The EIA sees a drop of 194,000bopd this month, with US shale output to be around 8.7 million barrels which will fall to 8.53MMbopd come May.  

 

The largest fall will come from the Permian Basin, with a drop off of 86,500bopd this month and another 76,000bopd next month, taking full production to 4.51MMbopd. 

 

This will be followed by the Eagle Ford  which will fall 35,000bopd to 1.3MMbopd.

 

Production from the Bakken shale will fall 28,000bopd to 1.36MMbopd in May.

 

Total US production was 12.9MMbopd in November, with the Lower 48 production making up 9.1MMbopd and Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico taking the rest.

 

It predicts production this year of 11.76MMbopd.

 

The Texas Railroad Commission which oversees the oil patch in the state will meet today to discuss cutting production, something it has the power to do but has not enforced since the 1970s. 

 

Some US oilers have been urging the body to mandate production cuts in the hopes of stabilising the market, which has battered the US shale sector hard.

 

However government intervention and Texas are an uncomfortable union, with two of the three commissioners already suggesting the danger of setting a precedent.

 

Some shale players have already filed for bankruptcy and most supermajors have already made their steepest planned capital spend cuts from their shale positions, given the higher relative costs of production.