U.S. crude oil and natural gas production from the seven biggest shale basins is expected to rise to record highs in March, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its monthly Drilling Productivity Report on Monday.

Crude production in the shale basins will rise by about 75,000 barrels per day (bpd) in March to a record 9.36 million bpd, the EIA projected.

Output in the Permian basin in Texas and New Mexico, the biggest U.S. shale oil basin, is expected to rise by about 30,000 bpd in March to a record 5.68 million bpd.

In the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana, crude production will rise by about 21,000 bpd to 1.20 million bpd in March, the highest since December 2020.

Crude production in the South Texas Eagle Ford region is set to rise by about 4,000 bpd to 1.18 million bpd in March, the highest since April 2020.

Total natural gas output in the big shale basins will increase by about 0.4 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) to a record 96.6 bcfd in March, EIA projected.

In the biggest shale gas basin, Appalachia in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, output will rise to 35.1 bcfd in March, the highest since September 2022.

That compares with a monthly gas output record in Appalachia of 36.2 bcfd in December 2021.

Gas output in the Permian and the Haynesville in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas will rise to record highs of 22.2 bcfd and 16.6 bcfd in March, respectively.

Gas output in Appalachia was expected to increase even though drillers have been getting less gas out of each new well for 24 months in a row.

EIA said it expects new Appalachia gas well production per rig to drop to 24.6 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) in March, the lowest since June 2020.

New gas well production per rig in Appalachia hit a record of 33.3 mmcfd in March 2021.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Laura Sanicola and Scott DiSavino; Editing by Chris Reese and David Gregorio)