U.S. Crude Output in May Plummets by Record 2 Million Barrels per Day

NEW YORK (Reuters) — U.S. crude oil production plummeted in May, falling a record 2 million barrels per day to 10 million bpd, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a monthly report on Friday. 

The drop, the sharpest monthly decline on record according to data going back to 2005, came after a price crash this spring due to oversupply and reduced demand owing to the novel coronavirus.

Top crude producer state Texas cut production by 764,000 bpd while North Dakota's output fell by 353,000 bpd in the month. Offshore drilling in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico fell by 300,000 bpd, the report said.

Gasoline demand was down 23.5% from year-ago levels at 7.2 million bpd.

Demand for diesel and other distillate fuels fell 12.6% from a year earlier to 3.5 million bpd.

Monthly gross natural gas production in the U.S. Lower 48 states, meanwhile, dropped 5.7 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in May to 97.4 bcfd, its lowest monthly average since October 2018, according to the EIA 914 report.

That was the biggest monthly decline since September 2008. U.S. gas output hit an all-time monthly high of 107.0 bcfd in November 2019 but has fallen almost every month since. 

In Texas, the biggest gas producing state, output fell by a monthly record of 2.3 bcfd, or 8.1%, to 26.4 bcfd in May. A lot of the gas in Texas is associated gas from oil production.

In Pennsylvania, the second-biggest gas-producing state, output dropped by a monthly record of 0.7 bcfd to 19.3 bcfd in May.

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