Really Cool: Rig Productivity -- A New Metric

A few weeks ago I noted in a post that there was either a typo or a new metric. It turned out to be a new metric: rig productivity.

I was particularly happy to see this because I had blogged about this two years ago on one or two occasions. I was trying to find the right word. There was a discussion over at the "old" Bakken Shale Discussion Group about "efficiency" of drilling by different operators in the Bakken. I didn't care for the word "efficient." An operator could be really efficient drilling dry wells. LOL.

So, I went with "effectiveness." I noted that the new H&P flex rigs would be much more effective than the standard, conventional rigs previously used in the Williston Basin.

Then a week or so ago, the US EIA actually talked about the very same phenomenon. If the spirit moves me, I will link my original post. But again, I think I was the first person outside the oil and gas industry to note the need for a new metric: rig effectiveness.

So, today, RBN Energy has a long discussion of this very subject. Again, very, very impressive. Anyone seriously interested in the shale revolution in the US, should be reading RBN Energy daily.

Last month the Energy Information Administration (EIA) debuted a new monthly report detailing oil and gas drilling productivity in six of the largest US production basins. Rather than just being an “after the fact” report telling us what happened in the past, the new report provides a forecast of oil and gas production for the current and next month out in each of the six basins. The initial report indicates that oil production will increase by roughly 60 Mb/d in these basins during November with gas production increasing by 0.4 Bcf/d. The report also highlights continued improvement in rig productivity. Today we begin a series interpreting the new drilling rig productivity data.