A study conducted by energy industry research firm, Douglas-Westwood, reports that the oil and gas industry must drill 670,000 wells by 2020 to keep up with rising oil and gas demands.

The report states that in 2013, over 79,000 development wells were drilled. However, in 2020 well numbers will need to exceed 106,000 as demand is forecasted to grow 17% by 2020 to meet global demand.

As oil and gas reserves deplete, companies must drill more wells annually for less production per well. As a result, the number of wells drilled will need to increase by 35% to enable oil and gas production to meet forecasted demand growth. The increase in well development will be most pronounced onshore, which accounts for 97% of well completions and is predicted to increase by 15% in the next six years. Offshore production is expected to rise more proportionally, seeing a 21% increase in development drilling due to the deep-water drilling boom.

The U.S., which is driven by onshore unconventional liquids production, has gained approximately 2 million barrels per day crude in addition to almost 500,000 BOEPD of gas in the past two years”.