Resilient US oil production is a boon to Trump. How long will it last?

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. MIDLAND COUNTY, Texas—Perched in the control room of a Chevron rig, an operator steered a drilling bit thousands of feet under the arid surface of the Permian Basin. As he did so, he received real-time directions from a specialist in Houston, some 477 miles away.

Remote monitoring and other feats of technology that have become mainstream are among the clues that help explain why U.S. oil production has—thus far—defied predictions that it would decline in conjunction with the lowest crude prices since the pandemic. As U.S.

oil prices dropped below $60 a barrel in recent months, the industry shed rigs by the dozens and laid off crews that frack wells. Yet, the country’s wells last year gushed a record 13.6 million barrels of crude on average each day—100,000 barrels more than the Energy Information Administration, the federal forecaster, had anticipated before President Trump’s inauguration. The disconnect between slackening activity and the increasing yield has mystified even oil chieftains.

“I’ve been wrong," said Kaes Van’t Hof, chief executive of Permian producer Diamondback Energy. “I thought we’d be down by now." Executives credit the outperformance in part to companies’ engineering prowess and the changing makeup of the industry. Oil giants now have a bigger share of crude production in their hands and are largely impervious to price swings, ensuring a steady output.

Among other field enhancements, these companies now routinely drill wells that extend over 4 miles and allow them to collect more crude at a lower cost. The industry’s resourcefulness has been a boon to Trump. He has touted soaring production and low prices at the pump as the issue of affordability takes on urgency in