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Focus on Prolific and Industry-Proven Trends. We focus our activities both in the prolific onshore Gulf Cost area where our management, our technical staff and our field operations teams have significant prior experience and in the industryproven Barnett Shale trend in which our wells have generally longer-lived reserves. Although we have broadened our areas of operations to include the Rocky Mountains, the U.K. North Sea and shale trends in West Texas/New Mexico, Mississippi/Alabama, Kentucky and Arkansas, we plan to focus a majority of our near-term capital expenditures in the onshore Gulf Coast area, where we believe our accumulated data and knowledge base provide a competitive advantage, and in the Barnett Shale area in North Texas where we have acquired a significant acreage position and accumulated a large drillsite inventory.
Aggressively Evaluate 3-D Seismic Data and Acquire Acreage to Maintain a Large Drillsite Inventory. We have accumulated and continue to add to a multiyear inventory of 3-D seismic and geologic data along the prolific producing trend of the onshore Gulf Coast area and industry-proven trend of the Barnett Shale area. In 2005, we added approximately 823 square miles of newly released 3-D and seismic data. We believe our utilization of large-scale 3-D seismic surveys and related technology provides us with the opportunity to maximize our exploration success in both the onshore Gulf Coast and Barnett Shale areas. As of December 31, 2005, we had accumulated licenses for approximately 10,023 square miles of 3-D seismic data and identified over 674 drilling locations and extension opportunities (comprised of 174 locations in the onshore Gulf Coast area, and approximately 500 locations in the Barnett Shale area) including 604 locations currently under lease or in the process of being leased (comprised of 104 locations in the onshore Gulf Coast area and 500 locations in the Barnett Shale area). We believe our use of 3-D seismic surveys reduces, but does not eliminate, the risk of drilling.
Maintain a Balanced Exploration Drilling Portfolio. We seek to balance our drilling program between projects with relatively lower risk and moderate potential and drilling prospects that have relatively higher risk and substantial potential. We believe we have furthered this strategy through the expansion of the Barnett Shale operations in which our wells generally have longer-lived reserves and generally lower risk/lower reward than our average onshore Gulf Coast area wells. We will continue to expand our exploratory drilling portfolio, including lease acquisitions with exploration potential.
Manage Risk Exposure by Market Testing Prospects and Optimizing Working Interests. We seek to limit our financial and operating risks by varying our level of participation in drilling prospects with differing risk profiles and by seeking additional technical input and economic review from knowledgeable industry participants regarding our prospects. Additionally, we rely on advanced technologies, including 3-D seismic analysis, to better define geologic risks, thereby enhancing the results of our drilling efforts. The use of 3-D seismic analysis does not guarantee that hydrocarbons are present or, if present, that they can be recovered economically. We also seek to operate our projects in order to better control drilling costs and the timing of drilling.
Retain and Incentivize a Highly Qualified Technical Staff. We employ 20 natural gas and oil professionals, including geophysicists, petrophysicists, geologists, petroleum engineers and production and reservoir engineers and technical support staff, who have an average of over 20 years of experience. This level of expertise and experience gives us an inhouse ability to apply advanced technologies to our drilling and production activities, including our extensive experience in fracturing and horizontal drilling technologies. Our technical staff is granted stock options and participates in an incentive bonus pool based on production resulting from our exploratory successes.

Exploration Approach

In the onshore Gulf Coast area, our exploration strategy has generally been to accumulate large amounts of 3-D seismic data along primarily prolific, producing trends after obtaining options to lease areas covered by the data. In the case of our Barnett Shale area, our exploration strategy has been to accumulate significant leasehold positions in the proximity of known or emerging pipeline infrastructures, followed by the acquisition and processing of 3-D seismic data. We use 3-D seismic data to identify or evaluate prospects before drilling the prospects that fit our risk/reward criteria. We typically seek to explore in locations within our areas of expertise that we believe have (1) longer-lived, reserve-proven trends, such as the Barnett Shale trend, (2) numerous