Oil output in the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico, the biggest U.S. shale oil basin, will rise 71,000 bbl/d to a record 5.205 million bbl/d in March, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its productivity report on Feb. 14.

Total output in the major U.S. shale oil basins will rise 109,000 bbl/d to 8.707 million bbl/d in March, the most since March 2020, the EIA projected.

In the Bakken in North Dakota and Montana, the EIA projected oil output will rise 6,000 bbl/d to 1.198 million bbl/d in March, the most since November 2020.

In the Eagle Ford in South Texas, output will rise 24,000 bbl/d to 1.146 million bbl/d in March, its highest since April 2020.

Total natural gas output in the shale basins will increase 500 MMcf/d to a record 91.7 Bcf/d in March, EIA projected.

Gas output in Appalachia, the biggest shale gas basin, will rise about 100 MMcf/d to a record 35.8 Bcf/d in March.

Gas output in both the Permian Basin and the Haynesville Shale in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas will rise to record highs of 20.4 Bcf/d and 14.5 Bcf/d in March, respectively.

But productivity in the biggest oil and gas basins has declined since hitting records of new oil well production per rig of 1,546 bbl/d in December 2020 in the Permian Basin and new gas well production per rig of 33.3 MMcf/d in March 2021 in Appalachia.

In March, the EIA expects new oil well production per rig will drop to 1,178 bbl/d in the Permian Basin, the lowest since August 2020, and new gas well production per rig will drop to 30.4 MMcf/d in Appalachia, the lowest since October 2020.

The EIA said producers drilled 710 wells, the most since April 2020, and completed 901, the most since March 2020, in the biggest shale basins in January.

That left total drilled but uncompleted wells down 191 to 4,466, the lowest since January 2014, and put the number of DUCs down for 19 months in a row.

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