API: Quarterly well completions up from year ago but still below 2009 levels
Carlton Carroll | 202.682.8114 | carrollc@api.org
WASHINGTON, April 15, 2011 – Oil and natural gas drilling remains below 2009 levels. According to API’s 2011 Quarterly Well Completion Report: First Quarter, an estimated 10,431 oil wells, natural gas wells and dry holes were completed in the first quarter of 2011, up 29 percent from 2010’s first quarter but down almost 8 percent from 2009’s first quarter.
“The industry is moving forward expanding domestic production of oil and natural gas wherever possible, but drilling remained below 2009 levels,” said Hazem Arafa, director of API’s statistics department. “Public policies that allow for more access to expand our domestic energy supplies will create more jobs, increase our energy security, and increase revenues to the government.”
API figures show that the resurgence in oil well completion activity that began earlier in the decade continues as an estimated 5,718 oil wells were drilled in first quarter 2011, a 51 percent increase from year-ago levels.
For most of this decade, natural gas has been the primary target for domestic drilling. But the figures of oil well completions show the focus is changing. The estimated number of oil wells drilled in the first quarter of 2011 outnumbers gas wells (5,718 to 3,860).
API also reported total estimated footage of 75,662,000 feet drilled in the first quarter of 2011, a 38 percent increase from first quarter 2010.
API represents more than 470 oil and natural gas companies, leaders of a technology-driven industry that supplies most of America’s energy, supports more than 9.2 million U.S. jobs and 7.5 percent of the U.S. economy, and, since 2000, has invested nearly $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.
# # #
The 2011 API Quarterly Well Completion Report is available for an annual subscription through API’s primary distributor, Information Handling Services (IHS). If you would like to purchase an annual subscription to this report, please contact IHS at 1-800-854-7179, or visit their website at www.global.ihs.com.
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
