Permian – update through August 2021

Permian tight oil production is slowly accelerating and in August rose to about 4.2 million b/d (after upcoming revisions, horizontal wells only), the highest since April 2020 and less than 300 thousand b/d below the peak in March 2020. Natural gas production is already setting new records every month, and came in at 16.6 Bcf/d in August.

Permian – update through July 2021

Tight oil production in the Permian continued to rise to over 4.1 million b/d in July (after revisions, horizontal wells only). Natural gas production set a new record at 16.5 Bcf/d.

Permian – update through June 2021

Tight oil production in the Permian rose by about 1% in June to about 4.1 million b/d in June (after revisions, horizontal wells only). Natural gas production held flat at above 16 Bcf/d.

Permian – update through May 2021

Tight oil production in the Permian was flat at 4.0 million bo/d in May for the 2nd consecutive month (after revisions, horizontal wells only). Natural gas production most likely set a fresh record at over 16 Bcf/d in May (toggle product to ‘gas’).

Permian – update through April 2021

Tight oil production in the Permian was flat at 4.0 million bo/d in April (after revisions, horizontal wells only). About half of it was produced by wells that were completed since early last year, as is visualized by the light & dark blue areas in the chart above. Natural gas production, at over 15 Bcf/d, was close to record levels.

Permian – update through March 2021

Tight oil production in the Permian rose by 800 thousand bo/d in March (horizontal wells only), more than compensating the fall in the preceding month due to the cold weather. At 3.9 million bo/d, output was the highest since April last year.

Permian – update through February 2021

Tight oil production in the Permian fell by over 600 thousand bo/d in February, the largest single-month decline in its history. Operations were severely impacted by the coldest weather in 30 years. Production plunged to just above 3 million bo/d (hz. wells only), the lowest volume in 2.5 years. Based on preliminary production data, we expect that March output was back to the January level.

Permian – update through January 2021

Since June last year, Permian tight oil production has hovered at a level close to 3.8 million bo/d (after upcoming revisions, hz. wells only). Natural gas production is at record heights (>15 Bcf/d). In the next update on this basin, we should learn exactly how much output was impacted by the harsh weather in February.

Permian – update through December 2020

Permian tight oil production was basically unchanged in December at close to 3.8 million bo/d (after upcoming revisions, hz. wells only). The ~3,700 horizontal wells that came online in 2020 replaced almost 1.7 million b/d of the underlying base decline of 2.0 million b/d for the year.

Permian – update through November 2020

Permian tight oil production rose in November by 1% m-o-m to ~3.8 million bo/d (after upcoming revisions). Natural gas production is with 14.8 Bcf/d close to a record level and the basin is now about 25% gassier than 2 years ago, as fewer wells came online last year(new wells start with a low gas-to-oil ratio). I expect that this trend will continue as the basin continues to age, simply because the gas-to-oil ratio for older wells is even higher (~6 Mcf/bbl after 5 years on average).