At the wellhead

摘要

For months, conventional wisdom held that persistently low crude oil prices would be countered by a slowdown in US shale oil production, but to the dismay of many hoping for a return to the days of $100/b, US oil production continues to rally in spite of falling and stagnant prices. Earlier this month, the US Energy Information Administration forecast US production to average 9.47 million b/d this year, which would be the most crude produced domestically in 45 years. The forecast was up 750,000 b/d from the 2014 average and up 40,000 b/d from EIA’s 2015 production estimate announced a month earlier. Arguably, this trend is best seen in North Dakota. Amid persistently low oil prices and a plunging rig count, analysts and state officials were somewhat shocked when North Dakota’s Department of Mineral Resources revealed last week that crude production grew roughly 3% from April to May, falling just shy of the alltime supply record.