Texas oil regulator issues May 2020 drilling permit statistics

AUSTIN - The Railroad Commission of Texas issued a total of 251 original drilling permits in May 2020 compared to 1,050 in May 2019. The May 2020 total includes 208 permits to drill new oil or gas wells, one 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 May 2020 is 59 oil, 22 gas, 159 oil or gas, seven injection, and four other permits.

In May 2020, Commission staff processed 919 oil, 300 gas and 117 injection completions for new drills, re-entries and re-completions, compared to 735 oil, 153 gas, and 40 injection completions in May 2019.

Total well completions processed for 2020 year to date for new drills, re-entries and re-completions are 6,589 compared to 4,173 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/