WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th April, 2020) Output of oil and natural gas in the United States is expected to decline by 2.1 percent and 1 percent respectively in May compared with production levels this month, according to Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates released on Monday.
Anticipated oil output in April of 8.709 million barrels per day (b/d) is forecast to fall to 8.526 million barrels in May, while gas production is forecast to fall from 84.027 million cubic feet/day to 83.158 million cubic feet/day, the EIA said in a press release.
The forecast comes amid ongoing turmoil in global energy markets due to a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, as well as a precipitous drop in energy consumption amid travel restrictions imposed in an attempt to halt the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
On Sunday, Russia and Saudi Arabia and other allied producers in a group called OPEC-plus agreed to slash production by nearly 10 million barrels per day in both May and June, about 10 percent of global output and the largest production cut ever negotiated, according to media reports.
However, analysts questioned whether the reduction would be enough to stabilize energy markets given a drop of more than one-third in demand for fossil fuels due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
