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Permian Producer Matador Raises 2024 Oil Production Plans

A gas flare burns at a Matador Resources Co. site in the Permian Basin area of Loving County, Texas, U.S., on Saturday, Dec. 15, 2018. Once the shining star of the oil business, gasoline has turned into such a drag on profits that U.S. refiners could be forced to slow production in response. (Angus Mordant/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Matador Resources Co. plans to produce more oil in 2024 than previously planned, a signal that wells in the western part of the Permian Basin — the busiest US oil field — continue to lead national oil growth.

Dallas-based Matador now plans to produce an average of 98,500 to 101,500 barrels of oil per day in 2024, a 5% increase from the company’s previous projection. The upper end of Matador’s previous full-year projection was 96,500 barrels per day. 

The company surpassed its production volume expectations in each quarter this year and Matador is already seeing better-than-expected flows from the new assets it acquired from EnCap Investments LP, which Matador took over toward the end of the third quarter.

The integration of new assets as well as improved drilling efficiencies and hydraulic fracturing multiple wells simultaneously helped lead to Matador’s production results outstripping expectations, Matador executives said Wednesday during an earnings conference call with analysts.

The global oil market is keeping a close eye on US explorers for signs of peak growth in shale. On Tuesday, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. slashed its estimate for US oil growth this year by 16% as consolidation and efficiencies slow overall activity in the shale patch.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.