Industry at a glance
U.S. production surged to 12.87 MMbopd in December, adding to global supply, while Asia’s Coronavirus health scare battered demand. The one-two punch put downward pressure on crude benchmarks, with WTI ($57.92) and Brent ($64.16) dropping 3.3% and 4.7% in January, respectively. A lack of corrective action by OPEC+ caused a discount on prompt crude (contango), a pattern that indicates oversupply. Drilling in U.S. shale fields continued to wane, with large y-o-y losses reported in Oklahoma (60.6%), Pennsylvania (48%), Colorado (40%), Ohio (35.3%) and Texas RRC 7C (29.3%). Overall, drilling in the U.S. averaged 791 rigs in January, 26% less than the year-ago figure of 1,065. The U.S. DUC count dropped to 7,573 in December, a y-o-y reduction of 13.2%. International drilling activity increased 7 rigs m-o-m, to average 1,239 units in December.
- Management issues- Dallas Fed: Activity sees modest growth; outlook improves, but cost increases continue (October 2023)
- Industry at a glance (June 2023)
- Industry at a glance (May 2023)
- Management issues- Dallas Fed: Oil and gas expansion stalls amid surging costs and worsening outlooks (May 2023)
- Executive viewpoint (April 2023)
- Global offshore market is on the upswing (April 2023)
