OREANDA-NEWS. A reduction in drilling in south Texas' Eagle Ford shale because of lower oil and gas prices will help reduce NGL production and bolster prices next year, Roger Manny, chief financial officer for Range Resources, told analysts today.

"With reduced activity in the Eagle Ford, we anticipate better days ahead for NGLs to level the playing field here," Manny said during the Jefferies 2015 Energy Conference in Houston. EIA data shows crude production in seven major growth producing regions of the US topped out in the second quarter of this year amid weaker WTI prices.

At the same time, Manny reiterated a focus away from wet gas regions in the Marcellus shale over the next year. Several producers in the region are drilling in drier areas because of weak NGL prices and poorer economics for fractionation and transportation costs.

Range is a term contract holder on MarkWest's Mariner I project, which takes propane and ethane out of the Marcellus shale for export at the Marcus Hook terminal near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Manny reiterated MarkWest won't need any additional drilling in the Marcellus to meet its commitments on that line.

"The ethane there is in the bag, and the propane we have coming on with Mariner East I; that volume is already covered by existing production, so we're not in a situation where we have to drill," he said. "So we can focus more on the dry (gas production) in 2016, so that's a good position to be in here."