Ted Cross of NOVI Labs gave some great perspective in this post about longer well laterals. He also breaks it out into regions, showing that half of the increase is in the prolific Permian Basin as expected. Looking at the data like this shows the great improvements in efficiency as measured by drilling productivity, or production per rig.
"Just how much have oil and gas operators been drilling? While
the rig count gets most of the attention, lateral miles drilled is more
directly related to production. Viewed this way, operators have been very
active over the last few years."
“In April 2023, Lower 48 operators put 2,144
lateral miles onto production, just short of the previous peaks found in
2018-2019. This is despite the rig count being ~25% lower in 2023, thanks to
longer laterals and improved drilling efficiencies.”
“Zooming in, the Permian represented half of this
total, putting on 1,088 miles in April 2023. For context, this is about as far
as Midland is from Mexico City -- an incredible distance to drill in a month.
The Permian has comprised over 50% of lateral miles drilled in Lower 48 in the
post-COVID cycle.”
“The Uinta, Haynesville, and Powder River also had
impressive runs during the latest cycle, peaking at fresh highs of 94, 141, and
293 miles, respectively. While much smaller than the Permian, those numbers do
add up!”
“Looking forward, long laterals and drilling
efficiencies will continue to be a major theme in Lower 48 development. With
ExxonMobil planning 4-milers in the Permian and Appalachian operators breaking
an average of 13,000' (!!), the longer lateral train shows no signs of stopping.”
His graph below shows those results. Below that graph, I am
adding graphs of rig count and oil & natural gas production over the same
time period. I also added a graph of drilling productivity vs. rig counts for the
Appalachian region over a roughly similar period. All data is from EIA with EIA
utilizing Baker Hughes rig count data:
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