1 

TO: Heather Brown and David Hendricks, EC/R Incorporated 

FROM: Don Robinson, Eric Stricklin, and Tarang Mehta 

DATE: March 25, 2013 

RE: Liquids Production Distribution for New Oil and Gas Wells in the U.S. 

 

The purpose of this memorandum is to document the development of crude and condensate production distributions 

across certain production rate categories for new oil and gas wells completed in 2009. These distributions will be 

used to estimate the number of new storage tanks impacted by the new source performance standards (NSPS) for 

crude oil and natural gas production, transmission and distribution (40 CFR part 60, subpart OOOO). 

Methodology

ICF used drilling permit data collected by HPDI to develop crude oil and condensate production distributions across 

specific rate categories for new oil and gas wells in 2009. This was done in the following three steps: 

1) Query the HPDI Database for New Wells with a “First Date of Production” in 2009 

2) Sum the Liquids Production for Twelve Consecutive Months since the “First Date of Production” in 2009 

3) Plot the Summed Liquids Production in a Histogram 

HPDI Database 

The crude oil and condensate production data used in this analysis was gathered from drilling permit data collected 

by HPDI. HPDI is a data service company that provides data products and decision-support applications, which was 

acquired by Drilling Info, Inc. HPDI collects drilling permit data from state and local governments describing the 

location, operator, and production characteristics of individual well properties. Henceforth referred to as the “HPDI 

database,” the aggregated drilling permit data is used in this analysis to plot the distribution of crude oil and 

condensate production for new wells in 2009. 

1) Query the HPDI Database for New Wells with a “First Date of Production” in 2009 

In order to construct a distribution of the crude oil and condensate production from new oil and gas wells in 2009, 

ICF first queried the HPDI database for oil and gas wells that were marked with a “first date of production” in 2009. 

ICF defines gas wells in the HPDI database as wells with an average gas to liquids ratio greater than 12,500 standard 

cubic feet per barrel over the lifetime of the well and defines oil wells in the HPDI database as wells with an average 

gas to liquids ratio less than 12,500 standard cubic feet per barrel over the lifetime of the well. This analysis assumes 

that liquids produced from gas wells is condensate and liquids produced from oil wells is crude oil. Finally, not all 

the drilling permits are marked with a “first date of production.” Therefore, for this analysis, the number of new oil 

and gas wells is limited to the number of drilling records with a “first date of production.” 

2) Sum the Liquids Production for Twelve Consecutive Months since the “First Date of Production” 

in 2009 

Second, ICF summed the crude oil volumes for new 2009 oil wells and condensate volumes for new 2009 gas wells 

over 12 months since the “first date of production.” The crude oil and condensate (i.e., liquids) volumes were 

summed over 12 consecutive months since the “first date of production” in 2009 to make the comparison of liquids 

production from one well to another equivalent. For example, if an oil well was completed in March 2009, the well 

would have been producing in 2009 for 10 months, and if an oil well was completed in November 2009, the well 

would have been producing in 2009 for 2 months. It would be unfair to compare the production from these two 

example wells based on their production in 2009 alone. Therefore, this analysis sums the liquids production for each 

oil and gas well over 12 consecutive months. For the example oil well completed in March 2009, this assumption 
2 

would entail summing the crude oil production from March 2009 to March 2010, and for the example crude oil well 

completed in November 2009, it would entail summing the crude oil production from November 2009 to November 

2010. Finally, depending on the source of the production records containing the gas and oil production (e.g., state 

governments) not all the new wells in 2009 had 12 consecutive months of production records. Therefore, the number 

of new oil and gas wells plotted in this analysis is limited to the number of wells with production records for 12 

consecutive months since the “first date of production”. 

3) Plot the Summed Liquids Production in a Histogram 

ICF plotted the number of new oil wells completed in 2009 and the number of new gas wells completed in 2009 on 

two histograms within defined production rate brackets. ICF also developed two tables showing the number of new 

oil wells completed in 2009 and new gas wells completed in 2009 by state within each production rate bracket. 

