United States shale output from the seven most prolific shale basins is set to grow by 38,000 bpd, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Monday.
Crude oil production from the seven major basins, according to the EIA's Drilling Productivity Report, is set to increase to 7.803 million bpd in July-the highest output level since November of last year.
Most of the increase is set to come from the largest basin, the Permian, which is expected to see an increase in output by 56,000 bpd to 4.663 million bpd-the highest rate since March 2020.
The Permian's average oil production was 4.793 million bpd in January 2020, as the gap between current and pre-pandemic production closes.
But overall, total U.S. production is still nearly 2 million bpd under January 2020 levels, with the EIA expecting full-year 2021 oil production to average just 11.04 million bpd this year. Most analysts agree that it would take a significant amount of investment for the United States to return to the previous record high of 13.1 million bpd, but WTI near $71 has encouraged an increase in drilling activities, with the Permian basin gaining 61 rigs since the start of this year.
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The DPR sees oil production losses for the Bakken, Eagle Ford, Niobrara, and Anadarko basins.
The EIA also sees production increases for gas, particularly for the Haynesville basin, but also for the Permian and Appalachia basins.
The DPR also monitors the Drilling but Uncompleted Wells, also known as DUCs. The DUC count decreased by 247 to 6,521 in May, with the Permian set to see the largest share of the decrease in wells that were drilled but not yet finished.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group. More
Comments
If more GOM projects come on line (British Petroleum?) that will continue to flood the US market with oil as will Canadian production.
Prices are elevated and indeed from last year when $1.00 us dollar a gallon was reported on prices have absolutely soared from that level but the USA is far more energy efficient today than even just 6 Months ago let alone obviously 6 years ago let's say.