U.S. crude production from major shale formations to hit a record high 6.95 million bdp in April. This is the result of an estimated rise in 131,000 barrels per day, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a monthly productivity report on Monday.
That expected increase would top the 105,000 bpd increase in March from the previous month to what was then expected to be a record high of 6.82 million bpd, the EIA said.
The expected increase in April is largely driven by gains in oil production in the Permian and Eagle Ford formations, according to the report.
With this increase the U.S. shale oil industry is increasingly being seen as a disruptive, and potentially dangerous, producer related to the global supply balance. It’s unclear on how much OPEC and Russia can cut production in an continued attempt to balance the supply.
Oil production is expected to rise by 80,000 bpd in the Permian to a record high 3.2 million barrels a day in April, according to EIA data going back to 2007.
The Eagle Ford was expected to see gains of 23,000 bpd to 1.3 million bpd in April, the highest since March 2016.
Meanwhile, U.S. natural gas production was projected to increase to a record 66.1 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in April. That would be up almost 1 bcfd over the March forecast and would be the 15th monthly increase in a row.
A year ago in April output was just 55.2 bcfd.
The EIA projected gas output would increase in all of the big shale basins in April.
Published in Crude oil, Featured News, Industry News, Onshore, Production