US Crude output is still rising strongly but the strength of the growth appears to be slowing. Production hit 9.238mn b/d in May, just 400,000 b/d short of March 2015’s 45-year high, a level which the country remains on track to surpass in November, according to the EIA’s latest Short Term Energy Outlook (STEO), released 11 July.
However, whilst the EIA leaves its forecast for 2017 output as a whole unchanged from last month’s report at 9.33mn b/d, it revises down its output projections for every month from December 2017 to the end-2018 limit of its forecast period. For 2018 as a whole, its forecast is revised down by 100,000 b/d to 9.90 b/d, though this would still be an all-time record annual high (see chart 1). And, whilst output is still forecast to break 10mn b/d next year, this is now only forecast to happen in November 2018, back from last month’s projection of March 2018 (MEES, 9 June). (CONTINUED - 761 WORDS)
