Recently, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) significantly lowered its forecast for U.S. crude oil production growth in 2024. Currently, EIA expects U.S. and Chinese crude oil production to increase by 170,000 barrels per day this year, which is significantly lower than the previous 290,000 barrels per day. Annual U.S. crude oil production growth will slow down significantly from 1.02 million barrels per day in 2023.
  In terms of monthly output, in December 2023, U.S. crude oil production hit a record high of 13.3 million barrels per day. However, due to the cold wave that caused equipment outages in the main production areas of North Dakota, in January this year, U.S. crude oil production dropped to 12.6 million barrels per day, and may rise to around 13.3 million barrels per day in February. The slight downward trend since then will continue into the middle of this year, and it is expected that it will not return to the level exceeding that of December 2023 until after February 2025.
  In addition, EIA predicts that U.S. oil consumption is expected to increase by 200,000 barrels per day this year to 20.4 million barrels per day and by 100,000 barrels per day to 20.5 million barrels per day by 2025. Crude oil prices may temporarily rise to around US$80/barrel in the future, but due to increased inventories, crude oil prices will face downward pressure in the second quarter. Source: Sinochem New Network