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Baker Hughes employees work at an Eagle Ford Shale drilling site, where oil production exceeded 1.3 million barrels per day in April.
When it comes to shale plays, Texas’ own Eagle Ford Shale and Permian Basin are still the kings of oil production. North Dakota’s Bakken Shale is gaining fast, though, as it just surpassed the 1 million barrels per day mark in March, according to the Energy Information Administration.
One barrel of crude oil produces approximately 19 gallons of gasoline, enough to fill up the family car, according to the EIA.
The Eagle Ford Shale has nearly 300 rigs working with production exceeding 1.3 million barrels per day.
By next month, oil production could top 1.4 million barrels of oil per day, according to the EIA.
Compare that to 2010 when production was less than 100,000 barrels of oil per day.
Natural gas production has steadily gone up, too, as pipeline infrastructure reaches more of the wells. The issue of drillers flaring natural gas because they didn’t have the means to transport it has been a continuing problem in Texas and North Dakota, as one Continental Resources official discussed last week.
Gas production topped 6.7 quadrillion cubic feet per day in April and is on pace to reach 6.9 quadrillion cubic feet per day by June. It could easily reach 7 quadrillion cubic feet this summer.
In the Permian Basin, there are more than 500 rigs working and oil production exceeded 1.4 million barrels per day.
Projections for May show oil production topping 1.5 million barrels per day. Compare that to 2011, when oil production was less than 1 million barrels per day.
Like the Eagle Ford Shale, natural gas production continues to go up each month with more than 5.5 quadrillion cubic feet produced in April.
In east Texas, Louisiana and southern Arkansas, the Haynesville Shale actually saw declines in natural gas production to 6.6 quadrillion cubic feet per day. That’s down about 34 percent from highs of more than 10 quadrillion cubic feet per day in 2012.
Overall, Texas leads the nation in crude oil production and, if it were a country, would rank 15th in the country in oil production alongside many Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
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