US shale oil boom turns to gloom with output set to fall

New York

THE shale oil boom that pushed US crude production to the highest level in four decades is grinding to a halt.

Output from the prolific tight-rock formations such as North Dakota's Bakken shale will decline 57,000 barrels a day in May, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Monday. It's the first time the agency has forecast a drop in output since it began issuing a monthly drilling productivity report in 2013.

Deutsch Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and IHS Inc have projected that US oil production growth…