US Oil Output Rose to Fresh Record in May, EIA Data Shows

(Reuters) – U.S. crude oil production rose to a record 13.49 million barrels-per-day in May, even as oversupply concerns pushed prices for the commodity to four-year lows, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed on Thursday.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for higher oil production from the country, where output was already at record levels in each of the past two years, and has taken steps to speed up and expand drilling on federal lands.

At the same time, producers who are part of the OPEC+ group have also accelerated output hikes since May, partly to win back market share from U.S. shale drillers, leading some analysts to warn that the market is likely to be oversupplied this year.

U.S. crude output was up 24,000 bpd in May from the prior record of 13.46 million bpd in April, which was the previous record, the EIA data showed.

Output from the U.S. federal offshore Gulf region rose by 0.5% from April to about 1.80 million bpd in May, the highest since December, according to the EIA.

Output from Texas, the top U.S. oil producing state, edged up to 5.752 million bpd, from 5.751 million bpd in April, the data showed.

Meanwhile, gross natural gas production in the U.S. lower 48 states rose to a record 120.60 billion cubic feet per day in April, up from the prior all-time high of 120.45 bcfd in March, the EIA said.

In top gas-producing states, monthly output in April fell by 0.3% to 36.75 bcfd in Texas, while Pennsylvania reported a 0.6% increase to 21.25 bcfd, the EIA said.

Reporting by Shariq Khan and Georgina McCartney in New York; Editing by Alexandra Hudson

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