U.S. oil companies ready to pump more as prices rise - But DUCs are there

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Everyone wants to know: is this oil rally to $50 a barrel legit or another false start like last year?

The answer to that big question could lie in the Permian Basin, the West Texas oil play, where drillers can squeeze out profits even at low prices.

Now that oil prices have nearly doubled from their February lows, the key will be whether frackers in the Permian start pumping like crazy again. That's what happened in early 2015, when oil prices had recovered a little bit. The extra pumping deepened the big supply glut and caused oil prices to eventually crash to a 13-year low of $26 a barrel.

William Thomas, CEO of oil producer EOG Resources (EOG), believes the industry is displaying a lot more "discipline" this year after learning some tough lessons from last year's experience.

But even Thomas is worried about a repeat. "Our industry does have a bad habit of destroying capital," he said at a Sanford Bernstein conference last week. "We need moderate growth of oil in the U.S. We don't need a million barrels a day of growth."


\\\http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/09/investing/oil-companies-pumping-more-50-dollars/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom

From article

 Bloomberg Intelligence estimates there are between 3,800 to 4,000 DUCs waiting to be tapped.

"Operators usually complete those wells and bring them on line once the price signals some degree of stability. $50 to $60 is that sweet spot," said Vincent Piazza, a senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

Whiting Petroleum (WLL), the largest producer in the Bakken, recently said it would start tapping its array of 100 uncompleted wells, if oil prices can stay at $50.

"Bringing down that number of (wells) would be one of the first things we would do at higher prices," Whiting CEO James Volker said during a conference call at the end of April.