Railroad Commission: Texas oil production up, but drilling activity slides
Texas oil production stayed above 2 million barrels a day in March, a 25 percent increase from a year ago, according to preliminary estimates by the Texas Railroad Commission.
“It appears to be increasing. But it changes day to day,” said Gaye Greever McElwain, a spokeswoman for the railroad commission.
The commission’s historical production data is updated monthly, as new information comes in, McElwain said.
The ongoing oil boom has brought production to levels the industry has not seen since the 1980s. But Tuesday’s report also showed a decline in drilling.
In April the Railroad Commission issued a little more than 1,900 drilling permits. That’s high compared to the early 2000s but down from last year when drilling activity was exploding in the Eagle Ford and Permian Basin formations.
Gene Powell, who publishes the Powell Shale Digest, said the decline was in part attributable to improvements in horizontal drilling techniques that allowed teams to reach larger deposits through a single well.
“We’re drilling less wells than we would have before,” he said. “But production keeps increasing. It will plateau at some point, but I don’t know when.”
Texas remains at the center of the nation’s oil boom. As of May 16, there were 889 rigs operating in Texas, about half that operating in the United States, according to the railroad commission.
Follow James Osborne on Twitter at @osborneja.