US shale oil output to rise to record 9.2 mbpd in February: EIA

US oil output from seven major shale formations is expected to rise about 22,000 barrels per day (bpd) in February to a record of about 9.2 million bpd (mbpd), the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a monthly forecast on Tuesday.

That would be the smallest monthly increase since shale output declined in February 2019.

Output at the largest formation, the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, is expected to rise 45,000 bpd to a record 4.80 mbpd. That would be the smallest increase since June 2019, the data showed.

Production from North Dakota and Montana's Bakken region is expected to rise by about 5,000 bpd to a fresh peak of about 1.53 mbpd.

The Permian and Bakken regions have been the biggest drivers of a shale boom that has helped make the United States the biggest oil producer in the world, ahead of Saudi Arabia and Russia.

However, the rate of growth has slowed as independent oil producers cut spending on new drilling and completions to focus more on earnings growth.

Production is forecast to decline in the Eagle Ford, Niobrara and Anadarko basins, the EIA said.

Separately, US natural gas output in the big shale basins was projected to increase to a record 86.0 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in February, but the pace of that growth is slowing.

That would be up less than 0.1 bcfd over the January forecast, its smallest monthly increase since January 2019, when production in the big shale basins declined.

Output in the Appalachia region, the biggest U.S. shale gas formation, was set to decline less than 0.1 bcfd to 33.3 bcfd in February from 33.4 bcfd in January. That would be the first time gas production declines for two successive months since October 2016.

Most of the increase was in the Permian, where gas output is expected to rise 0.2 bcfd to a record 16.8 bcfd in February.

EIA said producers drilled 1,036 wells - the least since June 2017 - and completed 1,086 in the biggest shale basins in December, leaving total drilled but uncompleted (DUC) wells down 50 to 7,573, the lowest since October 2018.