After the intense year that the Vaca Muerta oil companies closed, the level of activity in the formation during the first month of 2023 was higheven though fractures were fewer than had been projected. A combination of factors conditioned the number of jobs that were carried out, but in most cases they are transitory.
According to the special report prepared by the country manager of NCS MultistageLuciano Fucello, during January a total of 963 fracture stages were performedwhich is equivalent to a fall of 6.14% compared to December, or about 63 less.
In year-on-year terms, the number of fractures that were completed in January of this year means a jump of almost 30%. And despite the fact that the level of activity last month fell compared to December, It is the January with the most fractures in the history of Vaca Muerta.
- 963
- were the fracture stages that were completed at the start of 2023.
However, a little taste remained and it is that, as they confirmed to Power On, the expectation of the industry was to maintain a level close to 1,400 fracture stages throughout 2023, on average, per month. This means more than 430 stages less than what was finally completed in January.
And the reasons for this drop in activity are due to various factors, most of which seem to be temporary.
As Fucello explained in dialogue with this medium, many DTMs (Disassembly, Transfer and Assembly) of equipment were registered, which in some companies was up to three times. This has a clear impact on the efficiency of each fracture set and leaves the equipment out of action for up to three days.
Also there is a private company in the formation that saturated the available transport capacitye, with which, it delayed the completion of its wells until the bottleneck was resolved.
It is expected that most of these setbacks will be resolved in the short term, as well as the commissioning of more frac pumps and the addition of new equipment.
How was the ranking of fractures in January
In total there were seven operators that recorded fracturing jobs during January: YPF, Pan American Energy, Pluspetrol, TotalEnergies, Vista, Tecpetrol and Capsa. Between all of them they completed the 963 stages of the month.
Again, most well fracturing activity was in the hands of YPF that carried out a total of 458 stages during the month. In second place was Pluspetrol with 135and followed VistaMiguel Galuccio’s oil company, with 107.
In fourth place, it was Pan American Energy that did 95 stages and the top five completed it TotalEnergies with 94 stages. The last two companies on the list last month were Tecpetrol and Capsa – Capex who reached the 65 and 9 fracturesrespectively.
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