[RightWhale]

10 bpd sounds about right for most of these small wells. It’s probably breakeven, but won’t make a dent in the supply.

[rodguy911]

IMHO it all helps.
You mean that if a substantial proportion of 240,000 wells will produce 10 barrels or more a day it doesn't help?
Sounds strange to me.

[Citizen Tom Paine]

I grow up where the first oil strikes went through after Drake’s well. There were old uncapped wells all over the place. There was methane coming out of most of them an a low rate. The ones that you could see down into usually had debris and dead snakes and raccons at the bottom.

At the end of WWII when surplus army trucks were available that could go through the brush and woods, guys would put a pump and barrels on the back of the truck and drive around and clean out the wells and pump them. At that time oil brought $8 a barrel at the back dock and day labors in the factories got less than $2/hour. An old well would put out from a barrel/week to 5 or 10 barrels/day. The guys, generally ex-soldiers liked the work, and they made a living wage. I suspect some of them are still doing in.

I talked to a guy with a barrel on the back of his jeep one day during hunting season. He liked doing it and it brought in extra money.

My 2 cents.