Off the wire
• 1st LD Writethru: Man wielding knife injures 4 at train station in Germany  • Indonesia to lift suspension on soccer association (updated)  • Foreign exchange rates in India  • Australia has 716 potential regulatory issues for driverless technology: advisory body  • China Hushen 300 index futures close lower Tuesday  • At least 2 confirmed dead as tornadoes touch down in Oklahoma  • Indonesia to lift suspension on soccer association  • Rains curb fears of failed winter crops in Australia  • Aussie state begins process to fix "archaic" abortion laws  • Donors pledge 550 mln USD aid for Lebanon to tackle refugee crisis  
You are here: 　 Home

U.S. oil output to drop less than expected in 2016: Goldman Sachs

Xinhua, May 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs said Monday that oil output in the United States will drop less than expected in 2016 as drillers in the west of Texas and Oklahoma have found ways to get oil faster and for less money.

Goldman said that the oil production in the nation will decrease by 650,000 barrels a day this year, less than the fall of 725,000 barrels a day that the investment bank had forecasted previously, according to local daily the Houston Chronicle.

Despite the adjustment made by Goldman, the bank still believes that falling domestic crude production will, over the next few months, help raise energy prices by realigning oil supply and demand after a two-year glut.

That global oil prices are rising in the face of resilient output of shale -- a smooth soft rock from which oil can be extracted -- and higher-than-expected production out of Iran shows global demand is stronger than many believe, and production is falling off elsewhere, according to the bank.

Meanwhile, oil company bankruptcies increased over the past two months as drillers ran into hefty interest payments amid one of the toughest financial squeezes for the industry in decades.

Eighteen oil companies in North America filed for bankruptcy in March and April, and several of the 18 companies chose not to make quarterly interest payments on a combined 8.9 billion U.S. dollars in debt while banks cut oil company credit lines, part of a semi-annual review by lenders.

Texas, which produces 31 percent of the country's crude oil, will likely see slow job growth this year, despite an oil bust that has led employers in the state's largest city of Houston and other oil-focused cities to lay off thousands of workers.

After growing by 1.3 percent last year and 3.7 percent during the boom year of 2014, payrolls in the Lone Star state increased by 1.1 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, a city in northern Texas.

In Texas, about 72,000 workers lost their jobs in the energy industry in 2015, and the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers estimates that another 40,000 could lose their jobs this year. Endi