By: Reuters – Oil output in the Permian in Texas and New Mexico, the biggest U.S. shale oil basin, is due to rise 78,000 barrels per day (bpd) to a record 5.445 million bpd in August, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its productivity report on Monday.
Total output in the major U.S. shale oil basins including the Permian Basin will rise 136,000 bpd to 9.068 million bpd in August, the highest since March 2020, EIA projected.
In comparison to the Permian Basin, the Bakken in North Dakota and Montana, EIA projected oil output will rise 19,000 bpd to 1.192 million bpd in August, the most since December 2020.
In the Eagle Ford in South Texas, output will rise 25,000 bpd to 1.205 million bpd in August, the highest since April 2020.
Total natural gas output in the big shale basins will increase 0.7 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) to a record 93.0 bcfd in August, EIA forecast.
In the biggest shale gas basin, EIA said, output in Appalachia in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia will rise to 35.3 bcfd in August, the highest since hitting a record 36.0 bcfd in December 2021.
Gas output in the Permian and the Haynesville in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas will also rise to record highs of 20.5 bcfd and 15.5 bcfd in August, respectively.
But productivity in the biggest oil and gas basins has declined every month since setting records of new oil well production per rig of 1,545 bpd in December 2020 in the Permian, and new gas well production per rig of 33.3 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) in March 2021 in Appalachia.
In August, EIA expects new oil well production per rig will drop to 1,107 bpd in the Permian, the lowest since August 2020, and new gas well production per rig will drop to 27.6 mmcfd in Appalachia, the lowest since August 2020.
EIA said producers drilled 938 wells, the most since March 2020, and completed 964, the most since October 2021, in the biggest shale basins in June.
That left total drilled but uncompleted (DUC) wells down 26 to 4,245, the lowest since at least December 2013, according to EIA data going back that far. The number of DUCs available has fallen for 24 consecutive months.
