Arathy Somasekhar of Reuters reports that U.S. shale companies are producing more crude with fewer rigs, and these efficiency gains have led several big producers to raise their full-year shale oil production targets. She writes:
Greater operating efficiencies in the top U.S. shale patch are squeezing out more oil without higher spending, according to the latest output numbers, which will boost global oil market supplies as OPEC also plans to unwind its output cuts later in the year.
Producers are extending their wells to as much as three miles, squeezing more wells onto a single drilling pad and fracking several wells at once, boosting production, according to industry experts and company executives on recent earnings calls.
Taken together, these efficiency gains have led several big producers to raise their full-year shale oil production targets. […]
Historically, U.S. oil production has topped estimates every year since 2009, except for 2020 when COVID-19 pandemic crushed demand and output, a review of U.S. data showed.
Falling rig counts have kept production from growing even faster, and this eventually will slow the rate of increase. The number of horizontal oil rigs working in the Permian fell by 20 to 295 in the latest week, according to data from Enverus. It has fallen by 100 in the last five years.
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