U.S. oil output from top shale-producing regions is due to decline in February for the fifth consecutive month, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a monthly report on Tuesday.
Oil output is set to fall to 9.68 million barrels per day (bpd) next month, driven by declines in the Eagle Ford and Bakken regions and lower growth in the Permian Basin, the top-producing U.S. region, according to the agency’s Drilling Productivity Report.
Oil output in the Permian was due to rise to 5.974 million bpd, the highest on record, the EIA said, that output was on track to rise by the smallest amount since June.
Production in the Eagle Ford was due to fall to 1.147 million bpd, the lowest in a year, the EIA said. In the Bakken, output was set to fall to 1.303 million bpd, the lowest since December.
Total natural gas output in the big shale basins will fall by about 0.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) to a five-month low of 98.9 bcfd in February, EIA projected.
That compares with record monthly gas output of 100.0 bcfd in October 2023 and puts gas output on track to decline for a record fourth month in a row in February, according to EIA data going back to 2007.
In the biggest shale gas basin, Appalachia in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, output is set to slide 0.2 bcfd to 35.5 bcfd in February, its lowest since April 2023. Appalachia output hit a record 36.3 bcfd in August 2023.
EIA said it expects new Appalachia gas well production per rig to rise to a 21-month high of 26.7 per million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) in February.
If correct, that would be a 10th straight monthly increase in new well production per rig. New well production per rig in Appalachia peaked at 34.3 mmcfd in December 2020.
EIA said producers drilled 862 oil and gas wells in December and completed just 926, the least since February 2023.
Total drilled-but-uncompleted (DUC) oil and gas wells dropped by 64 to 4,374 in December, the lowest on record, according to EIA data going back to December 2013.
(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly and Scott DiSavino Editing by Paul Simao and Lisa Shumaker)