US crude production to set new record in 2018

US crude production will soar to a record high this year before rising even more in 2019, according to a government forecast published on Tuesday. Nationwide output will average 10.85 million barrels a day next year and 10.27 million this year, both surpassing the prior record of 9.6 million pumped in 1970, the US Energy Information Administration said in its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook, which included the first estimates for 2019. Production will top 11 million barrels a day in November 2019, according to the estimate. The growth of North American shale production, which caused an estimated 5 percent increase in US crude output in 2017, has rocked the oil industry in the past few years, spurring OPEC and other traditional producers to cut output to trim global inventories.