Fall in US rig count no obstacle to booming oil output
5 shale formations to produce record 5.47m bpd in March despite firms idling 151 rigs
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New York
THE US drilling frenzy is over. What's not is the boom in oil production.
While companies have idled 151 rigs in five shale formations since reaching a peak of 1,157 in October, they'll need to park another 200 for growth to stall, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Output there will reach a record 5.47 million barrels a day in March even though the number of rigs exploring for oil is the lowest since 2013.
