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(Bloomberg) The Energy Information Administration cut its U.S. crude production outlook for next year as declining prices are prompting shale drillers to put rigs aside. Cheaper gasoline is expected to stoke demand for the motor fuel.
The agency decreased its 2016 forecast by 1 percent to 8.77 million barrels a day, according to its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook . It boosted its estimate for this year to 9.29 million barrels a day from the 9.25 million predicted last month.
America’s oil drillers have sidelined more than half the country’s rigs since October as prices have tumbled. The number of active oil rigs in the U.S. has fallen by 103 in the past 11 weeks to 572, the least in five years, according to data compiled by Baker Hughes Inc.
“Total oil production from non-OPEC countries is expected to decline next year for the first time since 2008, because of lower oil output in the United States,” EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski said in an e-mailed statement. WTI Projection
West Texas Intermediate, the grade traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange, will average $51.31 a barrel in 2016 versus the October projection of $53.57, according to the report. WTI will average $49.88 this year, up […]
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