All of the oil (C + C) production data for the US states comes from the EIAʼs Petroleum Supply monthly PSM. At the end of the production charts, an analysis of three different EIA monthly reports projecting future production is provided. The charts below are updated to May 2020 for the 10 largest US oil producing states.
May’s production drop is just short of 2 Mb/d by 11 kb/d. Awesome. US oil fields began a slow and steady decline from November 2019 to March 2020. March brought the combination of CV-19 and oil price drop that led to the sharp production plunges in April and May. Since the current EIA data is two months delayed, May is the second month that shows the combined effects of the pandemic and low oil prices. Will June drop below 10,000 kb/d?
This post updates Non-OPEC production to February 2020. However we are now in late June 2020 and the effects of the plunge in the price of WTI which began on January 6 and ended in the negative low of $-37.63/bbl on April 20 is showing up in plunging production numbers in US and other oil producing countries that post more recent output numbers. However WTI has now recovered to close to $40/b and weekly US production numbers are indicating that output may have bottomed.
Drilling and development activity off shore Norway has been fairly steady through the life of the basin. This has been partly from government policy, through tax relief or direct action, but also through opening up of new areas as technology becomes available. It has moved from mainly producing oil to now being dominated by gas, although there is little direct gas exploration now (note that converting gas to o.e. is simple in S.I. units and is just a factor of 1000).
Drilling activity has been high in the 2000’s for development wells (including a lot of in fill drilling and some major redevelopments) and exploration (I think there is very favourable tax arrangements that encourage drilling in even fairly low prospective areas). Appraisal drilling has been more flat and there has been some reports that some discoveries have proved disappointing after start up, possibly because of insufficient drilling before development was approved.
There are twelve projects “approved for production” (i.e. in development) with average reserves of 26.5 MSm3 and average discovery year 2001; nineteen projects “production in clarification phase” (i.e. in FEED or pre-FEED) with average resources of 25 MSm3 and average discovery year also 2001; twenty nine projects “production likely but unclarified” (i.e. in conceptual design) with average resources of 10 MSm3 and average discovery year also 2003; and twenty eight projects “production not evaluated” with resources of 8.5 MSm3 and average discovery year also 2010.
The number of “hydrocarbon shows” has been large recently but they have mostly been small with “production unlikely” or “not yet evaluated” (and present prices mean most of these are likely to be deferred at best).
The number of development projects per year has, if anything, been increasing slightly, although the size has been generally decreasing. The number of shut down fields is increasing slowly but the have been a number that have had their life times extended beyond their original shut-down date (through improved reservoir performance and/or major redevelopments).
The oil price may have influenced activity but I can’t really see it much, maybe the effect of the current crash will be more obvious.
While this post updates Non-OPEC production to January 2020, we are now in late May and the direction for future production for the next few years is clear, LOWER than where it was in March 2020. OPEC, in response to the reduced worldwide demand, arranged for a production reduction through a Declaration of Cooperation (DoC) with OPEC and Non-OPEC countries. Also Canada and Norway have indicated they will be cutting production in response to world wide reduced demand. The OPEC + DoC reduction schedule and chart are shown and discussed at the end of this post.
Below are a number of oil (C + C ) production charts for Non-OPEC countries created from data provided by the EIA’s International Energy Statistics and updated to October 2019. Information from other sources such as the IEA and OPEC is used to provide a short term outlook for future output and direction.
Non-OPEC production increased by 382 kb/d to 50,930 kb/d in October from 50,512 kb/d in September. This is second highest monthly increase for 2019 after the August increase of 699 kb/d.
October’s production exceeded the previous high of 50,919 kb/d reached in December 2018 by 11 kb/d. Gains from Norway, U.S, and Canada overcame declines from other countries to post the new October record.
Contrast what has happened with output in 2019 with 2018. From December 2017 to December 2018, production increased from 47,768 kb/d to 50,919 kb/d, an increase of 3,151 kb/d. Of this, the three largest contributors were U.S., Russia, and Canada. From December 2018 to October 2019, production so far has increased by 11 kb/d. How much will the next two months add?
