Commodities
New technology helps US shale oil industry start to rebuild well productivity
By Sabrina Valle
HOUSTON (Reuters) – Technology advances are making it possible for U.S. shale oil and gas companies to reverse years of productivity declines, but the related requirement to frontload costs by drilling many more wells is deterring some companies from doing so.
While overall output is at record levels, the amount of oil recovered per foot drilled in the Permian Basin of Texas, the main U.S. shale formation, fell 15% from 2020 to 2023, putting it on par with a decade ago, according to energy researcher Enverus.
That is because fracking, the extraction method that emerged in the mid-2000s, has become less efficient there. In the technique, water, sand and chemicals are injected at high pressure underground to release the trapped resources.
Two decades of drilling wells relatively close together, resulting in hundreds of thousands of wells, have interfered with underground pressure and made getting oil out of the ground more difficult.
“Wells are getting worse and that is going to continue,” said Dane Gregoris, managing director at Enverus Intelligence Research firm.
But new oilfield innovations, which began being implemented more widely last year, have made it possible for fracking to be faster, less expensive and higher yielding.
The advances in the past few years include the ability to double the length of lateral wells to three miles and equipment that can simultaneously frack two or three wells. Electric pumps can replace high-cost, high maintenance diesel equipment.
“Companies now can complete (frack) wells faster and cheaper,” said Betty Jiang, an oil analyst with Barclays.
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A drawback to the new simultaneous fracking technology, also called simul-frac, is that companies need to have lots of wells drilled and ready to move to the fracking phase in unison before they can proceed. Pumps inject fluids into and get oil and gas out of two or three wells at the same time, instead of just one.
Because these act as an interconnected system, wells cannot be added piecemeal. But companies eager to cut costs have not deployed enough drill rigs to capitalize fully on the potential of the innovations.
“Instead of drilling the wells and getting production in a few months, you have got to drill eight wells, or 10 wells,” said Mike Oestmann, CEO of Tall City Exploration.
“That’s $100 million in the ground before you see any revenue,” he said. “For small companies like Tall City, that’s a big challenge.”
The number of active drilling rigs in the U.S. this month fell nearly 18% from a year ago.
Simul-fracking can also lower well costs by between $200,000-$400,000, or 5%-10% apiece, said Thomas Jacob, senior vice president of supply chain at researcher Rystad Energy estimates.
NEW TECH SUPPORTS RECORD PRODUCTION
Oil analysts anticipate use of the new technology will accelerate. “We saw a trend of companies shifting to simul-fracs in the second half last year, and that is only going to continue,” said Saeed Ali Muneeb at energy analysis firm Kayrros.
Longer wells and advancements in fracking techniques are more than offsetting declining productivity and limited rig count, helping the U.S. reach record oil production volumes.
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The top U.S. shale-producing regions are forecast next month to hit the highest output in five months with new-well production up 28% from a year ago, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“Companies are making a fine-tuning and getting better and better in fracking,” said Oestmann. “Without them, production would fall.”
Innovations are going to gain scale once top producers like Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:) and Chevron Corp (NYSE:) adopt them more broadly, shale experts said.
Mid-sized shale firms like Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:) that can afford the costs were first to embrace the new methods. The positive results make them more attractive to big firms like Exxon, which is awaiting regulatory approval to buy Pioneer.
But the biggest shale producers have committed to using oil revenue to finance shareholder returns rather than drilling expansion. Two of the biggest shale oil operators, Exxon and Chevron, have missed targets for Permian production in the past years.
Exxon said its own new fracking technology will allow it to extract an extra 700,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) from Pioneer’s assets by 2027, tripling output there to 2 million boepd.
Chevron is increasing use of simul-fracs and says the technique will help it increase Permian production by 10% this year to 900,000 boepd. It also completed a triple-frac pilot and anticipates using it more widely, a spokesperson said.
Investing.com – With another day of gains in and futures, the Swiss group Julius Baer has decided to change its outlook on commodities to constructive. The group now believes that both metals have the potential for further increases, as stated in a note sent to clients and the market on Friday morning.
The group mentioned that, in addition to U.S. monetary policy, the gold market is still dominated by Asia. “We have to recognize that the region’s willingness to pay for gold as a hedge against economic and geopolitical risks appears even greater than we expected,” said Carsten Menke, head of next-generation research at Julius Baer.
Weaker-than-expected U.S. economic data have revived hopes for interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve (Fed, the U.S. central bank), boosting gold and silver prices. This could “be the missing incentive for safe-haven seekers in the Western world to return to the markets,” he added.
