Yahoo Movies Niobrara Shale Oil and Gas Production Drops in April
April Production Increases at Most Key Shales, but Is a Slowdown Inevitable?
Oil production at the Niobrara shale
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (or EIA) released its Drilling Productivity Report (or DPR) on May 11, 2015. The report estimates that the Niobrara shale produced 440.5 thousand barrels of crude oil per day in April. This is 1% less than production in March and 27% higher than the year-ago production.
Higher crude oil production in the Niobrara shale can benefit energy producers such as Noble Energy Inc. (NBL), Bonanza Creek Energy Inc. (BCEI), and Whiting Petroleum (WLL). NBL is 1.5% of the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE). WLL is 1.0% of the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (XOP).
Niobrara shale oil production increased from ~128 thousand barrels per day (or Mbbl/d) in April 2007 to ~440 Mbbl/d in April 2015. This marks an increase of ~243% in eight years.
Oil production per rig
The number of rigs in the Niobrara shale decreased to 51 in April, from 56 in March. A year ago, there were 96 drilling rigs in the region.
By April, Niobrara produced 466 bbl/d per rig, or a 37% gain in production per rig since April 2014.
According to the EIA, the Niobrara shale in Colorado and Wyoming has become one of the fastest growing oil-producing regions in the United States.
Niobrara shale natural gas production
Natural gas production at the Niobrara shale increased from an average of ~3.6 billion cubic feet per day (or bcf/d) in 2007 to ~4.7 bcf/d currently, a growth of ~31%. However, in April, Niobrara shale natural gas production decreased 20.3 million cubic feet per day over the previous month.
Next, we’ll take a look at the Marcellus shale natural gas production.
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