U.S. oil output from top shale-producing regions is set to decline in January for the third consecutive month, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its monthly Drilling Productivity Report on Monday.
U.S. oil output is expected to drop to 9.692 million barrels per day (bpd) in January from an estimated 9.693 million bpd in December, the EIA said.
Lower oil production from the Anadarko basin of Oklahoma, Appalachia basin of Pennsylvania and Eagle Ford basin of South Texas is likely to contribute to the total drop, the EIA said.
Eagle Ford production is set to fall for a sixth month in a row in December to 1.149 million bpd from 1.151 million bpd in December.
Output from the Permian basin of Texas and New Mexico, the top shale-producing region in the country, is set to rise to a record for an eighth straight month, the EIA said. The pace of growth, however, is expected to slow, the agency noted.
Permian oil production in January is expected to total around 5.986 million bpd, up from 5.981 million bpd in December.
Total natural gas output in the big shale basins will fall by about 0.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) to 99 bcfd in January, EIA projected. That compares with a monthly record of 100.4 bcfd in August.
That puts gas output on track to decline for a record fifth consecutive month in January, 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 0.1 bcfd to 35.6 bcfd in January. Appalachia output hit a record 36.2 bcfd in September.
EIA said it expects new Appalachia gas well production per rig to edge up to 26.57 per million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) in January from 26.44 mmcfd in December.
(Reporting by Laura Sanicola; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Mark Porter )