Oil prices at 2023 high, confounding 3-year peak in U.S. output
Investing.com — Against the bullish mantra of Saudi production cuts, the keeper of U.S. energy data has delivered a volley of its own — a three-year peak for U.S. oil output, estimated in its latest weekly report.
U.S. oil production was at 12.6 million barrels daily during the most recent week to August 4, the EIA said in its Weekly Petroleum Status Report.
The agency had not estimated such a high number for U.S. oil output since the record 13.1 million barrels per day declared prior to the coronavirus outbreak of March 2020. Until a week ago, the EIA had maintained its estimate for U.S. crude production at 12.2 million barrels per day — a figure it barely altered for months.
The EIA’s revision was made all the more significant by the sheer drop this year in U.S. oil rigs.
Oil services company Baker Hughes said the U.S. rig count stood at 525 during the week to August 4, down from the 2023 high of 623 noted during the week to January 13.
In a separate monthly forecast on Tuesday, the EIA said higher-than-expected well productivity and rising crude prices will help boost US production to a record 12.8 million barrels a day in 2023, up from previously forecast 12.6 million. The United States averaged about 11.9 million barrels per day in oil production last year.
“I’m not sure what the oil bulls will have to say to this,” said John Kilduff, partner at New York energy hedge fund Again Capital. “They’ve been harping like a broken record all year about oil rigs being down and the EIA has been going the opposite way with its oil production estimates, which have now been revised to pre-pandemic highs.”
Oil bulls’ response wasn’t surprising: Meh.
Ignoring the fundamental shift in U.S. oil supply indicated by the EIA, those
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