Oilfield completions and permits to drill new wells increased over the past two months, although production is still tracking behind last year, according to figures released by the Railroad Commission of Texas.
Scurry County oil wells produced 1.25 million barrels in July, a slight decrease from June, and down almost 200,000 barrels compared to last July. Year-to-date, county producers have reported 8.9 million barrels produced, down 1.3 million barrels compared to the first seven months of 2015.
Eleven permits to drill were issued in August, compared to five permits in August 2015. Eight permits were issued in July.
In districts 8 and 8A, which includes Scurry and the surrounding counties, 349 permits to drill were issued in August, 53 more than were issued in July.
The commission issued a total of 660 original drilling permits in August 2016 compared to 864 in August 2015. The August total included 512 permits to drill new oil or gas wells, eight to re-enter plugged well bores and 140 for re-completions of existing well bores. The breakdown of well types for permits issued in August 2016 included 203 oil, 24 gas, 392 oil or gas, 26 injection, zero service and 15 other permits.
In August 2016, commission staff processed 545 oil, 223 gas, 46 injection and eight other completions compared to 1,113 oil, 172 gas, 36 injection and 11 other completions in August 2015. Total well completions for 2016 year-to-date are 8,107, down from 14,665 recorded during the same period in 2015.
In August, Scurry County operators reported 50 completions, compared to 33 last August. In July, there were 24 completions reported. Many of the completion reports in 2016 were for temporarily abandoning and recompleting wells.
In districts 8 and 8A, 281 completions were reported in August, the same as reported in July.
Production for July 2016 was 75.5 million 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 July 2015, was 76.15 million barrels of crude oil preliminarily, updated to a current figure of 91 million barrels.
The commission reported that in the last 12 months, total Texas reported production was 1.011 billion barrels of crude oil. Texas preliminary July 2016 crude oil production averaged 2.43 million barrels daily, compared to the 2.46 million barrels daily average of July 2015.
Texas production in July 2016 came from 183,260 oil wells and 92,238 gas wells.
Karnes County was the state’s top producing county with 5.65 million barrels of oil produced, compared to 5.2 million barrels in June. Midland County was second statewide with 5.4 million barrels of oil, up from June’s 4.8 million barrels.
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