U.S. shale oil production is forecast to rise for the eighth consecutive month, climbing 112,000 bbl/d to 5.585 MMbbl/d in August, the U.S. Energy Department said in a report July 17.
The increase comes amid market concerns that rising shale output will dampen OPEC’s efforts to curb a global supply glut.
The U.S. shale production level would be the highest since record-keeping began in 2007, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) monthly drilling productivity report.
The Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, the largest U.S. oil field, is expected to produce 2.535 MMbbl/d, up 64,000 bbl/d from July, the EIA said.
In Texas’ Eagle Ford, oil production is forecast to rise 27,000 bbl/d to 1.387 MMbbl/d, the most since February 2016. Meanwhile, in North Dakota’s Bakken, oil output is set to rise by 3,500 bbl/d to 1.043 MMbbl/d, the most since November, the forecast showed.
Meanwhile, U.S. natural gas production was projected to increase to a record 52.9 Bcf/d in August. That would be up more than 0.8 Bcf/d from June and also the eighth monthly increase in a row.
The EIA projected gas output would increase in all of the big shale basins in August, with the biggest increase from gas in the Marcellus Formation.
Output in the Marcellus Formation in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, the biggest shale gas play, was set to climb to 19.8 bcfd in August, a fifth consecutive increase.
EIA also said producers drilled 1,026 wells and completed 872 in the biggest shale basins in June, an increase of 154 so called drilled uncompleted wells (DUCs) from May. That raises the total to 6,031, the highest level of DUCs on record.
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