American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2017 - 56

FIGURE 1
Change in Operators' Planned 2017 Drilling
Compared with 2016 Actual Drilling*
100
90
Percentage Change

80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10

29%

83%

93%

59%

73%

Category 2

Oil

Gas

Total

0
Category 1

Category 1 respondents are those that plan to drill between zero and four wells in 2017.
Category 2 respondents will drill five or more wells in 2017. Respondents included in the
"oil" category targeted crude oil on more than 50 percent of their 2016 wells, while
respondents that drilled some natural gas wells in 2016, or plan to drill any gas wells in
2017, are tabulated as "gas" drillers.
* Active drillers only

at random from the magazine's subscription list. No attempt is made to identify
survey respondents, and AOGR staff compile and analyze the data.
Respondents to the 2017 survey say
they anticipate increasing this year's
drilling activity a whopping 73 percent

over their 2016 levels.
To put that response in perspective, it
should be noted that respondents to AOGR's
survey drilled an average of only 4.9 wells
in 2016, and expect to increase that to 8.5
wells in 2017. Because its recipients are
selected randomly, the Survey of Inde-

pendent Operators tends to be weighted
toward the preponderance of small companies that comprise the majority of the
U.S. independent oil and gas operator universe that may not be as well represented
in more targeted surveys that focus on
large, publicly-traded oil companies.
Nevertheless, the importance of these
operators may be illustrated by comparing
Baker Hughes' rotary rig count, which
showed zero rigs operating in Kansas in
November, with the state's local Red Top
Rig Report, which counted 37 rotary rigs
making hole on Nov. 24 with another 32
en route to a new location.
AOGR groups its survey respondents
into category 1 (expect to drill zero to
four wells in 2017) and category 2 (five
or more wells in 2017) drillers, as well
as oil (targeted crude oil on more than
half of their 2016 wells) and gas (targeted
natural gas on any wells in 2016 or '17)
drillers. The Survey of Independent Operators does not account for dry holes,
and merely asks whether a well, when it
is spudded, is targeting conventional crude
oil, conventional natural gas, unconventional crude oil, unconventional dry gas,
or unconventional wet gas.
New-year expectations are highest
among oil well drillers, who say they ex-

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American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2017
