Despite the rebound in the price of crude oil, production from Scurry County’s oilfield fell almost 200,000 barrels last year.
Crude oil production, which tracked closely to last year for most of 2018, fell behind in November and continued to slide in December. Scurry County oil wells produced 1.08 million barrels of crude oil in December. Last December, operators reported 1.30 million barrels of crude oil produced, according to information from the Railroad Commission of Texas.
Production in 2018 was 14.55 million barrels of crude oil produced compared to 14.74 million barrels in 2017.
The commission reported that statewide in 2018, total Texas reported production was 1.281 billion barrels of crude oil and 8.6 trillion cubic feet of total gas. Crude oil production reported by the commission is limited to oil produced from oil leases and does not include condensate.
December production reported to the commission was 90.23 million barrels of crude oil and 647,320,468 mcf (thousand cubic feet) of total gas from oil and gas wells. These preliminary figures are based on production volumes reported by operators and will be updated as late and corrected production reports are received. Last December, operators reported 78 million barrels of crude oil preliminarily, updated to a current figure of 104 million barrels.
Texas preliminary December 2018 crude oil production averaged 2.9 million barrels daily, compared to the 2.5 million barrels daily average of December 2017.
Crude oil and natural gas production reported to the commission for December 2018 came from 179,434 oil wells and 89,562 gas wells.
In January, the commission issued 13 permits to drill new wells in Scurry County, compared to five issued in December. The commission issued 14 permits last January.
In districts 8 and 8A, which includes Scurry and the surrounding counties, 691 permits to drill new wells were issued in January, a jump from the 408 permits issued in December and 471 permits issued in November.
The commission issued a total of 1,196 original drilling permits in January 2019 compared to 1,166 in January 2018. The January 2019 total included 1,102 permits to drill new oil or gas wells, seven to re-enter plugged well bores and 87 for re-completions of existing well bores. The breakdown of well types for those permits is 303 oil, 53 gas, 732 oil or gas, 88 injection, three service and 17 other permits.
In January, the commission staff processed 742 oil, 245 gas, 29 injection and four other completions compared to 739 oil, 179 gas, 44 injection and one other completion in January 2018. Total well completions processed for 2019 year-to-date are 1,020, up from 963 recorded during the same time period in 2018.
Scurry County operators reported 43 completions in January, compared to 25 in December. In January 2018 operators reported 12 completions. Many of the completions were listed as “well record only,” and included temporarily abandoned wells, repairs and wells that have been completed but not activated.
In districts 8 and 8A, 388 completions were reported in January, an increase from the 318 completions reported in December. In November, 398 completions were reported.
Midland County maintained its position as the top producing county with more than 11.55 million barrels of crude oil produced, compared to 11.9 million barrels in November.
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