Below is a response from an operator to the Dallas Fed. It point out how worthless most of the information on the EIA's website is.
"The EIA has no clue on their estimated number of DUCs, in my opinion. Their current estimate is approximately 8,000 total DUCs in the U.S.
The DUC de fi nition needs to be de fi ned as a well that has been drilled down to the producing formation and also drilled horizontally all the
way to the end of the lease. In other words, for a Permian Basin well, that means a well which has been drilled 10,000 feet down and 10,000
feet out. What actually happens in the oil fi eld is a smaller, “ spudder ” rig goes out to the lease fi rst and drills down to approximately 1,500 –
2,000 feet and sets surface pipe, moves on to the next well, and does the same thing over and over. By doing this, the larger, bigger and
more expensive drilling rig doesn't have to spend its higher day rate to drill and set the surface pipe. What is occurring is the EIA is counting
all of these 1,500 – 2,000-foot spudder wells in their total DUC count! Another thought to consider is, if these wells cost $4 million to drill
and then another $5 million to complete — with 8,000 DUCs, with a $4 million per [well] drilling cost, that would be $32 billion. Is this the
main E&P issue now? Have they truly spent $32 billion on just the drilling of these wells and they somehow have decided to leave them shut
in and therefore not complete them when they desperately need the cash low? I've spoken to several of the large shale operators in the
Permian and they only have a few true DUCs on their books, not thousands. See if you can have the EIA readjust their number so the world
knows the truth about how many true DUCs (all the way down and all the way out) are out there. I think the number will shock a few
people."