April was the first full month of business and travel restrictions in place in the U.S. to fight the spread of the coronavirus, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration said this week crude oil production declined that month by the largest amount in more than a decade. The nation’s output was down by 670,000 barrels a day in April to about 12.1 million from about 12.7 million in March. “Production declines of that magnitude usually arise only in natural disasters such as hurricanes,” the agency said. In March oil and gas companies began temporarily shutting thousands of wells in response to demand declines caused by the pandemic.
The EIA said Texas saw the largest decrease in crude production in the nation during April – falling by 234,000 barrels per day to 5.2 million barrels per day.