Canadian O&G better than U.S. >2020 Permian firms must drill more just to maintain current production - report
Permian Basin oil and gas producers must drill substantially more wells just to maintain current production levels and even more to expand output, according to a new report from IHS Markit.
The base decline rate, or the rate at which production will fall through the year, has "increased dramatically" for the Permian's 150K-plus producing oil and gas wells, the report says.
Production from the Permian Basin reached 3.8M bbl/day at the start of this year, 1M bbl/day higher than the year before, but the report forecasts base production will decline by 40%, or ~1.5M bbl/day, by the end of 2019.
IHS expects the declines to continue to accelerate, posing a challenge for companies with cash constraints just to keep production flat.