Filloon: Rig Counts In The Bakken Matter Little In Predicting Production -- July 12, 2016

This is great to see. I have opined out loud many times, asking when we would see some serious analysis of this issue -- rig counts matter little in the Bakken.

Today, a Mike Filloon update: rig counts matter little, as horizontal wells have changed how we predict future production.

Summary:

• Given the large differences in oil and natural gas production depending on geography and well design, rig counts do little to predict future production.
• Rigs specific to horizontal drilling in the Permian, Eagle Ford, Bakken, and STACK are under the greatest demand
• Rigs have moved to the best core areas, and now operators have switched from exploration to development mode, drastically improving production per rig
• Higher tech rigs and better techniques have decreased the time needed per well, so more wells can be drilled per rig

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