NEW YORK, April 16 (Reuters) – U.S. shale oil production is expected to increase in May for the fourth consecutive month, U.S. Energy Information Administration data showed on Monday, boosted by record production in the prolific Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico.
Total oil output is set to rise by 125,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 7 million bpd, the EIA said in its monthly drilling productivity report.
Production in the Permian Basin is expected to jump by 73,000 bpd to 3.2 million bpd, the largest according to records dating back to 2007.
The expanding production there has led to bottlenecks as pipelines transporting the crude have filled more quickly than expected.
Bakken output is expected to rise by 15,000 bpd to 1.2 million bpd, the highest since July 2015. In the Eagle Ford shale fields, production is set to rise by 24,000 bpd to 1.3 million bpd, the most since May 2016.
Meanwhile, U.S. natural gas production was projected to increase to a record 66.9 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in May, the highest on record. That would be up more than 1 bcfd over the April forecast.
Output in the Appalachia region, the biggest shale gas play, was set to rise by almost 0.4 bcfd to a record high of 27.7 bcfd in May.
(Reporting by Catherine Ngai; editing by Lisa Shumaker and Cynthia Osterman)