Oil prices have been rebounded from historic lows and are hovering around $35 in recent weeks, but local oilfield production continued to slow down. Although permits doubled in April compared to a year ago, completions were down, as was March’s crude oil production, according to information from the Railroad Commission of Texas.
In March, local operators reported 1.2 million barrels of crude oil produced, which is an increase from February’s 1.14 million barrels of crude oil produced and in line with January’s 1.21 million barrels.
Last March, Scurry County oil wells produced 1.4 million barrels of crude oil.
Year-to-date, local producers have reported 3.6 million barrels of crude oil compared to 3.9 million barrels during the first three months of 2019.
Statewide in March, operators preliminarily reported producing 107.2 million barrels of crude oil, compared to 98.96 million barrels in February. March’s daily average production was just more than 3.46 million barrels.
Last March, operators preliminarily reported 101.8 million barrels of crude oil produced, which was updated to 128.7 million barrels.
Crude oil and natural gas production as reported to commission for March 2020 came from 171,775 oil wells and 88,293 gas wells.
From April 2019 to March 2020, total Texas reported production was 1.5 billion barrels of crude oil and 10.1 trillion cubic feet of total gas. Crude oil production reported by the RRC is limited to oil produced from oil leases and does not include condensate, which is reported separately by the RRC.
In Scurry County, the commission issued six permits to drill wells in May. Three permits were issued in May 2019.
In Districts 8 and 8A, which includes Scurry and the surrounding counties, 126 permits to drill new wells were issued in May, compared to 266 issued in April.
The commission issued a total of 251 original drilling permits in May 2020 compared to 1,050 in May 2019. The May 2020 total includes 208 permits to drill new oil or gas wells, one to re-enter plugged well bores and 27 for re-completions of existing well bores.
The breakdown of well types for original drilling permits in May 2020 is 59 oil, 22 gas, 159 oil or gas, seven injection, and four other permits.
Scurry County operators reported nine completions in May. In May 2019 operators reported 42 completions. Many of the completions both years 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, 439 completions were reported in May, compared to 460 completions in April.
Statewide in May 2020, commission staff processed 919 oil, 300 gas and 117 injection completions for new drills, re-entries and re-completions, compared to 735 oil, 153 gas, and 40 injection completions in May 2019.
Total well completions processed for 2020 year to date for new drills, re-entries and re-completions are 6,589 compared to 4,173 recorded during the same period in 2019.
Many of the state’s top crude producing counties reported increases in production from February to March.
Midland County was the state’s top producing county with 14.1 million barrels of crude oil produced. In February, operators reported 12.7 million barrels of crude oil and in January, 13.3 million barrels.
Martin County retained the state’s second spot with 9.9 million barrels produced in March, an increase of 1.5 million barrels. Karnes County remained in third with 7.8 million barrels, an increase of 600,000 barrels. Reeves County reported 7.2 million barrels, compared to 8.8 million in February. Neighboring Howard County reported 6.1 million barrels of crude produced in March, compared to 5.8 million barrels in February.