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Drilling Productivity Report

Release Date:  October 14, 2014  |  Next Release: November 10, 2014  |  full report

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New-well oil production per rig
barrels/day
New-well gas production per rig
thousand cubic feet/day
Region October 2014 November 2014 change   October 2014 November 2014 change
Bakken 530 537 7   543 551 8
Eagle Ford 532 540 8   1,407 1,423 16
Haynesville 24 24 -   5,392 5,506 114
Marcellus 31 32 1   7,907 7,946 39
Niobrara 395 403 8   1,754 1,784 30
Permian 172 176 4    329 333 4
Utica 183 190 7    3,955 4,069 114
Rig-weighted average 311 315 4   1,568 1,613 45
Oil production
thousand barrels/day
Gas production
million cubic feet/day
Region October 2014 November 2014 change   October 2014 November 2014 change
Bakken 1,164 1,193 29   1,432 1,462 30
Eagle Ford 1,579 1,614 35   6,938 7,040 102
Haynesville 57 57 -   6,730 6,797 67
Marcellus 52 53 1   15,828 16,045 217
Niobrara 362 370 8   4,499 4,559 60
Permian 1,765 1,807 42    5,779 5,841 62
Utica 40 43 3    1,459 1,534 75
Total 5,019 5,137 118   42,665 43,278 613


The Drilling Productivity Report uses recent data on the total number of drilling rigs in operation along with estimates of drilling productivity and estimated changes in production from existing oil and natural gas wells to provide estimated changes in oil and natural gas production for seven key regions. EIA's approach does not distinguish between oil-directed rigs and gas-directed rigs because once a well is completed it may produce both oil and gas; more than half of the wells produce both.

While shale resources and production are found in many U.S. regions, at this time EIA is focusing on the seven most prolific areas, which are located in the Lower 48 states. These seven regions accounted for 95% of domestic oil production growth and all domestic natural gas production growth during 2011-13.

key tight oil and shale gas regions