American Oil & Gas Reporter
By Colter Cookson
Between 2010 and 2025, the amount of oil an average well in the Lower 48 produces in its first year has jumped from 60,000 barrels to 160,000.
And those barrels cost significantly less to access. In the 12 years between 2012 and 2024, the oil and gas industry reduced the average drilling and completion spend for each first-year barrel of oil from approximately \$100 to \$34.
These statistics comes from Everything = Energy, a newsletter hosted by Substack and authored by Leen Weijers of Liberty Energy. He says the industry can produce more with less largely because efficiency gains have allowed it to drill longer laterals and ramp up frac intensity.
“We’re basically creating larger frac extent and increased frac density through longer laterals, more stages, more clusters, pumping more proppant, pumping more fluid and at a higher rate, not just in a well, but also on a per-foot basis,” he observed in a video posted on July 8. “These changes have been achieved through efficiency gains and improvements in throughput.”
Read the rest of the article, including quotes from ResFrac CEO Mark McClure here.