EIA Dec ’17 Drilling Report: New Year to Begin in Record Territory

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Yesterday our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (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. EIA has adjusted their previous prediction for December's natural gas production from 61.7 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) to 62.3 Bcf/d. Wow! Not only that, EIA predicts average production in January 2018 will hit 63 Bcf/d--yet another record high in a string of successive monthly record highs going back more than a year. The 800-pound gorilla is, of course, the Marcellus/Utica region. Our region will add another 347 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of natural gas production from December to January. Yikes! Of the seven major shale play regions tracked in the DRP, Appalachia (the Marcellus/Utica) represents a full 42% of total U.S. production! Our region is a MONSTER natural gas producer. Here's the latest DPR, along with some analysis from Reuters...

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