Oilfield activity around Scurry County still has not experienced the boom that other areas of the Permian Basin have experienced, a fact highlighted by data from the Railroad Commission of Texas.
Data related to permits for new wells and crude oil production also indicate activity may be slowing.
Crude oil production, which tracked closely to last year for most of 2018, fell behind in November. Scurry County oil wells produced 1.03 million barrels of crude oil in November, slightly less than what was reported in October, September and August. Last November, operators reported 1.25 million barrels of crude oil produced.
Year-to-date, production has been 13.2 million barrels of crude oil produced in 2018 compared to 13.4 million barrels through the first 11 months in 2017.
The commission issued five permits to drill new wells in Scurry County, two fewer than were issued in November. The commission issued 25 permits last December.
In districts 8 and 8A, which includes Scurry and the surrounding counties, 408 permits to drill new wells were issued in December, down from the 471 permits issued in November and the 531 permits that were issued in October.
The commission issued a total of 811 original drilling permits in December 2018 compared to 885 in December 2017. The December 2018 total included 750 permits to drill new oil or gas wells, 10 to re-enter plugged well bores and 51 for re-completions of existing well bores. The breakdown of well types for those permits is 180 oil, 43 gas, 537 oil or gas, 46 injection, one service and four other permits.
In December, the commission staff processed 564 oil, 156 gas, 27 injection and three other completions compared to 514 oil, 80 gas, 26 injection and three other completions in December 2017. Total well completions processed for 2018 are 10,986, up from 6,914 recorded in 2017.
Scurry County operators reported 25 completions in December, down from 44 completions in November. In December 2017, operators reorted 16 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, 318 completions were reported in December, down from the 398 completions reported in November and October’s 531 reported completions.
November production reported to the commission was 90.2 million barrels of crude oil and 634,859,071 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 November, operators reported 75.6 million barrels of crude oil preliminarily, updated to a current figure of 100.1 million barrels.
The commission reported that from December 2017 to November 2018, total Texas reported production was 1.27 billion barrels of crude oil and 8.5 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, which is reported separately by the commission.
Texas preliminary November 2018 crude oil production averaged 3 million barrels daily, compared to the 2.5 million barrel daily average of November 2017.
Texas production in November 2018 came from 180,472 oil wells and 90,168 gas wells.
Midland County maintained its position as the top producing county with more than 11.9 million barrels of crude oil produced, compared to 11.5 million barrels in October. Karnes County operators reported 7.1 million of crude oil produced, down about 200,000 barrels from October.
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