U.S. Shale Oil Output to Dip for Seventh Consecutive Month
U.S. shale oil output is expected to fall in July for the seventh consecutive month, according to a U.S. government forecast on Monday, despite a recent rally in crude prices to an 11-month high over $51 a barrel.
Total output is expected to fall 118,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 4.723 million bpd in July, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) drilling productivity report.
Bakken production from North Dakota is forecast to fall 32,000 bpd, while production from the Eagle Ford formation is expected to drop 63,000 bpd.
Production from the Permian Basin in West Texas is expected to drop 7,000 bpd, according to the data, representing its third consecutive monthly decline.
The U.S. shale oil and gas industry, led by upstart drillers who upended the global energy order after starting the shale revolution in 2005, has been under siege, pushed to the brink – or beyond it – by enormous debt loads and the largest, longest price rout in a generation.
U.S. crude futures fell from over $107 a barrel mid-2014 to a near 13-year low around $26 in February. Since then, prices have almost doubled, breaking through $51 last week as U.S. inventories declined and on supply worries in Nigeria.