The production rate brackets in the histograms were developed to align with the production rate brackets from the 

Energy Information Administration (EIA) “Distribution of Wells by Production Rate Bracket.”1

 The production rate 

brackets are defined by barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE/day), which is based on the approximate energy 

released by burning one barrel of crude oil per day. 

In order to develop the histograms and tables, ICF determined the BOE/day for each oil and gas well by converting 

the natural gas production in thousand cubic feet (Mcf) per oil or gas well to BOE and the condensate production (in 

barrels) per gas well to BOE. These values were converted to BOE/day using conversions from the 2013 EIA 

Annual Energy Outlook. For natural gas the 2013 EIA Annual Energy Outlook assumes 5.66 thousand cubic feet per 

BOE for natural gas and 1.35 barrels per BOE for condensate.2

Results

Exhibit 1 and Exhibit 2 show the production distributions for new oil and gas wells completed in 2009 respectively 

for the entire U.S. Exhibit 3 and Exhibit 4 show the production distributions for new oil and gas wells completed in 

2009 respectively by state. Exhibit 1 through Exhibit 4 include 4,672 new oil wells and 13,977 new gas wells 

respectively, which are new wells marked with a “first date of production” and with 12 consecutive months of 

production records. According to HPDI, the total number of new oil wells and gas wells in 2009 was 4,922 and 

14,930 respectively. Therefore, the histograms represent 94.9% and 93.6% of the national count of new oil wells and 

new gas wells respectively for 2009 according to HPDI. The EIA estimates the total number of development oil 

wells and development gas wells drilled in 2009 was 10,585 and 16,882, respectively.3

 Therefore, the well counts 

from this analysis represent 44.1% and 82.8% of the national count of new oil wells and gas wells respectively for 

2009 according to the EIA. This calculated representation is due to several factors which may include: 

• The wells drilled count reported by the EIA may include wells that are not productive. This analysis 

estimates the total number of new wells including only wells with 12 months of consecutive production 

marked with a “first date of production”. 

• Production data from the HPDI database is collected by property and not per well. Some states submit well 

counts for their properties. However, for those states without well counts for individual properties, ICF has 

assumed one well per property where there is reported oil or gas production. 

• The representativeness of the HPDI database is limited to the state and local governments which have 

collected and provided data that meet the requirements of this analysis. 

Although a fraction of the total number of oil and gas wells in the U.S. is represented in this analysis, the 

distribution of wells in each production rate bracket is assumed to be representative for the U.S. oil and gas well 

population. The NSPS 40 CFR part 60, subpart OOOO ruling only uses the distribution of wells resulting from this 

analysis to estimate the number of new tanks impacted by the rule. 

 

1

 EIA (2010). United States Total 2009: Distribution of Wells by Production Rate Bracket.

<www.eia.gov/pub/oil_gas/petrosystem/us_table.html> 

2

 EIA (2012) Annual Energy Outlook. < www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/er/pdf/0383er(2013).pdf> 3

 EIA (2012). Crude Oil and Natural Gas Exploratory and Development Wells.

<www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/ng_enr_wellend_s1_a.htm> 
3 

Exhibit 1. Production Range Distribution for New Oil Wells in 2009

0

30

45

109

110

140

135

137

215

373

374

358

546

340

733

558

325

112

21

6

4

1

0

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

0

>0-1

1-2

2-4

4-6

6-8

8-10

10-12

12-15

15-20

20-25

25-30

30-40

40-50

50-100

100-200

200-400

400-800

800-1,600

1,600-3,200

3,200-6,400

6,400-12,800

12,800-25,600

Number of New Oil Wells

BOE/day
4 

Exhibit 2. Production Range Distribution for New Gas Wells in 2009

89

464

255

474

560

468

384

298

412

554

493

388

678

546

1969

2780

1979

852

254

50

27

3

0

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000

0

>0-1

1-2

2-4

4-6

6-8

8-10

10-12

12-15

15-20

20-25

25-30

30-40

40-50

50-100

100-200

200-400

400-800

800-1,600

1,600-3,200

3,200-6,400

6,400-12,800

12,800-25,600

Number of New Gas Wells

BOE/day
5 

Exhibit 3. Production Range Distribution for New Oil Wells in 2009 by State

Production 

Range Brackets 

(BOE/day) 

