U.S. oil boom not slowing enough to solve epic glut

The American oil boom is proving far harder to kill than OPEC expected.


Even though OPEC has been drowning the world in oil, the U.S. pumped a near-record 9.18 million barrels per day in January, according to recent stats released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

That's down a miniscule 0.6% from the end of 2015 and is actually slower than the pace of U.S. monthly production declines that started last year.
In other words, America's incredibly resilient oil boom has not tapped on the brakes hard enough yet to fix that epic global supply glut that has caused crude to crash as much as 75% over the past two years.

"The pace of declines have been tortuously slow," said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service.

Many, including OPEC, expected U.S. production would crumble as oil prices declined sharply. The oil cartel, led by Saudi Arabia, shocked the world in November 2014 by continuing to pump aggressively in the face of oversupply. The thinking was that strong OPEC production would pressure producers in the U.S. and elsewhere that need higher prices to turn a profit. (by Matt Egan, CNN)

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