News wire — U.S. crude oil production dropped in January to 12.533 million barrels per day (bpd), a 6% decline from December following freezing weather that reversed production gains, data from the Energy Information Administration showed on Friday.
A severe winter storm in January shut Texas refining capacity and drastically slashed oil production as it dumped snow and rain across a broad swath of the nation.
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Crude oil output in Texas also fell in January to 5.361 million bpd, down about 5% from the prior month, the data showed, while production in North Dakota fell nearly 13% to 1.122 million bpd.
U.S. crude oil production reached historic highs of 13.3 million bpd last November and December. Texas, North Dakota and New Mexico, major oil producing states, all produced record amounts of crude oil in those months.
However, the cold weather in January caused North Dakota’s oil production to be cut in half to between 600,000 bpd and 650,000 bpd, the state’s pipeline authority said at the time. Other major U.S. oil producing regions were also affected.
Reporting by Laura Sanicola; Editing by Paul Simao – Reuters
