U.S. shale oil production is expected to fall by more than 600,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) in January from the March peak, according to a U.S. government forecast on Dec. 7.
Total output is set to decline by just over 115,000 bbl/d to 4.86 MMbbl/d in January compared with December, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) drilling productivity report.
Bakken production from North Dakota is set to fall 27,000 bbl/d, while production from the Eagle Ford is expected to fall 77,000 bbl/d. In the Permian Basin in West Texas, production is forecasted to rise by 14,000 bbl/d, data show.
Meanwhile, U.S. natural gas production was expected to fall for a sixth month in a row in January.
Total output was set to decline almost 0.4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), the biggest monthly decline since March 2013, to 44 Bcf/d in January 2016, the lowest level since January 2015, according to the EIA data.
The biggest decline was expected to be in the Marcellus region in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, down 0.2 Bcf/d to a forecast 15.5 Bcf/d in January 2016.
That would be the second monthly year-on-year decline in the Marcellus region, the nation's biggest shale gas play, since at least 2008, around the time of the start of the shale boom. The first monthly year-on-year decline was expected to be in December.
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