well Moser pad to sales, located in the company’s Utica Shale dry gas window acreage in eastern Monroe County, Ohio, ahead of schedule.

"I remain extremely pleased with our team’s operational cadence, and look forward to assessing the results from the seven well Moser pad," Hulburt said in a statement. "This pad, which contains seven gross (seven net) wells with an average lateral length of approximately 7,200 ft, has recently been turned to sales slightly ahead of schedule, with starting pressures ranging up to approximately 7,500 pounds per square inch."

The Moser pad wells are currently producing about 100 million cubic feet per day collectively as the company continues to implement its “engineered” flowback procedure designed to bring the wells up to target production rates while preserving fracture conductivity and minimizing formation damage, the company release said.

Eclipse said the wells were completed using a number of new completions techniques, which may form the basis of future completion designs beyond the company’s “Generation-3” design that resulted in the company increasing all of its Utica Shale type well expectations for 2017.

"Although extremely early in the life of these new exciting wells, we are initially very intrigued with what we are seeing," Hulburt said. "Based on the results of these wells so far, the continued performance of our Gen-3 wells, and the team’s ability to shorten our cycle times, I expect our production in the third quarter 2017 to be at least 350 million cubic feet equivalent per day."

Hulburt also said Eclipse completed the drilling of its second Marcellus condensate well and the company will begin applying its innovative completion techniques to this portion of its acreage during the third quarter.

"These Marcellus wells should allow us to further prove up this area of our acreage that includes over 70 risked 10,000-ft lateral locations that can be developed in conjunction with our dry gas Utica position in this area of southeastern Ohio," he said.