Oil production from the US lower 48 states, excluding the Gulf of Mexico, peaked at 9.2 million barrels per day in August following back-to-back increases since June. This climb has helped push the nationwide total above 11 million bpd and is likely to keep it above that mark for the rest of the year, according to Rystad Energy estimates. A gradual decline in L48 output may nevertheless set in from September as onshore drilling remains below the level required to maintain production in nearly all US oil basins, despite a robust fracking exercise where operators are bringing on line their inventory of drilled but uncompleted (DUC) wells. Rystad Energy projects US onshore production to start rising again in the second half of 2021. Preliminary well production data for July has already been reported for almost all the major oil and gas producing states. After recovering by around 540,000 bpd […]