TEXAS DRILLING PERMITS FALL IN NOVEMBER AND OCTOBER
December 29, 2014
The Texas Railroad Commission issued a total of 1,508 original drilling permits in November compared to 1,559 in November 2013. The November total included 1,376 permits to drill new oil and gas wells, 23 to re-enter existing wellbores, and 109 for recompletions. Permits issued in November included 376 oil, 76 gas, 977 oil and gas, 69 injection, two service, and eight other permits.
Texas preliminary October crude oil production averaged 2,215,355 barrels daily, up from the 1,758,780 barrels daily average of October 2013. The preliminary Texas crude oil production figure for October is 68,675,991 barrels, up from 54,522,194 barrels reported during October 2013.
In November, operators reported 1,570 oil, 380 gas, 36 injection and five other completions compared to 1,625 oil, 167 gas, 84 injection and three other completions in November 2013.
Total well completions for 2014 year to date are 27,595 up from 23,311 recorded during the same period in 2013.
Operators reported 1,069 holes plugged and zero dry holes in November compared to 431 holes plugged and zero dry holes in November 2013.
Texas oil and gas wells produced 610,601,042 Mcf (thousand cubic feet) of gas based upon preliminary production figures for October up from the October 2013 preliminary gas production total of 576,413,317 Mcf. Texas preliminary October total gas production averaged 19,696,808 Mcf (thousand cubic feet) a day.
Texas production in October came from 162,224 oil wells and 89,802 gas wells.
Wow, looks like there was a big drop in the Rig Count around 2009.
I wonder what happened to cause that? /sarcasm
Noble Energy built a big building and parking garage in NW Harris County, Texas and will move all the employees there. It will be a shame if they can’t fill it up.
I laid down 18 rigs in less than 30 days during August and September of 1982. Some drilled to casing point and stopped and some just stopped and plugged. Those were miserable days and there have been a lot more since then. A lot of kids have gotten suckered away from potentially decent careers with larger stable companies to smaller ones that just won’t make it through this. I feel sorry for them but lessons have a price. Some will have made a bit of gain but most will not.
This has gotten silly. A 1% or so out of balance excess and more than a 50% drop in price? Absurd. I have been astounded since the first test trade of futures in October of 1984 that the largest industry in the world has allowed themselves to become no better off than farmers as commodity price takers. I expected back then that somehow the industry would shut down NYMEX or buy them out.
And still people complain that the price of gasoline is too high. As an insider even I was shocked when I drove past the station today and saw 1.68 a gallon. My almost instant reaction was, “That’s too cheap. I should fill my tank before it goes back up.” I recall in ‘98 that at some point there was a sudden reduction in motor fuel stocks because it got so cheap everybody got greedy and started keeping their tank full to the brim. I can’t recall how much was moved from commercial storage to gasoline tanks but it was a lot.