Industry at a Glance

Crude prices tumbled in February over fear of unfettered U.S. shale output, and a combined increase of 130,000 bpd by OPEC members Libya, Nigeria and Venezuela.

Craig Fleming / World Oil

Crude prices tumbled in February over fear of unfettered U.S. shale output, and a combined increase of 130,000 bpd by OPEC members Libya, Nigeria and Venezuela. The monthly decline, the first since August, saw WTI drop 2.7% to $62.13, while Brent plummeted 6.1% to average $64.87/bbl. U.S. output set another record in January, when gushing shale fields pushed daily production up to 10.16 MMbpd, said API. The record caused inventories to swell by 3 MMbbl in February, noted EIA. Without self-regulation, explosive growth in the U.S. will undermine OPEC’s production cuts, designed to rebalance crude markets. Although the U.S. rig count increased just 3.4% to average 969 in February, DUCs continued to build at an alarming rate, up 1.6% in January, to 7,609. The international count gained 90 rigs, an increase of 7.8%, to average 1,247 units in January.

U.S. GAS PRICES ($/MCF) AND PRODUCTION (BCFD) GRAPH

U.S. ROTARY DRILLING RIGS GRAPH

U.S. ROTARY DRILLING RIGS TABLE

U.S. DRILLED BUT UNCOMPLETED WELLS

U.S. OIL PRODUCTION TABLE

WORLD CRUDE OIL PRODUCTION, TOP THREE PRODUCERS

WORLD OIL PRODUCTION TABLE

SELECTED WORLD OIL PRICES GRAPH

INTERNATIONAL ROTARY RIG GRAPH

INTERNATIONAL ROTARY RIG TABLE

INTERNATIONAL OFFSHORE RIGS TABLE

About the Authors

Craig Fleming

World Oil

Craig Fleming Craig.Fleming@WorldOil.com

Related Articles

FROM THE ARCHIVE