EIA: Shale Oil Production will Drop 136,000 Bpd in January

The US Energy Information Administration said in a monthly forecast that the United States’ oil production from shale formations is expected to decrease by about 136 thousand barrels per day in January to 7.44 million barrels per day, the lowest since June.

Production is expected to decline from nearly all of the seven major configurations, except for the Hainesville area, where production is expected to largely stabilize.

The data shows that the largest decline is expected from the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico, where production is expected to decline by about 44 thousand barrels per day to 4.2 million barrels per day, the lowest since June.

The second largest drop is expected from the Eagle Ford basin, as production is expected to drop by about 25,600 barrels per day to 987,000 barrels per day.

In general, shale production is expected to decline for the fourth month in a row, and by the largest amount since May, when production fell by about 1.6 million barrels per day, equating to a drop in global oil demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

But shale production is expected to recover at a slow pace, as oil prices rose, supported by hopes for a rapid distribution of an anti-Coronavirus vaccine, at a time when US energy companies added more drilling rigs.

And natural gas production is expected to drop in January to the lowest level since June, at 80.78 billion cubic feet per day, a decrease of 0.74 billion cubic feet per day.