Central Bank Purchases in Focus
Central banks have been buying gold more for geopolitical reasons than economic ones, according to Julius Baer. In China, for example, there is a desire to reduce dependence on the U.S. dollar – important for avoiding potential sanctions.
The People’s Bank of China is believed to be responsible for at least 30% to 50% of all central bank purchases over the past two years. Although it shows signs of being price-sensitive, “its willingness to pay has increased as gold prices rise,” notes Julius Baer. It is expected that other monetary authorities will follow the same steps, moving away from the U.S. dollar.
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Over the past three weeks, US prices have surged 30% to above $2.50 per million British thermal units (mm/BTU), fueled by production declines and increased feedgas demand for liquified natural gas (LNG) exports.
Moreover, recent producer cuts, maintenance events, and Freeport LNG’s normalization of gas demand post-outage have contributed to this rise. Cheniere’s announcement of no heavy maintenance for its liquefaction trains this year also supports higher prices.
In a Thursday note, Goldman Sachs strategists said the return of gas prices above $2/mmBtu aligns with their expectations, as production curtailments “would ultimately lead to lower storage congestion risks for this summer.”
“That said, we see only limited further upside from current levels, with stronger gas prices risking a return of congestion concerns,” they added.
Goldman notes that prices above $2/mmBtu reduce gas competitiveness compared to coal, with a $0.50/mmBtu increase potentially cutting gas demand by 1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), especially in shoulder months.
Moreover, higher prices may prompt the restart of previously shut-in wells. EQT (ST:), the largest producer in the Appalachia region, indicated it would resume production if prices sustainably exceed $1.50/mmBtu. And while Appalachia prices haven’t risen as much as NYMEX, the local hub has averaged $1.44/mmBtu month-to-date, up 10¢ from last month, strategists highlighted.
Elsewhere, European gas prices have also risen this summer, though less sharply than in the US.
Title Transfer Facility (TTF) prices increased 18% over the past three months to around 30 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh), holding steady in May.
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However, unlike the US market, this rally lacks fundamental support, with Northwest (NW) European gas storage at record-high levels, Goldman strategists pointed out.
“To be sure, NW European LNG imports have remained weak relative to last year – and are likely to get weaker in the coming weeks owing to a seasonal decline in global LNG production, exacerbated by outages at Australia’s Gorgon export project,” they said.
“Going forward, we expect healthy non-European demand for LNG to continue to incentivize a decline in European LNG imports vs last year,” they continued.
Investing.com– Gold prices fell slightly on Friday, trimming some of their gains for the week as comments from a slew of Federal Reserve officials offered a more sobering outlook on interest rate cuts.
The yellow metal had risen to nearly $2,400 an ounce this week in the immediate aftermath of some soft U.S. economic readings. But it pulled back from these levels on Thursday and Friday.
steadied at $2,377.40 an ounce, while expiring in June fell slightly to $2,381.10 an ounce by 00:19 ET (04:19 GMT).
Gold retreats as Fed officials downplay rate cuts, but weekly gains due
The yellow metal fell on Thursday after a string of Fed officials cautioned against bets on immediate reductions in interest rates.
Several members of the central bank’s rate setting committee said the central bank will need much more convincing that inflation was coming down beyond a marginally soft inflation reading for April.
This saw traders begin pricing out some expectations for a rate cut in September. The and also rebounded from earlier losses this week.
Still, some softer-than-expected readings put gold on course for a 0.7% weekly gain.
The yellow metal was also in sight of a record high of above $2,430 an ounce, although it appeared unlikely the level would be met in the near-term.
Other precious metals retreated on Friday, but were set for bumper weekly gains. fell 0.2% but were trading up 6.2% for the week, while fell 0.4% but were up 4.5% this week.
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Copper mixed amid middling China cues
Among industrial metals, one-month copper futures tumbled from two-year highs tracking middling economic data. But three-month copper futures pushed higher and were set for a stellar week as markets bet on tighter supplies and an eventual demand recovery in the coming months.
on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.6% to $10,445.0 a ton, while rose 0.3% to $4.8935 a pound.
Data from China on Friday painted a mixed picture of the economy. While grew more than expected, growth slowed and shrank at an accelerated pace. Growth in Chinese also slowed.
The readings presented a muddled outlook for the world’s biggest copper importer, as it rolled out more stimulus measures to shore up growth.
Three-month copper futures gained on the prospect of a demand recovery, and were up nearly 4% this week. They were also at two-year highs.
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