Oil pro­duc­tion from the Mar­cel­lus and Uti­ca-Point Pleas­ant shale plays is expect­ed to increase slight­ly in May, while nat­ur­al gas out­put is antic­i­pat­ed to decline, accord­ing to the lat­est report from the U.S. Ener­gy Infor­ma­tion Administration.

The EIA’s month­ly sur­vey of oil and gas drilling pro­duc­tion in the country’s shale plays shows that oil pro­duc­tion in Appalachia – con­sid­ered east­ern Ohio, west­ern Penn­syl­va­nia and West Vir­ginia – should increase by 1,000 bar­rels per day through­out May.

The region encom­pass­es the Uti­ca-Point Pleas­ant and Mar­cel­lus shale ranges, rock for­ma­tions that pro­duce most­ly dry and nat­ur­al-gas liquids.

Accord­ing to the EIA, the region’s wells pro­duced 127,000 bar­rels of oil per day in April. That num­ber is pro­ject­ed to increase to 128,000 bar­rels in May.

Nat­ur­al gas pro­duc­tion, how­ev­er, is expect­ed to con­tin­ue to decline as warmer months set in across this part of the country.

EIA reports that nat­ur­al gas out­put should drop to 34.14 bil­lion cubic feet per day in May, a decline of about 65 mil­lion cubic feet from April.

That’s still less a drop from ear­li­er this year, the EIA reports. In March, nat­ur­al gas pro­duc­tion was esti­mat­ed to decline by 260 mil­lion cubic feet per day, while pro­duc­tion was expect­ed to be down by 118 mil­lion cubic feet per day in February.

Of the sev­en major shale plays in the Unit­ed States, just two – the Per­mi­an Basin in Texas and New Mex­i­co, and the Hay­nesville in Texas and Louisiana – are expect­ed to increase nat­ur­al gas pro­duc­tion in May, accord­ing to EIA.

In addi­tion to Appalachia, only the Per­mi­an is expect­ed to increase oil pro­duc­tion in May, the EIA reported.

Mean­while, drilling activ­i­ty in Mahon­ing, Trum­bull and Columbiana coun­ties remains qui­et. This week, the Ohio Depart­ment of Nat­ur­al Resources report­ed a sin­gle per­mit issued to Hilcorp Ener­gy Co. to deep­en its Elkrun-Bak­er 7H well in order to drill a new hor­i­zon­tal leg.

Hilcorp con­tin­ues to be the most active driller in the north­ern tier of the Uti­ca-Point Pleas­ant for­ma­tion. In Feb­ru­ary, the Hous­ton-based com­pa­ny received 14 per­mits to drill new hor­i­zon­tal wells in Columbiana County.