The DJ Basin, with the addition of another horizontal rig expanding our drilling capacity there, continues to deliver impressive growth. The DJ Basin produced a record 65,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day for the quarter. That's up 18% from the third quarter of 2010 and up 10% from last quarter. Additional production growth is expected as we increased the pace of horizontal drilling and completion activity. As we have stated before, the growth in the DJ Basin is primarily from liquids and as a result, the liquid percentage of the entire area now is up to 55%.
David L Stover
In our other core onshore U.S. asset, the DJ Basin, the acceleration of our horizontal Niobrara play continues. We are operating 5 horizontal and 8 vertical rigs in the DJ Basin and are on pace to have over 80 horizontal wells drilled this year in the Wattenberg field. Additionally, we plan to have drilled 7 horizontal wells in northern Colorado and one in Wyoming by year end. Of the wells in Wattenberg, 15% are in the higher GLR area and the remainder in the lower GLR areas of the field where we've experienced roughly 70% liquids.
Our pace of drilling and completions continues to increase. In the third quarter, we completed an average of 8 horizontal wells per month, including 10 in September, a significant acceleration from the 4 completions per month that we averaged in the second quarter. We expect to maintain a rate of 10 horizontal wells completed per month throughout the fourth quarter. This activity level is translating into production growth. At the end of September, our horizontal Niobrara production was 14,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day gross or 11,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day net to Noble Energy. This is up 64% from the 8,900 barrels oil equivalent per day gross at the end of the second quarter. We feel very good about the momentum of this program.
At this time, I want to mention the performance of just a couple of the new wells which are contributing to this production growth. First, the 9,100-foot lateral well in northeastern Wattenberg has been on since mid-July and performing extremely well. It is still producing 750 barrels of oil equivalent per day with 85% liquid content after 80 days of production. Another significant well is the Tamar well that is located in the high GLR area and appears to rival the Gemini well based on its early production profile. Tamar has set a new peak 24-hour rate record at 1,282 barrels of oil equivalent per day for our Wattenberg operations, while on a reduced choke with over 2,200 pounds of flowing casing pressure. We will have much more to say about the horizontal Niobrara program in November as well.
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