Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. is a Houston based independent energy company engaged in the exploration, development and production of natural gas and oil.  Our current operations are focused in the Barnett Shale area in North Texas, in the Marcellus Shale of Appalachia, along the onshore Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana, and in the U.K. North Sea where two significant Carrizo generated discoveries were made in the 2nd quarter of 2007.

We have grown our production and reserves through 3-D seismic driven exploration and development drilling programs.  From our inception through December 31, 2009, we have participated in the drilling of 786 (392.8 net) wells with a success rate of 73% in our onshore Gulf Coast area and 100% in the Barnett Shale.

The company has accumulated significant expertise in the drilling and completion of complex extended reach horizontal wells in resource shales. Our business strategy is to leverage this core competency in pursuing exploitation and development opportunities in the most prospective North American natural gas resource shale regions. This strategy has led to significant success in the Barnett Shale of the Fort Worth Basin where we are one of the lowest cost, fastest growing operators.

As of December 31, 2009, we had over 52,000 acres under lease in the prolific Barnett Shale, including 21,000 acres in the thickest, most productive portion known as the “Core”.  We have 3-D seismic data over the majority of this property and have indentified over 320 drill sites having associated potential reserves of over 1 Tcfe of natural gas in the Core alone.  We have indentified the Marcellus Shale in Appalachia as our next focus area and source of future growth outside of the Barnett.  This play is a logical extension of our Barnett expertise and we have accumulated over 108,000 net acres in this prospective region.  Carrizo also maintains significant acreage positions in other resource shale basins such as the Marfa, Fayetteville, New Albany, and Floyd. In the second half of 2010 we will be pursuing a strategy to increase our production of natural gas liquids and crude oil by drilling wells on newly acquired leases in the Eagleford Shale play of south Texas and the Niobrara Formation of Colorado.

In 2009, we spent $162 million on oil and gas operations including $124 million in the Barnett where we drilled 47 gross (33 net) wells.