Permian faces pipeline crunch
The west Texas oil and gas play could see growth crimped if major infrastructure projects aren’t completed in time
The Permian tight oil field is growing fast—maybe too fast. With oil and gas output surging from the west Texas superbasin at a more rapid rate than expected this year, producers increasingly fear pipeline builders won't be able to keep up with output. This could cause costly bottlenecks and even throttle growth. All signs point to continued strong production growth from the Permian. Output jumped from 2.62m barrels a day last September to 3.16m b/d in April—an average of more than 80,000 b/d per month, according to data from the Energy Information Administration. The upward rig count trend implies yet more is to come. Drillers added 44 new rigs across the Permian in just the first three mon
Also in this section
12 November 2025
The November 2025 issue of Petroleum Economist is out now!
10 November 2025
The Russian firm made a significant attempt to expand overseas over the past two decades but is now trying to divest its global operations
10 November 2025
OPEC+ has proven to be astute at bringing back oil production, but mysteries around Chinese buying, missing barrels and oil-on-water have left the group in wait-and-see mode
7 November 2025
The Russian company’s German assets are under Berlin’s management and are exempt from sanctions, for now, but a permanent solution still needs to be found
