Taking a brief look at the past year and revisiting highlights and key trends across the industry.
Most Productive Oil Basin: Midland Basin – Averaging ~2.5 MMBO PD, in 2024 we saw the Midland Basin overtake the Delaware as the top producing oil basin in the country (fig 1a).
Most Productive Gas Basin: Appalachian Basin – Averaging ~26 BCFPD. The Appalachian far outpaced any other basin, with the next closest being the Delaware, East Texas, and Gulf Coast basins at less than 13 BCFPD (fig 1b).
Most Productive Oil County: Mississippi Canyon, GOM – Narrowly overtaking Lea County, NM, the Mississippi Canyon block averaged ~0.8 MMBOPD (fig 1c).
Most Productive Gas County: Beechey Point, AK – Continued to be the top producing gas county at ~9.2 BCFPD (fig 1d).
Longest Onshore Well: 28,459 ft MD – Lambakis 7-2-11-1XHS drilled and completed by Continental Resources in Grady County, OK on July 18, 2024.
Longest Offshore Well: 30,403 ft MD – OCS-G 31534 VA007 ST00BP01, drilled and completed by Shell Offshore in the Mississippi Canyon block of the GOM on May 4, 2024.
Biggest Acquisition: The ExxonMobil (XOM) acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) in May of this year closed at nearly $60 billion. The prime area for consolidation and enhanced efficiencies are their core acreage positions in the Delaware and Midland basins, which Exxon expects to double as a result of the acquisition. Exxon also believes that the consolidated company can operate “more efficiently and with a much lower environmental impact”, leading to a net-zero Permian goal of 2035.
Honorable mention goes to the ConocoPhillips (COP) acquisition Marathon Oil (MRO) for $22.5 billion. We wrote extensively about this acquisition twice in May and June of 2024. While both original companies had nationwide footprints, their overlapping positions in the Permian and Eagle Ford are expected to provide the highest value to synergies and cost savings.
Trends in Unconventional Lateral Length: For the first time in over 15 years, the average lateral length for wells drilled in 2024 dropped from the previous year. But this trend was not universal. While lateral lengths decreased across the Permian and Anadarko basins, they continued to increase in other major basins like the Gulf Coast, Appalachian and Powder River basins. Honorable mention to a growing trend of Horseshoe Laterals. Though these did not exactly begin in 2024, last year they gained significant attention and saw a broad expansion, led by Matador Resources, Crescent Energy, and Vital Energy (fig 2).
Figure 1. Monthly Oil by basin (a), Monthly Gas by basin (b), Monthly Oil by county (c), Monthly Gas by county (d)
Figure 2. Nationwide Lateral Length by year (a), Lateral Length by basin and year (b), Incremental Annual change in Lateral Length by basin (c)
