More Oil Workers Being Trained to Operate in Permian

More oil workers are being trained to operate in the Permian, suggesting that the industry is working on resolving labor constraints that had been holding back production growth.

That’s what energy and environmental geo-analytics company Kayrros stated in its latest oil market note, which was sent to Rigzone on Saturday, adding that the number of workers active in the Permian has dramatically increased since the invasion of Ukraine in late February.

“A recent peak followed by a slight decline appears to show workers being temporarily gathered in the field for training,” Kayrros stated in the market note.

“This would indicate that the industry is rebuilding its workforce and may soon overcome the widely reported labor shortages that had been holding back development and oil production,” Kayrros added in the note.

A graph included in the market note highlighting Kayrros oilfield worker activity in the Permian basin, which contains data stretching back to the beginning of this year, shows that the number of people/unique IDs in the region surpassed 5,000 this month, before dipping to between 4,500 and 5,000. The graph, which shows that this figure has been climbing throughout the year, highlights that the number of people/unique IDs in the Permian was sitting under 3,500 back in January.

Kayrros also outlined in the note that the number of frac crews active in the Permian passed the 100 mark last week for the first time since the start of the Covid pandemic, according to preliminary data. Across other major tight oil basins, the aggregate number of horizontal well completions continues to creep up too, and recently reached its highest level since the early days of the pandemic in 2020, Kayrros stated in the market note.

Earlier this year, Hunter Kornfeind, the leader of Rapidan Energy Group’s U.S. crude production forecasting and analysis, told Rigzone that labor availability was tight and in short supply following the downturn due to Covid and said the U.S. oil and gas industry was not immune from those macro challenges.

After seeing a weekly case peak of 5.6 million in the week commencing January 10, confirmed weekly Covid-19 cases in the U.S. have come in at under one million since the week commencing February 14, according to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO). Weekly Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. peaked in the week commencing January 11, 2021, at 23,291, WHO data shows.

To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com