The completions count fell by 48% m/m in April 2020 while DUC wells increased by 717
After holding steady at the end of Q1, well completions fell across the US tight oil basins in April, dropping by 481. Drilling activity has not fallen as precipitously as active frac fleets, however, driving DUC inventories to record highs with an increase of 717 m/m, half of which are located in the Permian DUCs.
Permian operators were more resilient than those in other basins, but still cut well completions considerably. These declines will continue to accelerate in May.
In the Bakken and in the DJ, where seasonal activity ramp-ups led to higher completions in February and March, completion activity fell to the lowest levels since winter of 2016โ17, when severe weather shut in activity. Well completions were also cut in half in the Eagle Ford.
Activity declines were the most dramatic in the Anadarko, beginning long before the collapse in WTI prices. Oklahoma operators completed just 9 wells, not only the lowest number since the beginning of the tight oil era, but likely since the beginning of oil production in the state.
About Kayrros E&P Operations Intelligence
Kayrros uses optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, combined with machine-learning algorithms, to automatically identify rigs and frac crews at scale across more than 90,000 wells in near-realtime.
By monitoring the entire life-cycle of wells, Kayrros infers operational metrics such as the number of completions, the number of active frac fleets and the time from spud to completion.
