US stripper wells may be in peril at low $30’s/b

摘要

Houston—Hundreds of thousands of US stripper wells with production totaling 1 million b/d of crude could be at risk if oil prices fall below $35/b for long, which was feared in recent days, industry sources said. NYMEX January crude settled $1.04 higher on Tuesday at $37.35/b. Stripper wells are low-producing wells nearing the end of their lives that produce 15 b/d or less. Collectively they account for a surprisingly large amount of output, though — as much as 1 million b/d of crude from about 410,000 oil wells, comprising about 11% of the US’ 9.1 million b/d oil production, according to the National Stripper Well Association website.