New Oil Wells in 2009 

AK AL AR CA CO FL KS LA MI MO MS MT ND NE NM OH OK PA S

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 

>0-1 0 0 0 3 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 6 2 0 0 

1-2 0 0 0 11 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 14 3 1 0 0 2-4 0 1 0 21 13 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 28 1 8 0 0 4-6 0 0 1 33 17 0 0 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 16 0 5 0 0 6-8 0 0 0 42 22 0 0 6 0 0 1 0 1 0 24 2 6 0 0 

8-10 0 0 0 29 21 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 30 0 9 0 0 

10-12 0 0 2 41 20 0 0 4 0 0 0 2 0 0 19 1 11 0 0 12-15 0 1 0 54 40 0 0 6 0 0 1 0 2 0 27 0 18 0 0 15-20 0 0 0 92 116 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 2 0 44 1 21 0 0 20-25 0 0 0 85 143 0 0 8 0 0 1 0 0 0 46 0 16 2 0 25-30 0 1 1 72 146 0 0 5 0 0 0 1 2 0 45 0 11 1 0 30-40 0 0 1 98 213 0 0 6 0 0 0 4 4 0 58 0 25 0 40-50 0 0 0 58 94 0 0 11 0 0 1 0 6 0 56 0 21 0 0 

50-100 1 2 0 99 58 0 0 19 5 0 4 11 50 0 165 0 40 0 

100-200 2 2 0 33 5 0 0 23 11 0 4 6 193 0 73 0 31 0 0 200-400 7 2 0 2 3 0 0 8 1 0 2 2 167 0 29 0 14 0 0 400-800 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 54 0 4 0 4 0 0 

800-1600 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 7 0 0 

1600-3200 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3200-6400 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 

6400-12800 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 

12800-25600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 
6 

Exhibit 4. Production Range Distribution for New Gas Wells in 2009 by State

Production 

Range Brackets 

(BOE/day) 

New Gas Wells in 2009 

AK AL AR CA CO FL KS LA MI MO MS MT ND NE NM OH OK PA SD 

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 

>0-1 0 3 2 2 25 0 25 1 0 0 0 4 1 0 26 20 11 8 0 

1-2 0 5 5 0 8 0 57 5 0 0 0 5 0 2 13 7 8 7 0 2-4 0 23 5 2 42 0 86 5 4 1 0 25 0 7 35 3 26 24 0 4-6 0 18 11 3 113 0 82 5 1 0 0 28 0 3 31 1 22 20 0 6-8 0 16 9 3 82 0 50 1 3 0 1 36 0 12 34 2 30 25 0 

8-10 0 17 12 5 55 0 34 4 1 0 0 30 0 1 28 0 18 20 0 

10-12 0 14 10 2 41 0 27 0 1 0 0 14 1 0 25 1 19 16 0 12-15 0 12 15 3 66 0 28 8 1 0 1 32 0 1 41 0 20 13 0 15-20 0 14 23 5 66 0 25 7 1 0 2 35 1 0 89 2 33 18 1 20-25 0 8 11 6 83 0 15 7 2 0 1 14 0 0 65 1 35 23 1 25-30 0 4 19 9 76 0 11 4 0 0 0 2 0 0 77 0 26 8 0 30-40 0 3 23 12 108 0 17 16 2 0 4 2 0 0 133 0 36 31 0 40-50 0 4 21 15 78 0 7 4 1 0 1 5 0 0 93 0 38 14 0 

50-100 2 3 122 34 310 0 16 56 9 0 7 3 0 0 166 0 112 44 0 

100-200 5 4 250 15 554 0 6 103 0 0 10 1 0 0 39 0 147 64 0 200-400 2 1 413 3 57 0 4 65 0 0 4 0 0 0 30 0 132 31 0 400-800 5 0 99 3 3 0 2 150 0 0 3 0 0 0 10 0 65 6 0 

800-1600 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 164 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 1 0 

1600-3200 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 3200-6400 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 

6400-12800 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 

12800-25600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0