The Permian Basin | December 2019

Field Overview

Located in West Texas, the Permian Basin has been producing oil for over 100 years. It leads the US in oil production and estimates put 43 billion bbl of oil still in the Permian; 80% of those reserves are believed to be at less than 10,000 feet. Some top formations are the Wolfcamp, Upper/Lower Spraberry, and the Leonard.

State Drilling Statistics

Active Drilling Rigs in Basin- 397
Total Rigs in Texas- 396
Total Rigs in United States- 781
Total U.S. Rigs down 27% YTD

State Top Producers

Top Gas Producer – Apache
Top Oil Producer – Pioneer

Financial & Economic Updates

Birch Resources emerges as Permian Basin leader in new year

• Barely a week into 2020, the company is already seeking permission from the Railroad Commission for permission to drill 26 new horizontal wells in the Permian Basin. Located about 9 miles southeast of the Upton County town of Lenorah, the wells target the Spraberry formation at total depths ranging from 7,800 to 8,600 feet. The permit filings mark a significant increase of drilling activity for Birch. Launched in 2018, the company filed for 90 drilling permits in 2019.

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State Highlights

Permian Basin jobs grow as oil and gas production booms in southeast New Mexico

• Oil and gas operations in the Permian Basin saw dramatic increases in both production and employment last year, driving the U.S. to become a leader in energy development worldwide.
• • The Permian employed about 87,603 workers in 2019, marking an increase of 3,200 new jobs compared with 2018 in 63 New Mexico and Texas counties, per a report from the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO), which studied the last decade of growth in the region.
• In the last decade, employment in the Permian grew by 42,833 jobs, per the report, with an average wage of $98,000 – 101 percent higher than the average private sector wage in the region.

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Parsley Energy doubles down on Permian Basin

• Days after Parsley closed its $2.3 billion deal to buy Jagged Peak Energy of Denver, the merged company has filed 12 drilling permits with the Railroad Commission, the state agency that regulates the oil and natural gas industry.
• Eight horizontal wells filed under Jagged Peak’s name target the Phantom field of the Wolfcamp formation on leases in Reeves and Winkler counties down to a total depth of 15,000 feet. Four horizontal wells filed under Parsley’s name target the prolific Spraberry formation in Upton County at total depths ranging from 9,560 to 10,200 feet.
• With a combined 266,000 acres of leases in the Permian Basin, the merged company has 15 drilling rigs in operation and a 2020 capital expenditure budget set between $1.6 billion to $1.9 billion.

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Houston company seeks to develop first 5G-enabled oil drilling site in Permian Basin

• Headquartered in Houston’s Galleria district, Infrastructure Networks provides wireless data service to drilling rig operators, fracking crews and production sites in oil fields across the United States. The company provides those services over vast distances using the last iteration of mobile phone technology known as LTE, or Long Term Evolution, technology. In its bid to develop what could become the first 5G-enabled drilling site, Infrastructure Networks has spent the last year installing equipment to make its private cell phone network 5G ready.

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Top Gas Producers

Top Oil Producers

Refining

Texas Gas Production

Texas Oil Production

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The information contained in this newsletter is provided by RARE
PETRO Engineering, PLLC via the following sources unless otherwise
noted:

www.eia.gov
www.drillinginfo.com
www.bhge.com
RARE Petro Analytics