The U.S. Energy Department said it was including the eastern Utica shale formation in a monthly productivity report because of exponential growth in output.

The Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the Energy Department, said it was including Utica shale, which lies geologically beneath the Marcellus shale, in its monthly drilling productivity report.

Total production from Utica shale should increase from 155 million cubic feet per day in January 2012 to an expected 1.3 billion cubic feet per day by September.

EIA said drilling productivity in the Utica shale has outpaced others in the region, including Marcellus.

"Utica natural gas production growth was constrained before July 2013 because of limited natural gas processing capacity in the area," EIA's report Tuesday said. "As a number of processing plants have been built and brought into service over the past year, more natural gas is being gathered from wells and processed to meet pipeline specifications, allowing the gas to flow on interstate pipelines."

The Utica shale area is situated predominately in eastern Ohio.