CALGARY, Alberta (Feb. 12, 2025) — Enverus Intelligence® Research (EIR), a subsidiary of Enverus, the most trusted energy-dedicated SaaS company that leverages generative AI across its solutions, is releasing a report that analyzes recent inventories of drilling uncompleted wells (DUCs) and the implications for 2025 budgets. DUCs provide operators with strategic flexibility, financial benefits, and operational efficiency, making them a crucial aspect of the industry’s dynamics. EIR’s report also examines differences between EIR’s DUC estimates and those of the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
“Operators are entering into 2025 with lower DUC inventory numbers than they entered 2024, creating potential for impacts to capital efficiency throughout the year,” said EIR principal analyst and report co-author Mark Chapman.
“DUCs act as a form of inventory and when market conditions are favorable, such as higher winter gas prices, companies can quickly complete these wells to boost production and capitalize on the higher prices, providing a tailwind early in 2025.” Chapman said.
Key takeaways from the report:
- The number of drilled uncompleted wells (DUCs) in the last year fell faster than the drop in drilling rigs, indicated the backlog of such wells is declining. This has implications for energy companies’ 2025 forecasts on production and capital efficiency.
- The Midland Basin depleted its inventory of excess DUCs the most over the past year, falling from two months to one.
- A few gas producers bucked the industry trend and managed to increase total DUC inventories by more than one month since last year.
- EIA estimates of DUCs have become increasingly misaligned with EIR’s calculations, which we suspect largely reflects differences in the granularity and timeliness of data sources.
EIR’s analysis pulls from a variety of Enverus products including Enverus Activity Analytics.
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About Enverus Intelligence® Research:
Enverus Intelligence ® | Research, Inc. (EIR) is a subsidiary of Enverus that publishes energy-sector research focused on the oil, natural gas, power and renewable industries. EIR publishes reports including asset and company valuations, resource assessments, technical evaluations and macro-economic forecasts; and helps make intelligent connections for energy industry participants, service companies and capital providers worldwide. Enverus is the most trusted, energy-dedicated SaaS company, with a platform built to create value from generative AI, offering real-time access to analytics, insights and benchmark cost and revenue data sourced from our partnerships to 95% of U.S. energy producers, and more than 40,000 suppliers. Learn more at Enverus.com.
