With recent production from the Eagle Ford Shale and Niobrara Formation, Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. passed its target of 5,000 net b/d, the company announced Wednesday.

Carrizo recently brought seven Eagle Ford and one Niobrara well online, bringing its total production to 6,040 net b/d as of Monday, the company said.

When the Houston-based company announced its target in mid-2010, it was only producing 400 b/d, but hadn’t begun developing the Eagle Ford or Niobrara.

“Based on our well inventory and drilling and completion forecast, we expect to reach a net oil production rate of as much as 7,000 b/d by the end of 2012 from the Eagle Ford alone,” Carrizo CEO S. P. “Chip” Johnson IV said.

Considering the 38 net wells Carrizo plans to drill in the Eagle Ford in 2012, that target seems to be an “easy hurdle,” according to Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.

Carrizo is currently producing from 23 wells in the Eagle Ford and waiting to complete another 13. The first 16 wells produced at initial rates between 700 and 1,000 b/d, and cost around $7.5 million each. In the Niobrara, Carrizo is producing from nine wells and waiting to complete a tenth. The first five wells tested at rates between 650 and 725 b/d, and cost around $3.6 million each.

Carrizo narrowed its focus on liquids this year.

The company sold nearly all of its Barnett Shale Tier I properties in April to KKR Natural Resources (see Shale Daily, April 29). And in June it purchased 13,000 net acres in the condensate trend of the Eagle Ford and moved a rig from the Barnett to speed up development in South Texas (see Shale Daily, June 8).

In the fall Carrizo formed two joint ventures, one with Gail (India) Ltd. on around 20,200 net acres in the Eagle Ford condensate and another with Avista Capital Partners on 15,000 net acres in the liquids-rich Utica Shale of eastern Ohio and northwestern Pennsylvania (see Shale Daily, Oct. 3; Sept. 30).

The company continues to pursue gas to a lesser degree. That includes 534 Bcfe of proved reserves in the Barnett, and a two-rig program in the Marcellus got a sales boost when the Laser Northeast Gathering System recently came online.

Carrizo holds 41,000 net acres in the Eagle Ford, 62,000 net acres in the Niobrara, 32,000 net acres in the Barnett and 100,595 net acres in the Marcellus.