Permian Basin on track to be top shale oil producer

Friday, October 18th, 2013 and is filed under Oil and Gas Current Events, Texas Oil and Gas Investing

Although the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas gets most of the chatter when it comes to talk of major oil production from hydraulic fracturing, the storied West Texas fields of the Permian Basin are revving up to steal the limelight.

Between January and June of this year, the Permian Basin has already surpassed oil production in the Eagle Ford, showing 889,808 barrels each day compared to the 598,706 barrels per day in South Texas, according to statistics from the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the state’s energy industry.

The consensus is that the Permian Basin oil production will reach 2 million barrels of oil per day within the next five years, said Stephen Shepherd, an associate in the exploration and production research group at Simmons and Company International in Houston.

As production moderates in the Dakotas’ Bakken Shale, the Permian is expected to fill the gap, Shepherd said.

Read more on the Houston Business Journal