The latest drilling productivity report from U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts another month of declining crude oil production in the nation’s seven major regions. Total production in the seven regions in February is expected to be 7.522 million barrels per day – down 89,000 b/d from 7.611 million barrels per day in January. Production in Permian Basin is expected to decline by 13,000 b/d from 4.333 million in January to 4.320 in February.
Production of natural gas in the seven regions is forecast to decline by 472 million cubic feet per day from 81.076 billion cfd in January to 80.604 billion cfd in February. Production in Permian Basin is expected to be down 62 million cfd from 16.365 billion cfd in January to 16.303 billion cfd in February. Appalachia remains the leader with gas production of 33.837 billion cfd in February – down 118 million cfd from 33.955 billion cfd in January to 33.837 billion cfd in February.
The counts of drilled but uncompleted wells (DUC) also continue to decline to 7,298 in the seven regions in December from 7,443 in November. The counts of DUC wells declined in all seven regions, including a drop of 21 DUC wells in Permian Basin from 3,545 in November to 3,524 in December.