News Release, Kansas Geological Survey, Feb. 14, 2006
LAWRENCE--Kansas oil and natural gas production was worth $4.7 billion in 2005, according to estimates by geologists at the Kansas Geological Survey at the University of Kansas.
That's an increase of about $1.2 billion over the value of oil and gas produced by the state's fields in 2004, said Tim Carr, chief of the Survey's energy research section.
The increase in the value of production was the result of higher prices for oil and natural gas. Oil prices peaked at more than $60 per barrel in 2005 and are currently about $57 per barrel. The average wellhead price for natural gas rose to as much as $11 per thousand cubic feet in 2005 before dropping to about $7.25.
The total value of oil produced in the state in 2005 was estimated at about $1.8 billion, up about $500 million from 2004. The total value of natural gas production was more than $2.8 billion, up from $2.2 billion the previous year.
Oil production in Kansas was about the same in 2005 as the year before, and the production of natural gas declined slightly. Carr estimated that Kansas fields produced about 33.7 million barrels of oil in 2005. That's roughly the same as last year, though down substantially from the years of peak production in the 1950s, when annual output averaged more than100 million barrels.
"Oil production has been constant or slightly increasing every year since 1999," said Carr. "The last time that oil production increased annually was from 1979 to 1985, another period when energy prices were up."
Natural gas production in 2005 is estimated at 380 billion cubic feet, down about 20 billion cubic feet from the previous year. The peak in statewide gas production was 990 billion cubic feet in 1970.
Even though production rates for oil and gas were substantially higher in the 1950s and 1960s, prices were substantially lower. As a result, the total value of production in those years was generally around $500 million.
"Today's energy prices are helping to fund a surge in energy exploration in the state," said Carr. "These energy dollars are important to the rural economy and are helping to fuel tax revenues too."