U.S. oil production from seven major shale formations is expected to rise 84,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) in March to a record of about 8.4 million bbl/d, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a monthly report on Feb. 19.

The largest change is forecast in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, where output is expected to climb by 43,000 bbl/d to a record 4.024 million bbl/d in March.

A shale revolution has helped boost the U.S. to the position of world's biggest crude oil producer, ahead of Saudi Arabia and Russia. Overall crude production has climbed to a weekly record of 11.9 million bbl/d.

Production increases in the Permian Basin, the biggest oil patch in the U.S., and the Bakken has led overall output increases in the country over the past year.

In North Dakota's Bakken region, shale production is estimated to rise about 13,000 bbl/d to a record 1.45 million bbl/d in March. In the Eagle Ford region, output is expected to edge higher by 9,000 bpd to about 1.44 million bbl/d, which would be the highest monthly output since Jan 2016.

Meanwhile, U.S. natural gas output was projected to increase to a record 77.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in March. That would be up more than 800 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) over the February forecast and mark the 14th consecutive monthly increase.

Gas production was about 65.5 Bcf/d in March last year.

The EIA projected gas output would increase in all the big shale basins in March.

Output in the Appalachia region, the nation's biggest shale gas play, was set to rise over 300 MMcf/d to a record high of 31.6 Bcf/d in March. Production in Appalachia was 26.9 Bcf/d in the same month a year ago.

The EIA said producers drilled 1,453 wells and completed 1,246 in the biggest shale basins in January, leaving total drilled but uncompleted wells up by 207 at a record high of 8,798, according to data going back to December 2013.