Stripper

Individual stripper wells produce small volumes of natural gas — 90 Mcf/d over a 12-month period, by definition — but in aggregate, the United States’ 456,000 stripper wells accounted for 11% of the nation’s natural gas production in 2015, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). “The production share of stripper gas wells has remained relatively constant over the past 25 years, rising from about 10% in 1991 to 15% in 2006–09 and dropping again to about 11% in 2015,” EIA said. “The recent decrease in stripper wells’ share of total production reflects the large increase in production from relatively prolific wells drilled in shale and tight gas formations with enhanced completion techniques. Because these wells, and nonstripper wells in general, produce at a much higher rate than stripper wells, they account for the bulk of total U.S. natural gas production.” There were about 122,000 nonstripper gas wells in the United States at the end of 2015, EIA said. In a report issued last month, EIA estimated that stripper wells accounted for 10% of total U.S. oil output last year (see Shale Daily,June 29).