Locator: 10010VACAMUERTA.
Updates
February 25, 2024: XOM looking at selling its assets in Vaca Muerta.
Original Post
I never saw this coming.
Dead Cow.
Vaca Muerta.
The Vaca Muerta is tracked here.
The world's fastest growing shale play keeps breaking records.
So, let's run the numbers.
- Permian: 5 million bopd.
- Bakken: 1 million bopd
- 24 rigs.
- Vaca Muerta:
- prior to December, 2020, never exceeded 120,000 bopd
- oil rigs: 50
- July, 2021: 160,000 bopd for the first time ever
- August, 2021: 161,000 bopd
- forecast: 200,000 by year end, 2021
- Argentina's total production:
- forecast to hit 560,00 bopd by December, 2021
- a benchmark not seen since October, 2012;
So, the Bakken:
- four times as much oil with half the number of rigs.
More at the link.
Bakken is actually below maintenance rig count. Need more to keep stable. And Vaca Meurte is growing. So you can't compare rig count. Also since the Bakken is older, it is natural for it to have a lower base decline (more old wells that are "baseload").
ReplyDeleteAll that said, I actually agree Bakken is the better play (especially for oil). VM is more like the SCOOP. Plus it's in a country with lots of political risk to capital.
It would be interesting to production per rig in the Vaca Muerta and compare it to the Permian, et al.
DeleteSure. But you have to consider the age of the play also. It's like trying to compare the power of a just started SR-71 with an at speed F-15.
DeleteIt will be interesting to see if the analogy holds. We can compare the Bakken and Vaca Muerta a year from now. Or two years. Or five years.
Delete