Still increasing productivity after all these years! Here is the EIA’s “Today in Energy”:
”The average new well in each DPR region produced more oil in 2019 than wells drilled in previous years in those same regions. This trend has persisted for more than 10 consecutive years. More effective drilling techniques, including the increasing prevalence of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, have helped to increase these initial production rates. In particular, well productivity was improved because of the injection of more proppant during the hydraulic fracturing process and the ability to drill longer horizontal components (also known as laterals) and perforate more stages.
Increasing well productivity has supported crude oil production even in years such as 2015, when oil prices fell and rig counts dropped. In 2016, rig counts continued to decline sharply, and total U.S. crude oil production decreased for the first time in 10 years. Fewer wells were drilled; however, those that were drilled were drilled more quickly and located in more productive areas, which led to increasing per-well production.”
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