The Evolution of Activity Level, Completion Techniques and Resulting Impact on Production in the Permian Basin Due to Changing Commodity Pricing

摘要

Commodity prices went through a dramatic shift from 2014 through the first quarter of 2016. In this paper, change in activity levels, stimulation techniques and the resulting impact on production throughout the Permian Basin are reviewed. This includes but is not limited to activity levels, drilled but uncompleted activity, fracture treatment fluid systems, proppant types, and proppant volumes. The authors utilize public data sources to correlate activity level including drilled but uncompleted wells in the Permian basin to commodity price by location and target zone. Trends on fracture treatment style and downhole consumables are then correlated to activity and commodity price. The production analysis shows the impact of changing completion methodology on well performance and economics. The number of wells completed in the Permian Basin has declined by 77% from October 2014 through January 2016. Completion trends during this time period include increasing proppant intensity along with a transition from Hybrid and Crosslink treatments to Slickwater, which grew from 36% to 59% of the completion market, while average proppant per lateral foot in the Permian Basin increased by 14% over the same time period. The authors conclude that commodity price pressure did cause a slowdown in activity along with a transition in completion styles. However, during this period of time, short term production rates did not suffer as expected. The activity, completion and production trends reviewed in this paper will be useful to engineers and managers for operator, well service provider and financial analysts planning and/or evaluating oil and gas opportunities in the Permian Basin at suppressed commodity prices.