Talking more on Peak Oil: Texas stats show how real it is

A couple of weeks ago, I got some fairly recent stats on Texas oil production from the Texas Railroad Commission, the state’s oil and gas regulatory body.

Here’s the basics:

DECEMBER CRUDE OIL PRODUCTION
Texas preliminary December 2006 crude oil production averaged 864,217 barrels daily, down from the 887,856 barrels daily average of December 2005.

The preliminary Texas crude oil production figure for December 2006 is 26,790,739 barrels, a decrease from 27,549,132 barrels reported during December 2005.

JANUARY OIL AND GAS COMPLETIONS
In January 2007, operators reported 639 oil, 753 gas, 53 injection and six other completions compared to 286 oil, 554 gas, 43 injection and three other completions during January 2006.

Total well completions for 2007 year to date are 1,451 up from 886 recorded during the same period in 2006.

So, even though well completions are way up, and U.S. technology for the oilfield continues to advance all the time, Texas production still dropped 3 percent in 2006.