Texas issues 50% fewer drilling permits in April 2020 versus one year ago

AUSTIN – The Railroad Commission of Texas issued a total of 456 original drilling permits in April 2020 compared to 909 in April 2019. The April 2020 total includes 416 permits to drill new oil or gas wells, two to re-enter plugged well bores and 27 for re-completions of existing well bores.

The breakdown of well types for original drilling permits in April 2020 is 97 oil, 15 gas, 311 oil or gas, 15 injection, and 18 other permits.

In April 2020, Commission staff processed 981 oil, 246 gas and 249 injection completions for new drills, re-entries and re-completions, compared to 593 oil, 143 gas, and 36 injection completions in April 2019.

Total well completions processed for 2020 year to date for new drills, re-entries and re-completions are 5,285 compared to 3,244 recorded during the same period in 2019.

Recent Information Technology changes are allowing the Commission to report more detailed data on drilling permits and well completions each month. The information in prior year reports may not correlate exactly to the same results on the new report.  These technological improvements provide more statistics and transparency, and the new report is available on the Commission website at: https://www.rrc.texas.gov/oil-gas/research-and-statistics/well-information/monthly-drilling-completion-and-plugging-summaries/