United States Predicted a Record Production of Shale Oil in April
Oil production at the seven largest US shale deposits in April could reach its highest since December 2019, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the US Department of Energy said on Monday.
It is estimated that shale oil production could rise by 68,000 barrels per day – the slightest increase since December 2022 – to 9.21 million barrels per day.
Oil production in the Permian Basin (Texas and New Mexico), the largest US shale field, will increase to 5.62 million barrels per day. Although this will be a record high, total production in the region will increase by 26,000 barrels per day compared to the previous month, the lowest increase since December 2022, the EIA said.
Oil production from the Bakken formation (North Dakota and Montana) may increase by 18,000 barrels per day, to 1.16 million barrels per day, the highest since March 2022.
Oil production at the Eagle Ford field in south Texas is likely to rise by 9,000 barrels per day to 1.13 million barrels per day, the highest since April 2020.
Cumulative natural gas production from major shale plays will increase by about 0.4 billion cubic feet per day to a record 96.6 billion cubic feet per day in April, the agency predicts.
Gas production in the Appalachian Basin, the largest shale gas field (Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia), will increase to 35.0 billion cubic feet per day in April, the highest since November 2022. The previous record gas production in the Appalachian Basin was reached in December 2021 at 36.0 Bcfd.
Gas production in the Permian Basin and the Hainsville field (Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas) is likely to rise in April to record highs of 22.5 Bcfd and 16.8 Bcfd respectively.
Gas production in the Appalachian Basin will increase, despite the decline in the productivity of all new wells over the past 25 months. The EIA estimates that in April, the production of each new well in the Appalachian Basin will drop to 24.2 million cubic feet per day, the lowest since June 2020.
Record gas production from new wells in the Appalachian Basin was reached in March 2021 at 33.3 Mcfd (per well).
