According to the EIA’s February Drilling Productivity Report, U.S. oil output is expected to continue to increase throughout the early months of 2017. The Drilling Productivity Report uses recent data on the total number of drilling rigs in operation, estimates of drilling productivity, and estimated changes in production from existing wells to provide estimated changes in oil production for the seven key regions shown below. The seven regions analyzed have accounted for 95% of domestic oil production growth from 2011-2013. Feb ’17 production was revised 0.9% higher than the previous month figures, finishing 40,000 barrels per day (bpd), or 0.9%, above Jan ’17 production levels. Mar ’17 production levels are expected to increase an additional 79,000 bpd, or 1.7%, from the Feb ’17 revised production levels to 4.87 million bpd, finishing at a ten month high. Despite the recently experienced growth, Mar ’17 production forecasts are expected to remain 3.7% below previous year levels. The Mar ’17 projected MOM increase in oil production would be the second largest experienced throughout the past two years, trailing only the Oct ’16 MOM increase in production. Oil production is expected to remain strong within the Permian region (+3.2%), while production is also expected to increase within the Eagle Ford (1.3%) and Niobrara (+3.4%) regions. Production within the Bakken region (-1.8%) is expected to decline to a three year low, however.