Spot prices for Brent, WTI and Dubai Fateh surged 18%, 15% and 17%, respectively, in December after Saudi Arabia announced plans to reduce output by 1 MMbopd in February and March. The unexpected preemptive action was deemed necessary to protect the fledgling oil price recovery from a resurgence of Covid-19. The reduction came just as the IEA slashed its demand forecast for the first quarter as countries lock down to contain new virus outbreaks. U.S. drilling activity continued to recover, averaging 339 units in December, an 9% gain compared to the 311 reported in November. The majority of the increases were in Texas and New Mexico, which added 11 and 9 rigs, respectively, to average 155 and 63 in December. International activity also showed improvement, averaging 764 rigs in November, 28 more than in October.
- Applying ultra-deep LWD resistivity technology successfully in a SAGD operation (May 2019)
- Adoption of wireless intelligent completions advances (May 2019)
- Majors double down as takeaway crunch eases (April 2019)
- What’s new in well logging and formation evaluation (April 2019)
- Qualification of a 20,000-psi subsea BOP: A collaborative approach (February 2019)
- ConocoPhillips’ Greg Leveille sees rapid trajectory of technical advancement continuing (February 2019)
