This is an older blog post, you will find one on more recent data here
These interactive presentations contain the latest gas (and a little oil) production data, from all 10,584 horizontal wells in Pennsylvania that started producing from 2010 onward, through March.
Total production
Natural gas production in Pennsylvania was 20.2 Bcf/d in March (Hz. wells only), slightly lower than the output a year ago (20.5 Bcf/d).
Drilling Activity
As of last week, 25 rigs were drilling horizontal wells in Pennsylvania (according to Baker Hughes). This level is close to a decade low, despite surging natural gas prices:
In this overview you can see how the horizontal rig count has fallen since 2011, from over 100 rigs in 2012, to just 25 in recent months. Natural gas prices (HH), marked with the grey curve, are near the highest in a decade.
Productivity Ranking
In the next dashboard, you can find a ranking of all the major operators in Pennsylvania, based on recent well productivity results:
It reveals that Chesapeake now operates the best performing wells, on average. Its 371 horizontal wells with a first production date after 2017 recovered on average 4.8 Bcf of natural gas in the first year on production, slightly above Coterra’s performance (4.7 Bcf, 342 wells). On the map you can find all the included wells colored by this metric.
Top operators
In the final tab (“Top operators”), the output and well locations of the top 10 natural gas producers in Pennsylvania are displayed. Chesapeake overtook EQT in March, with 4.4 Bcf/d of operated production, after closing of its its acquisition of Chief Oil & Gas.
Finally
Next week we will have a post again!
Production data is subject to revisions.
Sources
For this presentation, I used data gathered from the following sources:
- Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
- FracFocus.org
Brief manual
The above presentations have many interactive features:
- You can click through the blocks on the top to see the slides.
- Each slide has filters that can be set, e.g. to select individual or groups of operators. You can first click “all” to deselect all items.
- You have to click the “apply” button at the bottom to enforce the changes. After that, click anywhere on the presentation.
- Tooltips are shown by just hovering the mouse over parts of the presentation.
- You can move the map around, and zoom in/out.
- By clicking on the legend you can highlight selected items.
- Note that filters have to be set for each tab separately.
- The operator who currently owns the well is designated by “operator (current)”. The operator who operated a well in a past month is designated by “operator (actual)”. This distinction is useful when the ownership of a well changed over time.
- If you have any questions on how to use the interactivity, or how to analyze specific questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Key Takeaways
- Horizontal well natural gas production in Pennsylvania averaged 20.2 Bcf/d in March, slightly below 20.5 Bcf/d a year earlier.
- The dataset covers 10,584 Pennsylvania horizontal wells with first production from 2010 onward, with results updated through March.
- Baker Hughes reported 25 rigs drilling horizontal wells in Pennsylvania last week, near a decade low.
- Pennsylvania’s horizontal rig count declined from over 100 rigs in 2012 to 25 in recent months while Henry Hub gas prices rose to near decade highs.
- Chesapeake’s 371 horizontal wells with first production after 2017 averaged 4.8 Bcf of gas in the first 12 months.
- Coterra’s 342 horizontal wells with first production after 2017 averaged 4.7 Bcf of gas in the first 12 months.
- Chesapeake overtook EQT in March with 4.4 Bcf/d of operated production after closing its acquisition of Chief Oil & Gas.
