A Million Barrels Per Day of U.S. Crude Production May Shut in Under $30

Fascinating topic. Stripper wells, old, legacy, wells that have seen better days, litter the oil rich parts of the United States. Some of these wells produce just a few barrels per day; but it adds up when you take into account the hundreds of thousands of rigs out there. If the price of WTI goes under $30, most of these little fuckers are operating without profit and might opt to shut in.

Stripper wells are wells nearing the end of their lives that each produce very low volumes of 15 b/d or less. Collectively, they account for a surprisingly large amount of output — as much as 1 million b/d of crude from about 410,000 oil wells, or about 11% of the US’ total oil production of around 9.1 million b/d, according to the National Stripper Well Association website.

“The low $30s/b is about it,” as far as the economic threshold, Mike Cantrell, chairman of the Oklahoma City-based National Stripper Well Association, said. “We’re not making any money … at below $30.”

In general, stripper wells operate on a basic program where the expenses include electricity to run the pump jacks and artificial lift to help oil flow better out of the well, as well as anti-corrosion chemicals, insurance, repairs and hired labor unless the owner does the day-to-day work.

“Some [wells] are actually economic” right now, Cantrell said. “Just as long as your revenue exceeds your expenses, you can keep going.”
He and others say all stripper wells are not necessarily at risk even at current low prices. Because the economics of each well are so different, and have such mixed variables, they will not necessarily go under, they say.

And sometimes the wells keep pumping oil for other reasons. Cantrell said a friend who operates stripper wells and whose company has “a lot” of leverage, is forced to keep his wells going.

“He said, ‘I have no choice, I have to keep their revenue going whether I like it or not because the banker wants to see the production’,” Cantrell said.
Other wells may continue to operate at breakeven because shutting them down costs even more.

“Let’s say you get down to a point where you’re breaking even or a little negative. If I shut the well down, I have to submit it to abandonment,” which incurs expenses and a required regulatory process, energy economist James Williams, who founded and runs energy consultancy WTRG Economics, said.
“Sometimes there is a limit on how long you can go without producing a well before you’re required to go through official abandonment procedures,” Williams said. “So it may be best to keep it going for awhile until oil prices go back up.”

“The role of stripper wells will be greatly diminished going forward until such time we see commodity prices bounce back,” Sheridan said. Stripper wells “are kind of America’s reserve supply,” he added.

I haven’t heard anyone talk about this yet; once crude breaks $30, look for a spate of headlines discussing this topic. Stupid, dumb shit stripper wells getting shut in because the banker said it wasn’t viable anymore. This could lead to a long term recovery in crude. A washing out of the excess is always good for an injured market.