Since about early 2015 it’s been a long and slow climb back up for Oklahoma’s Anadarko Basin, home to the famed Scoop and Stack plays. At that time daily production in the Anadarko region was averaging about 500 Mbbl/d. That amount dropped slightly to about 480 Mbbl/d a year later. But according to the latest Drilling Productivity Report issued in November 2017 by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), Anadarko production is once again nearing pre-downturn levels at 480 Mbbl/d, up just slightly over November production.

The slow climb up—the Anadarko region was expected to produce just five more barrels of oil in December than in November—is due primarily to the rapid drawdown of legacy wells. According to the EIA, production from legacy wells in the Anadarko region declined by 40 Mbbl/d between November and December, all but offsetting the 46 Mbbl/d gains in new well production.

However, the Anadarko region could well be on the cusp of a production boom due to its proximity to and improvement of key infrastructure. In an August report the EIA reported that “the maturity of the oil industry in the region and its proximity to the trading and distribution hub in Cushing, Okla., should allow producers to increase output using existing takeaway capacity. The relatively low transportation costs from the wellhead to Cushing may provide higher profits, allowing producers to continue operating in a relatively low-price environment.”

Additionally, the EIA stated that it expects productivity in the Anadarko region to continue to increase in the near future as operators complete more wells. According to the EIA, the increase in rig count rates in the Anadarko Basin in 2017 is second only to the Permian Basin, and the region accounted for 13% of all new wells drilled in the U.S. in July 2017. By year-end 2017 production in the Anadarko region was expected to grow to 500 Mbbl/d, the EIA reported.

(All charts courtesy of Hart Energy Mapping & Data Services)

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