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A stripper well produces 10 barrels of oil or 60 thousand cubic feet of natural gas per day or less.
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For every $1 million directly generated by stripper well production, more than $2 million in economic activity is generated elsewhere. Each additional $1 million of stripper well production employs 10 workers directly and indirectly, with some producers employing as many as 15 workers.
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Even though individual stripper wells contribute only a small amount of oil (about 2.5 barrels per day nationally, on average), there were more than 375,000 stripper wells in the United States, a decline of 5% from 2007.
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Stripper wells produced almost 262 million barrels of oil in 2008 – about 20% of total US production.
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Stripper gas wells numbered more than 322,000 in 2008 (about the same as 2007) and produced about 2.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, a 23% increase from 2007 – about 19% of total US production
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Stripper oil or natural gas can be found in 29 states, from Alabama to Wyoming. Texas leads the nation with more than 132,000 stripper oil wells and more than 46,000 marginally-producing natural gas wells.
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There are two enhanced oil recovery methods: secondary and tertiary. The term “secondary recovery: generally refers to waterflooding or hydrocarbon gas re-injection. Reservoir pressure is increased, or maintained, and oil is swept to the producing wells.
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The potential effects of enhanced oil recovery could be an additional 90 to 200 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the United States alone.
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Multiplying each state’s total production volume by its own respective price, the total value of oil produced domestically is nearly $70 billion while the total value of domestic natural gas is more than $100 billion.
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If all marginal wells were abandoned the lost output would be $61 billion while the lost earnings would be $12.5 billion. In addition, 292,374 individuals would lose their jobs. In the oil and gas industry alone, the effect of abandonments is $5.3 billion in lost worker earnings and 83,000 potential jobs lost.
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In 2007, oil production generated $728 million in tax revenue while an additional $22 million is lost due to real abandonments. For gas, the tax revenue was more than $600 million with $6.2 million lost due to abandonments.
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According to the Energy Information Administration, the United States consumed 7.1 billion barrels of crude oil during 2008. An estimated 18% of that oil was produced domestically. Stripper wells represent 20% of the total domestic production component.
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Stripper wells supply about 10% of America’s total consumption of natural gas, an estimated 23 trillion cubic feet in 2008.
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The United States is the only country in the world that produces oil and natural gas in economically significant percentages from stripper wells.
