History will have been made this year in America’s shale plays. That’s according to our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Yesterday the EIA issued our favorite monthly report, the Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). The DPR is the EIA’s best guess, based on expert data crunchers, as to how much each of the U.S.’s seven major shale plays will produce for both oil and natural gas in the coming month. Last month was a record-breaker when total shale gas output blew by 60 billion cubic feet per day (see EIA Oct Drilling Report: NatGas Production Flies by 60 Bcf/d). EIA says in December production will fly by 61 Bcf/d! A new record. Not only that, EIA predicts that Appalachia (the Marcellus/Utica shale region) will increase its output by 394 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d). Put another way, M-U output will go up close to another 1/2 Bcf/d–all by itself. Incredible. Finally, as almost every news story about the DPR is pointing out, December will be the 12th month in a row that shale output has gone up. Welcome to the miracle of American shale energy…
History will have been made this year in America’s shale plays. That’s according to our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Yesterday the EIA issued our favorite monthly report, the Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). The DPR is the EIA’s best guess, based on expert data crunchers, as to how much each of the U.S.’s seven major shale plays will produce for both oil and natural gas in the coming month. Last month was a record-breaker when total shale gas output blew by 60 billion cubic feet per day (see 