EIA Report: The Distribution of U.S. Oil and Natural Gas Wells by Production Rate

The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s recent report on the distribution of oil and gas wells by production rate provides a fascinating statistics-driven look at the current state of domestic energy production. Published in October 2018, the analysis probes how oil and gas wells have changed –– and how these changes have resulted in the rapid growth in U.S. oil and gas production over the past few years.

Interesting data points from the report include:

• U.S. oil production reached 10.04 million barrels per day (b/d) in December 2017 and 10.96 million b/d in July 2018, and U.S. natural gas gross withdrawals reached 96.97 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in December 2017 and 100.24 Bcf/d in July 2018.
• A significant production shift began a decade ago as technological innovations began to drive up the share of horizontal wells being drilling each year–– increasing their percentage from 3% in 2008 to 12% in 2017.
• Although the total number of operating U.S. oil and gas wells has decreased about 5% from a peak in 2014, from more than one million to just under 991,000 in 2017, the total number of horizontally drilled wells has increased 28% from slightly less than 100,000 to more than 126,000 wells.
• Today, most U.S. oil and natural gas production comes from wells producing between 100 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE/d) and 3,200 BOE/d. Interestingly, the share of U.S. oil and natural gas wells producing less than 15 BOE/d has remained surprisingly steady at 80% from 2000 through 2017.

You can download the full report by clicking here.