Operators drilling in the Permian basin of western Texas and eastern New Mexico pushed the average length of a new horizontal well to 10,867 feet in 2025, up 77% from 6,149 feet in 2015, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The region remains one of the most active unconventional oil and gas producing areas in the world.
Short wells give way to longer ones
A lateral is the horizontal section of a well that runs through the rock layer holding oil and gas, and a longer lateral lets an operator contact more of that rock from a single well pad. Short-reach wells under 5,000 feet made up 43% of Permian completions in 2015; by 2025 they were down to 4%. Mid-length wells, between 5,000 and 15,000 feet, grew from 57% of completions in 2015 to a peak of 90% in 2021 before settling at 81% in 2025.
| Lateral length | 2015 share of completions | 2025 share of completions |
|---|---|---|
| Short-reach, under 5,000 ft | 43% | 4% |
| Mid-length, 5,000-15,000 ft | 57% | 81% |
| Super-lateral, over 15,000 ft | rare | 15% |
Super-laterals, wells stretching more than three miles, were virtually nonexistent before 2020. By 2025 they accounted for 15% of all new well completions in the Permian.
Output keeps climbing
The number of new horizontal wells drilled each year has stayed roughly flat, holding near 6,000 annually since 2022 once the 2020-2021 slump from negative oil prices and COVID-era uncertainty passed. Hydrocarbon production in the region still climbed from 2.9 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2015 to 11.2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2025, a 284% increase. Longer laterals let upstream operators draw more output from each well while holding well counts, and the overhead costs that come with them, down. The lateral-length data come from Enverus.
