The United States will become a net oil and oil product exporter this year thanks to continued growth in production combined with slacker domestic demand, the Energy Information Administration said in its 2020 Annual Energy Outlook. Oil production, the EIA said, will continue growing until at least 2025, reaching 14 million bpd in just two years, after which it would plateau and stay flat until about 2045. This, however, depends on the developing shale oil deposits with little history of production, the EIA noted, meaning there scant background information about production rates and how long they can be sustained. One thing that is known, however, is that over time, producers will need to move to less productive areas of the shale patch as the most productive ones get exhausted. This will slow down the growth rate in overall production. Consumption of oil in the U.S., on the other hand, […]