EIA Predicts US Shale Output Up By 117,000 BPD In September

New Energy Information Administration (EIA) data puts U.S. shale output up 117,000 barrels per day in September compared to August.

Production in the Permian Basin is expected to see the largest jump next month, representing 64,000 bpd of the 117,000-bpd total gains. The Niobrara, Eagle Ford, Bakken, and Anadarko basins are forecasted to see outputs jumps of 10,000 bpd or more each.

Earlier this month, four U.S. shale companies reported second-quarter production that beat targets and increased their respective full-year output growth guidance.

U.S. drillers expect to continue raising production this year, but some are adjusting spending to the expected cash flows in the current oil price environment, after prices failed to rise as much as analysts and investors had expected a few months ago.

“$50 a barrel is still a pretty critical number and that number is going to be even more critical as we move into next year,” Tortoise Capital Advisors’ Rob Thummel told Bloomberg, adding “in the best parts of the basins, shale is here to stay.”

The rise in the number of active rigs in the U.S. has slowed in recent weeks, but U.S. crude oil production has not, with average production averaging 9.42 million barrels per day for the week ending on August 4^th, according to the EIA, which now expects US production to reach an average of 9.9 million barrels per day in 2018.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) output cuts have been derailed by high inventories in the developed world and new exports from non-OPEC U.S., which only began shipping its fuels abroad in December 2015. Output from Nigeria and Libya has also been on the rise as the African duo recovers from periods of civil strife and an unstable business environment.

By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com

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