Shale sends US output past historic ten-MMbpd mark
US oil production surged above ten MMbpd for the first time in four decades, another marker of a profound shift in global crude markets.
The milestone comes weeks after the International Energy Agency said the US is poised for “explosive” growth in oil output that would push it past Saudi Arabia and Russia this year.
New drilling and production techniques have opened up billions of barrels of recoverable US oil in shale rock formations in the past ten years, reversing decades of declining output and turning the nation into an exporter.
The news also comes after the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided last year to extend an agreement with several non-OPEC members to curb output in response to a global supply glut fed in part by shale.
That agreement was finally showing signs of working, with prices emerging from a three-year downturn. After falling near US$26/bbl in 2016, the global benchmark oil price climbed above US$70/bbl in January, and the US price is following suit. Yet, increasing output from the US may threaten rising price.
“You are starting to see a little bit of a shift in market sentiment on oil given the fact that production is really starting to ramp up,” Joseph Bozoyan, a portfolio manager at Manulife Asset Management LLC in Boston, said. “These US production numbers are starting to take the wind out of the sails of the crude oil market.”
Nationwide output climbed to 10.038 MMbpd in November, the Energy Information Administration reported on the 31st January. That is the highest level since November 1970 in monthly data collected by the US agency since 1920.
It comes with West Texas Intermediate crude selling for about US$64/bbl, a price which could spur even more drilling.
The Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, the engine room for shale production and acquisitions since the oil-price crash, is expected to comprise almost 30% of output this year.
ExxonMobil Corporation is spending billions to triple output by 2025 from the Permian, where its costs are as low as US$15/bbl.
Production from Texas, which also included the Eagle Ford play, contributed 3.89 MMbpd to the November figure, the most of any state. Production from the Gulf of Mexico and North Dakota, where the Bakken shale lies, were close behind.
Weekly EIA data released on the 31st January showed US production at a record 9.92 MMbpd last week.
US production is forecast to average 10.3 MMbpd this year, and 10.9 million in 2019, the EIA has previously said in its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook.
That is a number which challenges daily production of just less than ten MMbbl by Saudi Arabia in December and almost 11 million by Russia last year.