North Dakota’s shale oil production appears to have reached a plateau after a renewed rise at the end of last year, the state’s top oil official said on Friday, a sign that the U.S. oil boom might be slowing sooner than expected. Oil production in the No. 2 producing state rose nearly 40,000 barrels per day to 1.23 million bpd in December, resuming its years-long rise after three flat months, monthly data from the state’s Industrial Commission showed on Friday. Many forecasters, including the U.S. government, expect overall U.S. production to continue rising until the middle of this year, despite a sharp fall in drilling rigs, as increased efficiency and a focus on sweet spots maintains the shale boom that has raised U.S. output by nearly 70 percent in the last five years. Lynn Helms, the state’s head of Department of Mineral Resources […]