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API reports US drilling below 2004 levels
Petroleum News
The American Petroleum Institute’s first-quarter report on well completions found an estimated 11,071 oil, natural gas and dry holes were completed in the United States in the first quarter, down 22 percent from the first quarter of 2008 and down 35 percent from the 2008 fourth quarter.
“The lower U.S. drilling activity indicates that the exploration and production sector is not immune to the current economic downturn, and that they, like most industries, are facing tough business choices,” Hazem Arafa, director of API’s statistics department, said in an April 15 news release.
The estimated number of new exploratory wells — drilled for the purposes of discovering new reserves in unproven areas — fell 11 percent from the first quarter of 2008, while the estimated number of deep wells (15,000 feet or deeper) and shallow gas wells slipped 13 percent and 36 percent, respectively, from last year’s first quarter, Arafa said.
Oil well completions down API said its estimates show the resurgence in oil well completion activity that began earlier in the decade subsided in the first quarter of 2009, with total estimated oil well completions falling 23 percent from the same quarter a year ago to 4,060 wells. Overall, estimated oil well completions’ share of total drilling activity in the first quarter of 2009 was 36 percent, down from 40 percent in the first quarter of 2008.
Natural gas continues to be the primary target for domestic drilling with an estimated 5,735 natural gas wells completed in the first quarter of 2009. API said the natural gas completion level was 23 percent lower than 2008’s first quarter, and represents the most severe quarterly decline for natural gas plays in this decade.
API also reported total estimated footage of 64.5 million feet drilled in the first quarter of 2009, a 30 percent decrease from first-quarter 2008. Estimated development oil well footage drilled dropped 22 percent from 2008’s first quarter, while estimated gas well footage drilled plunged 42 percent.
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