Wednesday, October 1, 2014

EIA Drilling Productivity Report (e.g. higher initial, faster decline in the Eagle Ford)

The thing to watch for with these decline curves is the refracking schedule.
At some point the U.S. will have 10x as many wells producing at 10% of initial and Halliburton, Schlumberger and Baker Hughes et al will become real yieldcos with annuity-like cash flows from the multiple fracks these wells will require if they are to produce for 30 years.
From the Energy Information Administration, 29Sept2014:

New Eagle Ford wells continue to show higher production
graph of average oil production per well during the first 48 months of operation, as explained in the article text
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on Drillinginfo

Increased drilling and improved drilling efficiency have led to significant crude oil production increases in the Eagle Ford region in southern Texas. These increases have occurred despite the region's relatively high well decline rates. However, by offsetting the natural declines through the use of new recovery techniques, further production increases are possible.

Horizontal drilling combined with an increasing number of hydraulic fracturing stages in tight formations like the Eagle Ford typically enhance initial production rates when compared to past results. These higher initial production rates are often accompanied by initially larger decline rates, before gradually leveling off to a consistent level of decline for the remaining years of the well life.

While initial production rates have steadily increased since 2009, first-year decline rates in the Eagle Ford have fluctuated between 60% and 70%. Most notably, decline rates over the second year of production have steadily increased from 30% for wells drilled in 2009 to nearly 50% for wells drilled in 2011 and 2012. Since 2013, many producers have been using significantly more proppant (sand or other material designed to keep a hydraulic fracture open) when hydraulically fracturing new wells, which appears to have increased initial production rates, but which was followed by a steeper drop in production.
table of year-over-year decline in production in wells drilled in the Eagle Ford region from 2009-13, as explained in the article text
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on Drillinginfo

Principal contributors: Richard Yan, Jozef Lieskovsky, Sam Gorgen

Recently:
September 23, 2014
Higher Permian production, constrained infrastructure increase spread between WTI oil hubs

August 12, 2014
Ohio's Utica Region now included in EIA's monthly Drilling Productivity Report

August 5, 2014
Marcellus Region production continues growth