Texas added 6 rigs for the second straight week, and the U.S. count of active oil and gas drilling rigs increased for the ninth straight week as of Nov. 13, according to Baker Hughes. U.S. has 312 rigs (300 previous week), Texas has 154 (147 previous week), Permian Basin has 145 (139 previous week) and New Mexico has 53 (50 previous week).
Despite the improving rig counts, Matt Andre of S&P Global Platts Analytics told Enverus that most basins still are well below rig levels needed to keep production flat. U.S. Energy Information Administration said last week it expects U.S. crude oil production to decline through the first half of 2021 before increasing in the second half of the year. EIA expects declining legacy well production will offset production from new wells in early 2021 resulting in declining production. As more wells come online later in 2021, new well production is expected to reach levels that exceed the legacy well declines to result in increased production.
Total U.S. production was a record 12.9 million b/d in November 2019 before falling to 12.7 million b/d in March 2020 and 10.0 million b/d in May 2020. Production rose to 10.6 million b/d in August 2020 as operators reduced curtailments after prices recovered to $42 per barrel in August from $17 per barrel in April.
In Permian Basin as of Nov. 13, the most active counties are Eddy (unchanged with 27 rigs) and Lea (up 3 in past week to 25 rigs) in New Mexico followed by Midland (up 1 to 20), Martin (down 1 to 16), and Howard and Reeves with 12 rigs each. Enverus said Nov. 12 in the last month Endeavor added 3 rigs in Midland Basin for a total of 5, EOG Resources added 2 rigs in Delaware Basin for a total of 9, Mewbourne Oil added 2 rigs in Midland Basin for a total of 6, and Occidental added 2 rigs in Permian Basin for a total of 5.
Rig counts in other leading states as of Nov. 13 include 38 in Louisiana (up 1 in past week), 20 in Pennsylvania (up 2), 14 in Oklahoma (up 1) and 11 in North Dakota (unchanged). Rig counts in other leading regions include 37 in Haynesville (unchanged), 27 in Marcellus (up 2), 20 in Eagle Ford (up 1), 12 in Williston (unchanged) and 11 in Cana Woodford (up 1).