Kansas oil drillers hit 20-year production high in 2014

Kansas oil drillers, buoyed by high prices for most of 2014, set a 20-year high, producing 49.5 million barrels of oil, according to data released by the Kansas Geological Survey at the University of Kansas.

Kansas natural gas producers, hammered by moderate-to-low prices last year, recovered their lowest total since 1949, at 287.5 million mcf – or thousand cubic feet.

Based on the amount of production and published prices, drillers produced about $4 billion worth of oil and more than $1 billion worth of gas in 2014.

The surge in oil production in Kansas followed a more or less steady uptick from its low in 2005. Last year was a 5.6 percent bump over 2013.

Kansas oilfields have been drilled for nearly a century and are regarded as very mature. But prompted by prices in the $80s and $90s per barrel throughout most of the year, producers drilled more than a thousand new wells.

But the state’s oil industry is unlikely to surpass its 2014 success this year because of the fall in the price of a barrel of Kansas Common grade oil into $30s and $40s.

The price of both oil and gas is now bumping along at below the cost for many to drill a new well, prompting many companies to cancel jobs and lay off employees.

Since January, the number of drilling rigs in the state has fallen from 29 to 13.

A similar fall continues in the state’s gas fields. Linn Energy, the state’s top producer, said in a February conference call with analysts that it would shut down its last drilling rig in the Hugoton Field in late March.

This story was originally published March 27, 2015 at 5:12 PM with the headline "Kansas oil drillers hit 20-year production high in 2014."