In this week's news update, the EIA reports that US oil production has dropped for the first time in 5 years, and Aubrey McClendon died in a single-car accident yesterday.
Aubrey McClendon, a founder and former CEO of Chesapeake Energy, died in a single-car crash March 2, a day after he was charged with conspiring to rig bids to buy oil and natural gas leases in Oklahoma.
McClendon, 56, crashed into an embankment just after 9 a.m., while traveling at a high rate of speed, according to the Oklahoma City Police Department. Flames engulfed his vehicle immediate. Police determined he was not wearing a seatbelt.
“He pretty much drove straight into the wall,” Oklahoma City Police Captain Paco Balderrama said to CNBC.
Police said McClendon was expected to turn himself into authorities at 11 a.m. on the indictment. The charges followed a nearly four-year federal antitrust probe that began after a 2012 Reuters investigation found that Chesapeake had discussed with a rival how to suppress land lease prices in Michigan during a shale-drilling boom. Although the Michigan case was closed, investigators uncovered evidence of alleged bid-rigging in Oklahoma.
EIA Reports US Oil Production Dropped in December, First Time in 5 Years
The U.S. Energy Information Administration announced on Feb. 29 that data shows the nation’s shale oil boom stalled in December, registering the first year-over-year drop in U.S. oil production in half a decade.
After showing double-digit increases in the days of $100 oil and hovering above an annual decline for the first year and a half of the downturn, U.S. crude production in December finally dropped 1.8 percent compared to the same month a year ago.
The EIA’s report helped boost crude prices March 1 and reassured oil market analysts who believe U.S. oil production will fall between 600,000 and 1 million barrels a day this year. Many analysts believe that it could be enough to restore balance to the oversupplied global oil market and begin an oil price recovery.
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