US crude, natural gas production recover after winter storm ravages output

By Georgina McCartney

HOUSTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil and natural gas producers were bringing wells back online on Wednesday following a severe winter storm that swept across the country over the weekend, straining energy infrastructure and power grids.

Domestic crude output is now estimated to be down around 600,000 barrels per day, roughly 4% of total output, according to consultancy Energy Aspects, compared with a peak loss of 2 million bpd on Saturday.

The Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico, which accounts for around half of U.S. crude production, was down around 250,000 bpd according to Energy Aspects, also roughly 4% of the shale play's output.

Nearly all of North Dakota's crude production that was lost due to cold weather was back online as of Wednesday, according to Justin Kringstad, director of the North Dakota Pipeline Authority.

The state had lost around 80,000-110,000 bpd of crude output due to the storm.

"With relatively mild winter conditions and limited precipitation in the coming week, I am not expecting any additional curtailments in the near term," Kringstad said.

National natural gas output was down around 12 billion cubic feet per day as of Wednesday, or around 10% of national production, according to analysts at consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

Producers had 5.1 bcfd offline in the Permian Basin, and 3.3 bcfd of outages in Louisiana's Haynesville shale basin.

Peak loss of natural gas output occurred on Monday, at 18.1 bcfd, or roughly 15% of total output, analysts added, with the Permian Basin taking the lion's share of losses that day, at 8.3 bcfd.