By Alex Mills
March 26, 2020
The oil industry in the United States once again faces dramatic declines in crude oil prices at the hands of foreign countries seeking to bankrupt high-cost producers to regain global market share.
Domestic crude oil prices have temporarily level around $22 per barrel, which is about half of where it was just 30 days ago.
The cause of the sharp decline is an oversupply of oil created by increases in U.S. production, announcements from Saudi Arabia and Russia that they will increase production, and a decline in demand from the coronavirus.
U.S. oil production last month was 13 million barrels per day (b/d), which is an increase of 1 million b/d over the same period in 2019. Saudi Arabia says it will increase production by 250,000 b/d to 12.3 million b/d, and Russia announced it will add another 300,000 b/d bringing its daily production to 11.5.
On the demand side, there has been an oversupply of oil globally since 2015. When economic activity declined further in January because of the coronavirus, the oversupply became a flood of oil around the globe……