• A pump jack in Midland, Texas. (Michael Stravato/The New York Times) Photo: MICHAEL STRAVATO, STR / NYTNS
Photo: MICHAEL STRAVATO, STR
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A pump jack in Midland, Texas. (Michael Stravato/The New York Times)
A pump jack in Midland, Texas. (Michael Stravato/The New York Times)
Photo: MICHAEL STRAVATO, STR

If crude prices remain elevated, oil companies could take out some 5,000 onshore U.S. drilling permits this month, the biggest monthly haul of the year, a new report says.

State agencies issued 2,460 drilling permits through December 8, driven by an 80 percent increase in New Mexico, according to New York investment bank Evercore ISI.

"With commodity prices again on the rise and charging toward $60, we believe that an influx of smaller private/independent operators will drive permitting activity into year end," Evercore analysts wrote on Tuesday.

The permitting activity likely means the number of working U.S. drilling rigs will continue to rise in the first quarter of next year.

In November, oil companies took out 3,964 permits to drill onshore wells in Texas, Oklahoma and elsewhere, up slightly from the previous month.

The number of U.S. drilling permits issued this year has climbed to 41,735, well above last year's 27,239, the lowest number in at least a decade. In 2014, at the height or the oil boom, oil companies took out 74,512 permits, according to Evercore.

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