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The United States cut its forecast for oil production growth in 2020
The US Energy Information Administration said that US production of crude oil is expected to increase 930 thousand barrels per day to 3.18 million barrels per day on average next year, slightly lower than its previous forecast for growth of one million barrels per day.
For the year 2019, production is expected to increase 1.26 million barrels per day to 12.25 million barrels per day, according to the Information Administration in its monthly report for short-term forecasts, which will also be less than its previous forecast and had a growth of 1.3 million barrels per day.
American shale oil production has witnessed a boom over the last ten years, which helped the United States to become the largest crude oil producer in the world and a major exporter with an average of just under three million barrels per day since the beginning of this year.
"September is the first month in US data recorded that the United States exports more crude oil and petroleum products than it imported," Linda Cabano, director of Energy Information Administration, said in a statement.
"The December report predicts that the increase in US net exports of crude oil and petroleum will continue to average 570,000 bpd in 2020. If this is achieved, 2020 will be the first year that the United States becomes a net source of oil on an annual basis."
It is expected that the rate of production growth will slow as producers reduce the number of oil rigs operating for the twelfth month in a row, which is a record time span, to stop about a quarter of the drilling rigs in the country from operating over the past year.
But Cabano said that the decline in the number of rigs would be offset by increased efficiency and productivity of wells.
The Department of Information kept its forecast for US demand in 2019 and 2020 unchanged.
In 2019, the administration expects the US demand for oil and other liquid fuels to rise 80 thousand barrels per day to 20.58 million barrels per day, and in 2020 it expects demand to rise 170 thousand barrels per day to 20.75 million barrels per day.
