Permian primary research spotlights: top 10 takeaways from Midland

Our team spent three days in Midland at the start of March, visiting with half a dozen of the Permian’s most influential companies. It’s apparent that consolidation is accelerating the adoption of best practices in the field, which is an upside supply risk. We quizzed E&Ps on their 2024 plans too, asking what activity wildcards could be around the corner. The answer was essentially, “Not many.” Production, spending and emissions targets are all being taken extremely seriously. And commensurate with that, there’s an added layer of competitor benchmarking underway inside the walls of the biggest companies. With fewer operators to compete with, each E&P takes up a larger proportional share of the Permian’s spotlight. Some E&Ps have differentiated levels of technology investment.