Crowded Dance Floor
According to Baker Hughes there were only 65 vertical rigs running in all of America the week of 26 July. That is a staggering number and one that everyone in America should be very concerned about, but won't be.
My wild ass guess is that half of those vertical rigs are drilling disposal wells for produced water from stinking shale oil wells. So, I was blessed to have had one of 33-35 vertical rigs in all of America working for me last week actually looking for oil. I estimate I employed 50 different people to drill this well; we had fun, in spite of the plus 100 degree heat, I bought people's lunches, we laughed, told lots of stories, and made a well. It is always a family thing with us; Catherine sat the rig at night and got us to TD. I took over for logging, running pipe and bumping the plug. BJ Cementing Service, San Antonio, above, did a good job and we got 20 bbls. of cement back to surface. This is one of the oldest drilling rigs in the area (Kru-Tex Drilling Rig 1) and as its owner likes to say, its run enough production casing over the past 50 years to go "around the world three times." Its got a young tool pusher on it, Robert Hale, that is a helluva hand. Everybody that worked for us last week will now get paid in less than 30 days and it will be with our own money, none of it borrowed. This little well will be 10 times more profitable than 99% of any shale oil well drilled in America the past decade. Now we're on to the next one, with three to go.
When I got back to the office last night I counted 37 articles on LinkedIn and elsewhere on BP's $10.5 B acquisition of BHP. Whoop. Shale oil wells drilled in America before 2016, an estimated 66,000 of them, now only produce 23% of America's total daily LTO production.
50% of all the HZ wells drilled in the Permian Basin since 2011 now make less than 40 BOPD. America pretty much has its head up its ass about shale oil. From a business standpoint, its a financial disaster.
We better start paying attention to vertical rig counts actually looking for hydrocarbons in conventional plays, how much money is being spent on EOR and the Gulf of Mexico, quickly, or America is going to be in deep doo-doo.
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The highlight of the week for me, besides making a well, was getting to meet my friend, Enno Peters, from the Netherlands, in Houston for URTeC showing his amazing software portals at shaleprofile.com. He drove 2 hours to my location to meet Catherine and I and see the real oil field.
Enno brought his computer and showed me his new analytical tools that he is now going public with, for very reasonable fees, that are absolutely amazing. I can see where everyone in the shale oil business would be a little nervous about Enno's new services, but everyone even considering loaning money to the shale industry would want to have at their immediate fingertips. If you thought the data available on shaleprofile.com use to be good, you will not BELIEVE its new capabilities.
Please click here for more: http://shaleprofile.com/URTeC/
Thank you, Enno ! It was awesome that you came. If I recall when you were in Houston in January it was snowing, last week it was a balmy 103 F on location; you've now seen everything Texas has to offer except a hurricane.