U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its latest drilling productivity report April 12 that it expects crude oil production to increase in May for the first time this year. Modest declines in four of the seven major producing regions will be offset by a gain of 52,000 b/d in Permian Basin to 4.466 million b/d. Across the seven regions the report forecasts an increase of 13,000 b/d to 7.613 million b/d. Haynesville will be unchanged at 32,000 b/d, and Appalachia will add 1,000 b/d to 128,000 b/d with declines in Anadarko, Bakken, Eagle Ford (1.028 million b/d) and Niobrara.
Production of natural gas in the seven regions is expected to continue to decline by 149 million cubic feet per day in May to 82.783 billion cfd. Haynesville and Permian are the only regions forecast to grow gas production in May – Permian by 61 million cfd to 17.282 billion cfd and Haynesville by 104 million cfd to 12.221 billion cfd.
EIA said operators continued in March to reduce their backlog of drilled but uncompleted wells (DUC) to 6,912 from 7,089 in February. Permian had 3,163 DUC wells in March after 3,219 in February. Enverus said DUC inventories in the seven regions have fallen in each of the last nine months with 1,652 DUC wells completed in that period. Count of DUC wells peaked at 8,564 last June.