Lower 48 oil and natural gas permitting during November plunged by nearly one-third month/month, with activity in the Permian Basin and Haynesville Shale sharply down, according to Evercore ISI.

Permian permits

Evercore analysts led by James West compile a monthly review of federal and state permitting. According to the data, exploration and production (E&P) companies requested 32% fewer permits during November than in October. 

“The U.S. permit count contracted to 1,028,” off by 493 month/month, “which is the lowest monthly result in our dataset going back to 2006,” West said. 

Permian permitting fell by 35% from October, with large-cap E&Ps approved for only 67 wells, down 63%. Haynesville requests overall fell by 42%.

Within the Lower 48 oil formations, 877 permits were...