New drilling permits issued in Texas during November were down by 50% from the total issued in October; however, the November permit total of 1,508 was down modestly from the year-ago level of 1,559 in November 2013, according to Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) data.

November drilling permits included 1,376 permits to drill new oil and gas wells, 23 to re–enter existing well bores, and 109 for recompletions. They were for 376 oil, 76 gas, 977 oil and gas, 69 injection, two service and eight other permits.

However, just one month earlier, in October, RRC issued 3,046 original drilling permits (see Shale Daily, Nov. 26). The October total included 2,741 permits to drill new oil and gas wells, 40 to re-enter existing well bores and 265 for recompletions. Permits issued in October included 885 oil, 181 gas, 1,829 oil and gas, 115 injection, two service and 34 other permits.

In November operators reported 1,570 oil, 380 gas, 36 injection and five “other” completions. But in October operators reported 2,035 oil, 354 gas, 63 injection and three “other” well completions. Completions this year through November are 27,595, up from 23,311 recorded during the same period of 2013, according to RRC.

Preliminary October crude oil production averaged 2.22 million b/d, up from the 1.76 million b/d average of October 2013. The preliminary crude figure for October is 68.68 million bbl, up from 54.52 million bbl reported during October 2013.

Oil and gas wells produced 610.60 Bcf of gas based upon preliminary figures for October, up from the October 2013 preliminary total of 576.41 Bcf. Preliminary October total gas production averaged 19.70 MMcf/d, coming from 162,224 oil wells and 89,802 gas wells.

Estimated final production for October is 80.59 million bbl of crude oil and 526.84 Bcf of gas well gas. Final production numbers are derived by multiplying the preliminary October production totals of 68.68 million bbl of crude oil and 458.44 Bcf of gas well gas by a production adjustment factor of 1.1735 for crude oil and 1.1492 for gas well gas. Production totals do not include casinghead gas or condensate.

According to RRC data, September crude oil production was 73.24 million bbl, which was down from the 77.9 million bbl. in August. September total natural gas production was 654.56 Bcf, down from 691.50 Bcf in August. September gas well gas production was 485.89 Bcf, down from 512.43 Bcf in August.

In the last 12 months, total Texas reported production was 870 million bbl of oil and 8.0 Tcf of natural gas.