Oslo-based research firm Rystad Energy said recently that the average production of new wells in Permian Basin is expected to reach a record high in 2022. Rystad said it will top 1,000 boed because of increases in lateral well length. “The Permian is entering a three-mile lateral era,” Artem Abramov, head of shale research at Rystad, said Jan. 28. “Such long wells were viewed as inferior for their high finding and development costs in some deeper zones just a few years ago, but modern equipment and completion methods allow extended-reach wells to spread across the entire basin.” The average was 974 boed in 2021.
Rystad said average daily production has steadily climbed since 2010 – closely aligned with horizontal well length, which is expected to reach 9,500 feet in 2022 after 9,300 in 2021 and 9,000 in 2020. Operators started using ultra-long wells of up to 3 miles in length in Permian in 2014, but their popularity has grown with market share of 4 percent of completions in 2017 and 18 to 23 percent in 2021.