Colorado Drillers Fuel Record Oil Output in Rush to Finish Wells

  • Niobrara production seen reaching all-time high of 611,000 b/d
  • Drilled-but-uncompleted wells decline for fifth straight month

Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg

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Booming oil production in Colorado is fueling record output in the Niobrara basin that spans four states.

The number of drilled-but-uncompleted wells in the shale play plunged in June as producers -- spared of the same pipeline constraints that have dogged other parts of the nation -- ramped up activity. The tally of so-called DUCs dropped by 42 from May, falling for the fifth straight month, according to the Energy Information Administration’s Drilling Productivity Report.