Texas oil production to grow by 68,000 next month

Texas' crude oil production will continue to grow next month by 68,000 barrels and that the Permian Basin is growing faster in Oct. than previously estimated. Texas' crude oil production will continue to grow next month by 68,000 barrels and that the Permian Basin is growing faster in Oct. than previously estimated. Photo: Callaghan O'Hare /Bloomberg Photo: Callaghan O'Hare /Bloomberg Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Texas oil production to grow by 68,000 next month 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Texas' crude oil production is projected to grow next month by 68,000 barrels a day, led by the Permian Basin in West Texas, the Energy Department said Monday.

The Permian increased production faster than expected in October and is projected to grow by nearly 40,000 barrels more than previously estimated, the Energy Department said. By the end of the month, output from the prolific shale play is expected to be just shy of 3.5 million barrels a day.

In November, the Energy Department expects Permian production to grow by another 53,000 barrels a day, putting oil production at 3.55 million barrels a day.

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The Permian has faced pipeline constraints as production has outpaced pipeline capacity. Three major projects with a total crude capacity of more than 2 million barrels a day are under construction from West Texas to Gulf Coast markets and export hubs. They are expected to be completed by early 2020.

Estimates of oil production in South Texas' Eagle Ford Shale for October were revised down by more than 25,000 barrels a day, from near 1.45 million barrels a day to 1.42 million barrels a day. Oil production is expected to grow by 15,000 barrels a day in November, inching close to 1.44 million barrels a day.

Drilled but uncompleted wells, which are wells that oil and gas explorers have drilled but haven't used hydraulic fracturing or fracking to produce oil and gas, continued to increase. The Permian added 194 such wells from August to September, increasing the total number to 3,722. The Eagle Ford added 18 drilled but uncompleted wells to its inventory, which rose to 1,584 wells.