Oil and gas production has decreased in Kansas in the last 12 years, with the biggest drop in gas production occurring between 1995 and 1998.

According to the Kansas Geological Survey, 36,592,200 barrels of oil were produced in 2007, a decrease from the 45,381,023 barrels of oil produced in 1995. Natural gas experienced an even greater natural gas decrease of 734,002,315 thousand cubic feet in 1995 to a production of 372,190,804 cubic feet in 2008.

Despite the decrease in production, the amount of gas wells in Kansas increased by almost 10,000 wells between 1995 and 2007. There has been a small decrease in oil wells since 1995.

“Once you discover an oil or gas field and start producing it you are on your way down as there is only a limited amount in each oil or gas field,” Adkins told Kansas Liberty. “So then you have to look to replace that loss with new exploration.”

Adkins said oil and natural gas production reached its peak in the late 1960s, a peak that was almost matched in the 1990s and that numbers have been fluctuating but ultimately declining since then.

“There are chemical treatments and processes that can pull more oil out of the ground, but if oil is not at a good price you can't afford that extra treatment but when oil is higher like it is now people who have wells are prepared to invest some money because they know they will get a return for those additional treatments,” he said.

“It is a very old field and a very large field and as that reservoir becomes depleted it will be able to produce less and less each year,” Dayvault told Kansas Liberty. “What we see is a large volume of wells that are being drilled but that there are not any huge fields being discovered but there are some that are significant enough where people from the industry are taking note.”

According to the Kansas Geological Survey, the Hugoton natural gas field, which was first utilized in the 1930s, is the largest natural gas field in North America and the second largest in the world.

 “There has to be a natural gas facility to produce back up power for that and that is the main difference we see as a result in the increase usage of wind energy,” he said.

 The Texas-based Saxon Oil company successfully drilled a shallow natural gas well this month in Harvey County, Kansas. According to a company statement, an exploratory well drill stem tested the stone in the well at rates greater than 900 cubic feet per day.

A June Kansas Geological Survey release also showed progress for oil and natural gas resources in Kansas. According to the release, a new technology for recovering methane from underground coal beds was recently utilized and helped with increasing production in Wilson County, located in southeast Kansas. 

"Wilson County is a shining light as far as future energy production in the state goes," said Lynn Watney, a geologist at the Kansas Geological Survey said in the release. "Finding alternative gas resources is a good boost for Kansas."

-Holly Smith

• Resource: In Kansas Liberty, Karl Peterjohn describes the shale oil bonanza down below.
  

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