The US government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA), in its 8 March Short Term Energy Outlook, hikes its forecast for 2022 US crude output by 70,000 b/d to 12.03mn b/d and that for 2023 by 390,000 b/d to 12.99mn b/d. Output is now set to rise by 1.07mn b/d during 2022, ending the year at 12.64mn b/d with the current record output figure of 12.97mn b/d set in November 2019 topped from mid-2023. Including NGLs, output of which is already running at near-record levels (MEES, 21 January), overall liquids output is slated to top the previous record of 18.07mn b/d from August this year.
The hike in forecast output comes as the EIA has raised its Brent oil price projections to $105/B for 2022 and $89/B for 2023 whilst acknowledging a “highly uncertain” outlook (MEES, 11 March). (CONTINUED - 280 WORDS)