Over the past six months, the number of drilled but uncompleted (DUC) wells across the U.S. shale patch has been steadily declining in a fresh sign that shale producers have stopped the relentless drilling of wells. The slowdown in drilling is expected to weigh on the fourth-quarter results of the world’s major oilfield services companies working on well completions in the key U.S. shale regions, Bloomberg reports , citing analyst forecasts. The number of DUC wells in the seven key shale regions dropped to 7,574 in November, down by 131 from the October DUC well inventory of 7,705, according to the latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). According to Bloomberg estimates based on EIA data, the number of DUC wells dropped from a recent high of 8,429 in May 2019 to 7,574 such wells in November. This drop in just six months was the steepest fall […]