Shale drilling efficiency increasing

A steady increase in the efficiency with which companies are drilling into shale oil and gas plays in the Lower 48 is playing a role in the rise in U.S. oil and gas production, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. EIA says that the increasing precision and efficiency of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, the two techniques at the heart of the shale oil and gas revolution, are enabling each drilling rig to create more new production.

EIA tracks production and drilling from six shale plays: the Bakken, the Eagle Ford, the Haynesville, the Marcellus, the Niobrara and the Permian. Despite the diverse nature of the geology across these plays, five of the plays have seen increases in production per drilling rig over the past few years, with the Eagle Ford leading the pack for increased oil production and the Marcellus leading in increased gas production, EIA says.

Data from April 2013 show that each drilling rig in the Eagle Ford added 400 barrels per day more to production than it would have done in the same shale formation in January 2007. And in the Marcellus shale, the corresponding increase for gas productivity was 6 million cubic feet over the same period, EIA says.

According to EIA data, the Permian has shown a slight drop in gas productivity since 2007, although oil productivity in that basin has increased.

—Alan Bailey