Natural gas production from seven key Lower 48 regions would continue rising in April, driven by incremental output gains from a variety of regions, led by the gassy Haynesville Shale, according to updated modeling from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Production

EIA said in its latest Drilling Productivity Report (DPR), published Monday, that total natural gas production from the Anadarko, Appalachia and Permian basins, as well as from the Bakken, Eagle Ford, Haynesville and Niobrara shales, is expected to climb to 96.622 Bcf/d in April.

That would represent a 420 MMcf/d sequential increase, the DPR data show. The Haynesville is poised to post the largest production gain from March to April at 113 MMcf/d. 

Incremental natural gas production also would come from the Permian (93 MMcf/d), Appalachia (75 MMcf/d), Eagle Ford (74 MMcf/d), Bakken (38 MMcf/d), Anadarko (22 MMcf/d) and Niobrara (5 MMcf/d) regions, according to EIA.

Meanwhile, oil production from the seven regions tracked in the DPR is set to rise a combined 68,000 b/d from March to April to just over 9.2 million b/d, the agency said.

Gains from March to April are to come from the Permian (26,000 b/d), Bakken (18,000 b/d), Anadarko (11,000 b/d), Eagle Ford (9,000 b/d), Appalachia (2,000 b/d) and Niobrara (2,000 b/d) regions, the DPR data show.

Total drilled but uncompleted (DUC) wells across the seven regions rose by 21 from January to February to 4,773, the latest EIA numbers show. The Haynesville increased its DUC backlog by 11 from January to February, ending with 673 wells. The Niobrara added 10 DUC wells to end with 651.

Also increasing their respective DUC backlogs between January and February were the Anadarko (up four), Permian (up two), Appalachia (up one) and Bakken (up one) regions, the EIA data show.

The Eagle Ford was the only region to finish the period with fewer DUC wells, dropping eight units from January to February to end with 426, the agency said.

EIA’s DPR makes use of recent rig data along with drilling productivity estimates and estimated changes in production from existing wells to model changes in production from the seven regions.