• US crude output hit 9.433mn b/d in July, up from June’s 9.316mn b/d and within 200,000 b/d of April 2015’s 42-year high of 9.626mn b/d. Latest EIA forecasts have output breaking the latter record in October, a month earlier than previously. The EIA has output plateauing at around 9.9mn b/d in 1H 2018 – reflecting the delayed impact of the recent drilling slowdown (MEES, 11 August) – before breaking 10mn b/d for the first time in November 2018, in line with previous projections.
• 2017 output is now forecast at 9.345mn b/d, just below 2015’s 9.409mn b/d, before rising to 9.911mn b/d for 2018, comfortably above 1970’s all-time record of 9.6mn b/d. Both 2017 and 2018 are revised up fractionally from the July report. A bigger revision came last month when the EIA knocked $4/B from its oil price assumptions and 100,000 b/d from 2018 output (see charts & MEES, 14 July). (CONTINUED - 261 WORDS)
