Shift to development brings US shale efficiencies

摘要

Increasingly efficient US land rig use has caused Wall Street to reduce estimates of the number of rigs needed over the next couple of years, even as the country's production, and the number of wells planned by operators, rises. Jefferies analyst Brad Handler now projects 1,780 onshore rigs on average this year, 1,830 rigs next year and 1,875 rigs in 2015, down from an earlier 1,817, 1,915 and 2,060 rigs, respectively. Currently 1,760 land rigs are working the US onshore, said Handler, down from a recent high of 1,992 in November 2011, chiefly because drilling practices have become more efficient. At the same time, US oil production galloped from 6.29 million b/d in April 2012 to 7.3 million b/d in April and May 2013, according to the US Energy Information Administration. The agency forecasts that output will top 8 million b/d in 2014.