Total US oil production has plunged by one-third — the most ever — as an unprecedented cold blast freezes well operations across the central US, according to traders and industry executives with direct knowledge of the operations.
Crude output has now fallen by about 3.5 million barrels a day or more nationwide, they said, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public. Before the cold snap, the US was pumping about 11 million barrels a day, according to last government data. Production in the Texas’s Permian Basin alone — America’s biggest oil field — has plummeted by as much as 65%.
