U.S. crude oil production from seven major shale formations is expected to decline by 68,000 barrels per day in October to 7.64 million b/d, according to the latest drilling productivity report from U.S. Energy Information Administration. That would be the first decline in production since May based on revised data from the agency. Output from five of the seven regions is expected to fall in October. Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico is expected to grow oil production by 23,000 b/d to 4.173 million b/d in October. The biggest decline is expected to come in Eagle Ford in south Texas, where production is expected to fall by 28,000 b/d to 1.127 million b/d (Haynesville production will be unchanged).
EIA said Sept. 14 that U.S. natural gas output will decline for a second straight month by 428 million cubic feet per day to 80.598 billion cfd in October. Gas production in six of the seven regions is expected to decline, led by Appalachia (down 162 million cfd to 32.835 billion cfd). Permian Basin is expected to grow in gas production by 110 million cfd to 16.011 billion cfd.
Drilled but uncompleted wells declined in five of seven regions in August, including Permian Basin (down 22 from 3,554 DUC wells to 3,532). In the seven regions, there were 7,665 DUC wells in August – down 77 from 7,742 in July. Rystad Energy attributed the recovery of hydraulic fracturing operations in U.S. to the high inventory of DUC wells, which is strong enough to sustain the current level of fracking without the addition of significantly more rigs by the industry.