The U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday that it estimates that the average number of oil wells completed simultaneously within 50 feet of each other in the Lower 48 states has more than doubled over the past decade.
The agency said that simultaneous well completion per location had increased from 1-1/2 wells in December 2014 to more than three wells in June 2024, allowing operators to “accelerate their production timeline and reduce their costs per well.”
The EIA has defined wells drilled within 50 feet of each other to be at a single location.
It attributed this increase in the number of simultaneous completions to “significant technological advances in hydraulic fracking operations, particularly in equipment capabilities.”
EIA analysis shows simultaneous well completions to have increased since 2017.
Although operators recognized the potential benefits of completing multiple wells at once prior to 2017, the practice initially faced technical barriers, the EIA said. These included the need for more hydraulic horsepower at the location to fracture multiple wells simultaneously, it added.
“Adoption of electric frac fleets, which provide better power management, has played a crucial role in the increase in simultaneous completions,” the EIA said.
Electric fracking is a method of hydraulic fracturing that uses electric-powered equipment rather than traditional diesel-powered fracking equipment.
Traditional well-drilling operations relying exclusively on diesel-powered pumps require constant fuel delivery by trucks.
Thus, the transition to electric frac fleets helped streamline operations by utilizing locally available fuel sources, such as field or compressed natural gas and electricity from the grid, the EIA noted.
(Reporting by Ishaan Arora in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio)