Marathon Oil grew Bakken production from 24,000 boe/d in December 2011 to 35,000 boe/d in the fourth quarter of 2012. The company's production stream is approximately 90% oil, 5% natural gas, and 5% NGLs.

While 2012 was an impressive year, production is down slightly in January (33,000 boe/d) due to weather related issues and the company's completion schedule. I suspect the company will revert back to its expected growth trajectory in the coming weeks.

The company reached total depth (TD) on 18 gross wells and brought 18 gross wells to production during the fourth quarter. Drilling time also continued to improve as the company averaged a spud to spud time of just 27 days.

In 2013, Marathon plans to drill 65-70 net wells. In total, the company expects to participate in 190-220 gross wells, with 60-70 of those operated.