Oil output is set to rise 49,000 barrels per day to 9.33 million bpd, the EIA said.
Output in the Permian basin in Texas and New Mexico, the biggest U.S. shale oil basin, is expected to rise to 5.69 million bpd. While that would be a record high, crude oil output from the region is expected to gain by about 13,900 bpd from the previous month, the smallest increase since December, the data showed.
In the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana, output is due to rise 17,000 bpd to 1.18 million bpd, the highest since December 2021.
Crude oil production in the South Texas Eagle Ford region is due to gain by 6,000 bpd to 1.14 million bpd, the highest since April 2020.
Total natural gas output in the big shale basins will increase by about 0.3 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) to a record 97.2 bcfd in May, EIA projected. That would top the current monthly all-time high of 96.8 bcfd expected in April.
In the biggest shale gas basin, Appalachia in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, output will rise to 35.3 bcfd in May, the highest since hitting a record 36.0 bcfd in December 2021. Gas output in the Permian and the Haynesville in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas will rise in May to record highs of 22.5 bcfd and 16.8 bcfd, respectively. Gas output in Appalachia was expected to increase even though drillers have been getting less gas out of each new well for 26 months in a row.
EIA said it expects new Appalachia gas well production per rig to drop to 23.8 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) in May, the lowest since June 2020. New gas well production per rig in Appalachia hit a record of 33.3 mmcfd in March 2021. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino and Stephanie Kelly; Editing by Chris Reese, Deepa Babington and Anna Driver)
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