Oil production in the Permian Basin is rising so quickly that drillers may find themselves without enough pipeline capacity to move their product. Shale drillers large and small are rushing to West Texas, where drilling is profitable even at today’s prices. Other shale basins have lost capital and drilling rigs as industry activity becomes increasingly concentrated in the Permian. Even as shale production contracted in most of the country, the Permian continued to grow over the past several years through the worst of the downturn. Oil production in the Eagle Ford, for example, hit a peak in March 2015 at 1.7 million barrels per day (mb/d), but has since fallen sharply to just 1.1 mb/d today. But Permian production has spiked over the same timeframe, rising by nearly 0.5 mb/d to nearly 2.3 mb/d. (Click to enlarge) Production increases have continued despite the plunging rig count since 2014. Companies […]