The Red Queen Has Not Fallen Off The Treadmill Yet -- December 10, 2015; Top Story Of The Month?

It's possible a comment was made in the Director's Cut but I did not see it. I may have missed it.

The Director's Cut has had a monthly comment suggesting how many well completions were needed to maintain a certain amount of oil production.

The last time I saw that comment was in the July, 2015, Director's Cut (May data). This was the comment:

To maintain production near 1.2 million barrels per day, 110 - 120 completions must be made per month.

Did anyone note how many completions there were in October, 2015, as reported in the most recent Director's Cut? Yup -- 43 completions. I find that incredible. For the longest time it was reported that upwards of 120 well completions were needed each month to maintain 1.2 million bopd production in North Dakota, and in October, only 43 completions were reported. And that was down from 123 completions the month before. Forty-three completions, compared to 123 the month before (which was not out of the ordinary).

For now, this is the top story of the week. It may be the top story of the month. With regard to production, it may be the top story of the year.

Yes, I know, often the first month production is low because the well may have been completed the last day or the month; it's really the first full month of production that is under discussion when talking about the number of completions required to maintain a certain production level, but be that as it may ... well, we'll see what the "fallout" is next month with only 43 wells completed this month.

Those Were The Days, Mary Hopkin