The U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA), has forecasted in their most recent edition of the Short Term Energy Outlook-STEO, a rise in U.S. production of about 800K BOEPD by the end of next year. This may well come to pass, but it is not evident in the data I’ve reviewed so far. In this article, I discuss the results of my recent research along these lines using EIA-generated data. The shale drilling boom that ended in March of 2020, as the full effects of the pandemic hit the economy, contributed to a surplus of oil in storage that kept prices down. Richly supplied both in the U.S. and globally, the market took the spot delivery prices down to unprecedented levels. In April 2020, the spot price actually went negative for the first time ever. As the economy recovered, inventory levels declined, bottoming out in March of this year, at […]