Permits for new oil wells and completions and recompletions in Scurry County jumped upward in the first month of 2017, but operators reported lower production than a year ago, according to information from the Railroad Commission of Texas.
Scurry County oil wells produced 1.2 million barrels in December, a slight increase from November, but down almost 150,000 barrels compared to last December. For the full year, county producers reported 15.1 million barrels of oil produced, down nearly 2 million barrels compared to 2015.
Seven new permits to drill in Scurry County were issued in January, down from 24 in December. In January 2016, four permits were issued.
In districts 8 and 8A, which includes Scurry and the surrounding counties, 417 permits to drill were issued in January, compared to 462 issued in December.
The commission issued a total of 956 original drilling permits in January 2017 compared to 510 in January 2016. The January total included 865 permits to drill new oil or gas wells, 12 to re-enter plugged well bores and 79 for re-completions of existing well bores. The breakdown of well types for those permits issued in January 2017 included 259 oil, 67 gas, 607 oil or gas, 18 injection, one service and four other permits.
In January 2017, commission staff processed 418 oil, 84 gas, 31 injection and three other completions compared to 951 oil, 197 gas, 52 injection and four other completions in January 2016. Total well completions for 2017 year-to-date are 536, down from 1,204 recorded during the same period in 2016.
Scurry County operators reported 40 completions in January, up from 24 in December and 17 in January 2016.
In districts 8 and 8A, 197 completions were reported in January compared to 198 in December.
Statewide production for December 2016 was just lower than 74.3 barrels of crude oil. These preliminary figures are based on production volumes reported by operators and will be updated as late and corrected production reports are received. Production reported to the commission for December 2015, was 74.6 million barrels of crude oil preliminarily, updated to a current figure of 88.3 million barrels.
The commission reported that from January 2016 to December 2016, total Texas reported production was 978 million barrels of crude oil and 8 trillion cubic feet of total gas.
Texas preliminary December 2016 crude oil production averaged almost 2.4 million barrels daily, compared to the just more than 2.4 million barrels daily average of December 2015.
Texas production in December 2016 came from 169,564 oil wells and 92,685 gas wells.
Midland County remained the state’s top producing county with more than 6.6 million barrels of oil produced, compared to 6.3 million barrels in November. Karnes County was second statewide with 5.2 million barrels of oil, up from November’s 4.9 million barrels.
According to Baker Hughes, Inc., the Texas rig count as of Feb. 10 was 362, representing about 49 percent of all active rigs in the United States.