get_max_initial_production.py

def get_max_initial_production(df, number_first_months, variable_column, date_column):
    """
    This function allows you to look at the first X months of production, and selects 
    the highest production month as max initial production
    Arguments:
        df: Pandas dataframe. 
        number_first_months: float. Number of months from the point the well comes online
        to compare to get the max initial production rate qi (this looks at multiple months
        in case there is a production ramp-up)
        variable_column: String. Column name for the column where we're attempting to get
        the max volume from (can be either 'Gas' or 'Oil' in this script)
        date_column: String. Column name for the date that the data was taken at 
    """
    #First, sort the data frame from earliest to most recent prod date
    df=df.sort_values(by=date_column)
    #Pull out the first x months of production, where number_first_months is x
    df_beginning_production=df.head(number_first_months)
    #Return the max value in the selected variable column from the newly created 
    #df_beginning_production df
    return df_beginning_production[variable_column].max()