The prolific Permian basin is expected to add around 71,000 barrels per day of crude oil in the month of October, the largest increase of any of the seven onshore shale plays included in the Energy Information Administration’s monthly report.
The Permian, spanning from west Texas to south-east New Mexico, is anticipated to produce 4.5 million bpd in October, according to the EIA’s drilling productivity report.
Overall, production is set to rise by 74,000 bpd across all shale plays, the majority of it coming from the Permian.
The EIA anticipates the Niobrara play in Colorado increasing output by 12,000 bpd for a total of 767,000 bpd in October.
The Anadarko basin in Oklahoma is set to take the biggest dip of the plays, losing 9000 bpd in October for 549,000 bpd in total. The Eagle Ford shale play in south Texas will also drop its production by about 6000 bpd, totaling 1.4 million bpd.
The Permian will also add the most natural gas output, producing an additional 229 million cubic feet per day for 15.1 billion cfd in October. The Appalachian region where the Marcellus and Utica plays lie are expected to add 196 million cfd in October, totaling 32.8 billion cfd.
For October, natural gas production is forecast to hit 82.4 billion cfd.
The Anadarko basin will lose out on 96 million cfd next month, the EIA predicts, as the play is expected to total about 7.4 billion cfd for October. The Eagle Ford will also see a decrease in natural gas output of about 18 million cfd totaling 6.7 billion cfd in total.
The overall count for drilled but uncompleted wells fell by 142 from July to August, as the seven plays held 7950 DUCs last month. The largest losses were recorded in the Anadarko basin, down 46, and in the Permian, a decrease of 25. The Anadarko has 860 DUCs while the Permian has 3839.