Crude benchmarks surged in June after EIA reported U.S. fuel stockpiles declined during the high-demand summer driving season. Prices for WTI ($71/bbl) and Brent ($73/bbl) were up 10% and 7%, respectively. The escalating oil prices caused another uptick in U.S. drilling activity with an average of 464 rigs working in June. That’s 11 more, compared to May, and 190 rigs more than reported in June 2020 (+69%). The gains were mainly in Oklahoma (+17%), New Mexico (+7%) and Texas District 8 (+3%). In May, the DUC tally stood at 6,521, 14% less than the year-ago figure of 7,591. In the Permian, an 852 well y-o-y reduction (-25%), pushed the count down to 2,616. International activity averaged 809 rigs in May, 56 more (+7%) than in April.
About the Authors
Craig Fleming
World Oil
Craig Fleming Craig.Fleming@WorldOil.com
- 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)
- 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)
