- The Washington Post – The United States of oil and gas
Since 2010, the United States has been in an oil-and-gas boom. In 2015, domestic production was at near-record levels, and we now produce more petroleum products than any other country in the world. President Trump said he plans to double down on the oil and gas industry, lifting regulations and drilling on federal land. Here is the state of the petroleum extraction industry that the new administration will inherit.There are more than 900,000 active oil and gas wells in the United States, and more than 130,000 have been drilled since 2010, according to Drillinginfo, a company that provides data and analysis to the drilling industry.We’re familiar with oil-rich regions of Texas, but technological advances and new pipeline infrastructure have brought the ability to extract these resources to new parts of the country, injecting billions of dollars into local economies and spurring a modern-day gold rush.
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Higher oil prices have rekindled drilling operations in the U.S. The chart below shows the number of operating rigs since 2007. After bottoming in May 2016 at 262, the total U.S. rig count has rebounded to nearly 500 as of January. But this recovery has been unevenly distributed across the country.
The next chart shows the total rig count by region, as categorized by the IEA. Key tight oil fields in the Bakken and Eagle Ford regions were hit particularly hard by the fall in prices. The Bakken field faces additional logistical costs and challenges with transporting oil from North Dakota. But both fields have yet to see the same dramatic rebound in activity as the Permian region in western Texas.
The other major trend that has accelerated with the fall in prices is the drive toward higher efficiency. The next chart shows oil production per rig by region since 2007. Huge gains in efficiency have mitigated declines in production in these key fields even as rig counts fell. Once again though, the gains in efficiency are unevenly distributed. Eagle Ford and Niobrara regions have seen the largest gains, with Bakken and Permian regions also see substantial improvement. The others were unable to achieve the same gains in oil product.
These other regions have seen major gains in natural gas production efficiency however. The next chart shows natural gas production per rig by region. The three regions that saw the least improvement in oil production efficiency have seen the greatest gains in natural gas production.
The net result is that total natural gas production in the U.S. is achieving new highs and total oil production is now only 11% off its March 2015 peak. See the chart below.
See the Washington Post story for a whole series of detailed maps and visualizations of oil and gas facilities in these key regions and the Gulf of Mexico.