US oil growth stalls, for now
The price plunge is testing the resilience of the world’s biggest oil producer
Even for an industry used to booms and busts, the US experience over the past few years stands out. As drillers piled into North Dakota and Texas’ shale plays crude flowed out at an unprecedented rate. From 2011 to 2014 the US became the first country ever to add more than 1mn barrels per day (b/d) of production for three straight years. In the process, it overtook Russia and Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer, a feat that was unthinkable just a few years ago.The widespread adoption of directional drilling and fracking were critical to the US’ oil renaissance. But high oil prices and cheap financing were vital too, and the fall in the oil price has stalled the US oil production
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