[Loki]

The 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, is a concept used to describe a highly nonlinear relationship between cause and effect. In other words, a minority of the causes (20%) account for a majority of the results (80%).

The spatial distribution of US oil production follows a version of the 80/20 rule. In this case, we’ll call it the 52/2 rule. 52% of all US oil production (as well as 20% of all US natural gas production) in 2013 came from these 20 counties, which make up only 2% of all producing counties.

http://info.drillinginfo.com/half-us-oi ... -counties/

[Tanada]

Interesting Loki, I see that two of the top four are from the Gulf of Mexico offshore. This further confirms what ROCKMAN said about the current Administration being a big friend to off shore drilling. Seven of the twenty are in Texas and four of the twenty are in North Dakota highlighting what Pops has pointed out about fracked oil in those states. I didn't realize New Mexico was even a player but they tie with Alaska in having two each of the top twenty counties.

Something else that was obvious from a glance at the map, none of the major oil production comes from anywhere east of the Mississippi, but the eastern seaboard is still a major portion of the total population and fuel consumption.

[ROCKMAN]

"...but the eastern seaboard is still a major portion of the total population and fuel consumption." And that's why I've been posting those stories about the slow change in the dynamics of fossil fuel movements with the south becoming more of focus. Such as pipelines being reversed to bring NG from New England down to the SE. And of course there's the huge growth in the Texas economy compared to the rest of the country combined. The rest of the states should be very glad we're the #1 consumer of coal. Otherwise we would be keeping more of "their" oil/NG.

[Pops]

Good map.

It was Hughes in Drill Baby Drill from PostCarbon that said all the growth in the US (and as it turns out currently, the world) is from 14 counties in the US.

[Unit30Bull]

I didn't realize New Mexico was even a player but they tie with Alaska in having two each of the top twenty counties.

A lot of people forget that SE New Mexico is the western boundary of the Permian Basin. It will be interesting to see production over the next 5 years increase. Lots of Bone Spring Sand wells being drilled and permitted and unless the majors buy up all the small companies such as Concho, Mewbourne, Matador, etc...then drilling should continue strong and and only get stronger unless prices drop below $80/bbl.

I know the analogy of running on a treadmill but so far the completions continue to improve and IPs and Ultimates continue to also improve as companies experiment with different techniques.

[basil_hayden]

Some of those counties are as large as my state (Connecticut).

[copious.abundance]

Some of those counties are as large as my state (Connecticut).

That's not hard to accomplish.