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So its that time of the year again, when we talk about what our expectations are for rig count this year. Now that 2017 is behind us, we look forward to a great 2018.
Before we get into what trends we expect in 2018, lets get the numbers out of the way. By the way, we "didn't" employe any big data, like some of our competitors would have you believe they do.
We expect the following :
- Rig count to increase between 120-130
- End of year rig count between 1044 - 1054
- Wels Drilled between 24,000 - 26,000 (note 0)
- Horizontal Well Count 18,000 - 21,000
- Well's frac : 16,000-18,000 * (note 1)
- Average Lateral Length (N/A) * (note 2)
Note 0 {this is a rather wide range because we believe drilling efficiency will continue to improve to the tune of 20% year over year.
Note 1. { this is contingent on having enough frac crews available from Q2 on-wards.}
Note 2. { we don't forecast average lateral length, because we believe its a dumb metric. Here is why, "average lateral length in the Bakken/Williston area is 9-10k, while in the eagle ford lateral length is averaging 8k.}
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