US crude production is back to an estimated 11 million barrels per day the first time in two months, according to weekly data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday that suggested the country's oil drillers were getting more confident of prices holding at around $65 per barrel
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th May, 2021) US crude production is back to an estimated 11 million barrels per day the first time in two months, according to weekly data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday that suggested the country's oil drillers were getting more confident of prices holding at around $65 per barrel.
Oil output during the week ending on May 7 was 100,000 barrels higher from the 10.9 million reported for the week to April 30, the EIA said in its Weekly Petroleum Status Report.
It was the first time production had re-entered the daily mark of 11 million barrels since the week ended March 12.
US crude output stood at a record high of 13.1 million barrels daily in March 2020, before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. It has struggled since to come anywhere near that mark.
The main reason, as established by surveys carried out by US media on domestic oil drillers, was the industry's lack of confidence about crude prices sustaining their current uptrend despite their boom in recent years amid economic recovery from the pandemic.
The Biden administration push for cleaner, renewable energies like wind and solar over carbon-dense fossil fuel sources like crude and coal was also responsible for the change, industry experts said.
Analysts say the Permian basin, the largest oilfield in the United States, was under producing despite the market for crude being better now than a year ago. As a result, nearly half of all oil pipelines from the Permian are expected to be empty by the end of the year, a survey published in April showed.
The Permian is about 250 miles wide and 300 miles long, spanning parts of west Texas and southeastern New Mexico and includes the highly-productive Delaware and Midland sub-basins. The one-time prolific shale basin is operating less than half of the oil-drilling rigs it operated a year ago, data shows.
The US oil rig count, a measure of future production, stood at 342 last week versus a mid-August low 172.
