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Drilling Productivity Report

Release Date: September 18, 2023 Next Release Date: October 16, 2023 full reportPDF
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New-well oil production per rig
barrels/day		 New-well gas production per rig
thousand cubic feet/day
Region September 2023 October 2023 change September 2023 October 2023 change
Anadarko 692 691 (1) 4,235 4,341 106
Appalachia 193 193 - 23,782 23,825 43
Bakken 1,697 1,709 12 2,644 2,670 26
Eagle Ford 1,455 1,469 14 5,966 6,026 60
Haynesville 19 19 - 11,531 11,739 208
Niobrara 1,444 1,452 8 4,091 4,124 33
Permian 1,085 1,102 17 2,083 2,108 25
Rig-weighted average 985 1,002 17 5,286 5,232 (54)
Oil production
thousand barrels/day 		Gas production
million cubic feet/day
Region September 2023 October 2023 change September 2023 October 2023 change
Anadarko 423 420 (3) 6,687 6,610 (77)
Appalachia 148 146 (2) 35,855 35,718 (137)
Bakken 1,224 1,227 3 3,367 3,390 23
Eagle Ford 1,126 1,109 (17) 7,612 7,542 (70)
Haynesville 36 36 - 16,302 16,196 (106)
Niobrara 677 682 5 5,148 5,165 17
Permian 5,799 5,773 (26) 23,734 23,745 11
Total 9,433 9,393 (40) 98,705 98,366 (339)
Drilled but uncompleted wells (DUC)
wells
Region July 2023 August 2023 change
Anadarko 733 729 (4)
Appalachia 724 714 (10)
Bakken 488 474 (14)
Eagle Ford 450 444 (6)
Haynesville 782 789 7
Niobrara 778 769 (9)
Permian 833 830 (3)
Total 4,788 4,749 (39)

NOTE: The Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) rig productivity metric new-well oil/natural gas production per rig can become unstable during periods of rapid decreases or increases in the number of active rigs and well completions. The metric uses a fixed ratio of estimated total production from new wells divided by the region's monthly rig count, lagged by two months. The metric does not represent new-well oil/natural gas production per newly completed well.

The DPR metric legacy oil/natural gas production change can become unstable during periods of rapid decreases or increases in the volume of well production curtailments or shut-ins. This effect has been observed during winter weather freeze-offs, extreme flooding events, and the 2020 global oil demand contraction. The DPR methodology involves applying smoothing techniques to most of the data series because of inherent noise in the data.

September 2021 Supplement: Gas-to-oil ratios in U.S. primary oil-producing regions.
January 2021 Supplement: Base production in North Dakota has fully recovered after a significant reduction.
September 2020 Supplement: With low rig counts, the inventory of drilled but uncompleted (DUC) wells provides short-term reserve for completions of new wells.
August 2020 Supplement: Rig counts fall but new-well production per rig rise as new-well production persists.
March 2020 Supplement: Base production accounts for a material share of total U.S. tight oil production.

key tight oil and shale gas regions