U.S. shale oil output is expected to decline by 123,000 bbl/d in November, the biggest drop since May, to about 7.69 million bbl/d, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a monthly forecast on Oct. 13.

Overall output is expected to drop for the third straight month and is expected to decline in most of the seven major shale formations in November.

The biggest decline is forecast in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas, where production is estimated to drop by about 34,000 bbl/d to about 1 million bbl/d, the lowest since May 2013, the data showed.

U.S. oil and gas producers have slashed spending and curbed output this year as the global oil market grapples with a plunge in demand due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Still, U.S. energy firms last week added oil and natural gas rigs for a fourth week in a row for the first time since June 2018 as producers start drilling again with crude prices holding around $40/bbl over the past few months.

In the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, the biggest shale oil basin in the country, output is expected to drop by 17,000 bbl/d to about 4.4 million bbl/d.

Separately, the EIA projected U.S. natural gas output would decline for a third month in a row to 81.8 Bcf/d in November.

That would be down over 600 MMcf/d from its forecast for October. Output from the big shale fields hit a monthly all-time high of 86.9 Bcf/d in November.

Output in Appalachia, the biggest U.S. shale gas formation, was set to slip for a third month in a row in November to 33.6 Bcf/d, down over 100 MMcf/d from October.

Onshore