Julian Lee, Columnist

OPEC's Oil Price Nightmare Is Coming True

U.S. shale production is surging on higher crude, now the fear is waning demand growth.

February 11, 2018 at 8:00 AM UTC

Julian Lee is an oil strategist for Bloomberg. Previously, he was a senior analyst at the Centre for Global Energy Studies.

1518197998_mare — Kean Collection via Getty

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The latest surge in U.S. oil output will probably hasten the country's rise to the top of the producer pile. More important, it's starting to look as though at least half of OPEC's nightmare scenario for 2018 -- a surge in shale output and slowdown in demand growth -- is coming true.

Last week's avalanche of releases from the U.S. Department of Energy showed daily oil production above 10 million barrels a day for the first time since 1970.