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I cannot open this for you, I am sorry. I refuse to pay for subscriptions to major journalistic outlets I no longer trust to tell the truth.

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Don't be fooled by the title. U.S. shale oil production is up in 2024 and with high oil prices it is generating large sums of gross revenue, with fewer people working in the sector. Labor per capita in the upstream sector is down because of fewer rigs and rig automation. I don't think that is good myself, and the reasoning for U.S. oil exports to provide jobs in America is getting weaker and weaker.

The article says "most productive," that simply means using the fewest people. 

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Tight oil production is up in 2024 because Permian Basin tight oil production is up in 2024. All other basins are declining.

66% of all the HZ rigs running in the U.S are running in the Permian Basin 

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Tight oil production is up in 2024 in the Permian Basin because this is the first year in its existence that the average lateral length is over

10,000 feet long. Highgrading is the second biggest reason well productivity is up. In other words, they are drilling the last of their remaining locations in sweet spots, in the core areas. Nobody is drilling anything but Tier 1 & 2 sweet spots. I looked at TRRC drilling permits in the Delaware Basin and 70 of the wells being drilled out there are now all illegal allocation wells, many requiring exceptions to SWR 37 for illegal distances from lease or unit lines and lots are being drill on 600 foot spacing between wells, or less. So, nothing is different other than the wells are longer, closer together, and in the good spots.

They are simply draining the last of their best places to drill at a higher exponential rate.  

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Please note that this referral to 'monster shale wells" is based on IP90's, or the first three months of production. That is deceptive. We should expect wells to produce more initially when the laterals are longer and they are being packed into the areas of the best rock. In three month increments that would push production rates higher, for sure. 

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But that does NOT mean wells are better. These 2024 wells will be exactly like 2022/2023 wells where IP 60's were highter than previous years, but the ensuing decline rates were much greater. 

The bigger the "new" shale oil well is in the Permian Basin, the harder, and faster they fall. This means lower EUR's per well, lower recovery rates of oil in place along the HZ lateral and more American oil stranded, left behind, never to be recovered again. First two year decline rates for Permian wells in 2019 were 47%, today they are 84%.

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This Bloomberg article is getting lots of attention for  obvious reasons. It's headline is deceptive, however, and higher IP 90's in the big scheme of things means very little. Lets see what these first half 2024 wells do over a 12 month period. Its quite possible they are not even generating more cash flow over a 12-24 month period, in which case, whats the hubbub about? 

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The biggest news I got out of this articles highlights were that upstream employment in the oilfield is going down. 

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There is very little room left in the Permian Basin's core areas to drill a lot more 10,000 foot laterals. Its already chock full of  7,000 foot laterals.  

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To facilitate these longer laterals, for more up front cash flow, however brief that might be, it seems they are drilling wells closer together. 

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