Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator's instruction)Your first question comes from the line of Eric Beaumont of Copia Capital.
Eric Beaumont - Copia Capital
Couple of things. First, just to check the map here, the fourth quarter E&P even without the ceiling test would have been a loss and I am just wondering, was that just run rate or does it have more to do with the LOE or depletion change from write downs?
David Emery
Well, the specifics of it, we have not put out Eric but certainly the change in reserves result in an increase in depletion even not including the ceilings test and the reserve reductions were primarily driven by price as well.
Eric Beaumont - Copia Capital
So, I think or obviously we do not know where things ultimately end up but just thinking about you were down about 11% in production. Anything we should think about for production levels for 2009 or is that up in the air right now?
David Emery
Really, it is dependent on and that is part of the guidance issue, Eric. It really depends on what we are going to do for capital spending and frankly at current price levels, we are not really enthused about spending a lot of capital so it is very difficult for us to give accurate guidance on production right now and that is why we have chosen not to. We did have a decline in 2008, I think it is about 4 some percent, 5% quarter-over-quarter. I do not think it was 11%. I think the annual number was 7.5%, something like that but anyway, we did have a decline. I would say, going forward we are hoping we can continue to replace some of our production but is very difficult to say that we can do that. It just depends on what the levels of prices are and how that contributes to our willingness to make investment decisions but year-over-year decline is about 7.5% in production.
Eric Beaumont - Copia Capital
If we take a look on the marketing side again, volatility and things up in the air, I guess what I am getting at is I understand pulling the guidance but you should have a decent handle on utilities if you thought about just giving kind of breakdown to pieces that you cannot quantify because just the full thing in their entirety causes a little bit more of uncertainty than you may want to have out there.
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