U.S. Oil Companies Line Up With Russia, Saudi Arabia
Even though President Trump has sought to protect America’s oil industry, the market is making sure that the pain of output cuts is being shared.
Oil pumps fall silent across the U.S.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergAmerican oil producers have cut much more output than you think. Their reaction to market forces has been bigger than official data suggest, and that means the U.S. is actually working alongside Saudi Arabia, Russia and other big oil producers, to help balance oil supply and demand — even if that wasn’t quite what President Donald Trump intended.
Two sets of data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show that crude production is now about 11.6 million barrels a day, down by between 1.2 million and 1.4 million barrels a day, or roughly 10%, from plateau levels reached over the just-ended winter, depending on whether you use the weekly or the monthly numbers.