The Oil Drum

Good post and to agian plaster the same message.

In field drilling esp with advanced recovery maintains production rates but ...

Once the wells start watering out the decline rate increases over time before finally decreasing with production at a low level. The basic cause is once a region waters out it waters out several wells at once the old producers plus the new ones drilled to keep up the production rates then net effect is production rates plumment and your left with stripper wells.

The unknown is what is the general production profile of these new wells how long do they last on average with a high production rate years decades ??? Assuming that the orginal drilling gave decent field coverage. My gut feeling is in field drilling only helps production rates for a few years at most esp with lateral wells since the depletion rate is doubled.

That is my thesis.