Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions). Your question comes from Jason Wangler –Wunderlich Securities.
Jason Wangler – Wunderlich Securities
Just a quick question with these contracts that you guys have signed as far as the service cost, will we see kind of a flat LOE, and do you think it'll be kind of in the run rate of what you saw in the third quarter, or where do you think that's going to go from here forward?
Mel G. Riggs
Yes, the contracts we have signed, and Clayton will talk in a lot more detail about those contracts in a minute, but the LOE is really not affected. It's more on the drilling side. Our LOE is actually trending down, though. Operating costs decreased 11% compared to last year. I think this quarter's a little over $14 of BOE. We've had fuel costs coming down, fuel services are coming down and also production taxes are a big part of that, too.
Jason Wangler – Wunderlich Securities
And just looking forward, I know you said on the debt remaining rather flat for the rest of this year, and I'm sure you haven't really gotten the 2010 CapEx finalized yet, but do you see a situation where you guys will be able to keep that active drilling program that you guys have kind of set out and even pay some of that debt down and increase availability on the facility?
Mel G. Riggs
Yes, we probably won't be able to pay the debt down much through the end of the year because we're actually going to be accelerating the program somewhat and if things work the way we think they are or hope they do, we will probably increase the rig count even next year. So sometime next year I think we'll start building a cash position or paying down the debt sometime early first quarter or early second quarter.
Jason Wangler – Wunderlich Securities
And then just one quick one if I could, on the DD&A I thought it was a little bit higher than the last couple of quarters. Is that an anomaly or is that kind of a good run rate going forward?
Mel G. Riggs
That is a good run rate for now. What's happened there is we have a very large cost pool in our South Louisiana program and we have continued to have to write down the reserves. And that happened to us again the third quarter and that's what's increasing the DD&A rate.
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