Declining Srippper Production | Russell T. Rudy Energy LLC
Stripper wells are defined as those which produce small volumes of oil or gas. An oil well that produces less than 15 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) is considered a stripper. To be classified as an oil stripper, the well must produce less than 6 thousand cubic feet of gas per day (MCF/d) for every barrel of oil. Wells producing a higher ratio of gas to oil are considered gas wells.
While individual stripper wells do not produce much oil, there were an estimated 380,000 of them producing in the U. S. at the end of last year. To put this in perspective, there were about 90,000 non stripper oil wells producing at that time. All oil wells decline over time, and even those which were once prolific can ultimately become strippers. However, wells can remain economically viable for many years as strippers. Typically they have low operating and maintenance costs and it is not expensive to transport their output.
Given the large number of stripper oil wells, in the aggregate they are an important source of production. In 2008 they accounted for 19% of total output. This had fallen to an estimated 10% at the end of 2015. This was largely due to the high production rates of recently completed shale wells, as well as those in Alaska and offshore.
While strippers, as a percentage of total domestic production, have declined, they are still an important resource.
To read the article in its entirety, please go to http://www.worldoil.com/news/2016/6/29/stripper-wells-accounted-for-10-of-us-oil-production-in-2015-eia .
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