Permian Basin hoards the spotlight, but meanwhile, offshore producers are a fraction of a percentage point away from hitting another all-time high during the first half of the year, according to RBN Energy. Far from the $40,000 per acre land rush for shale in the Permian Basin, operators in the Gulf of Mexico are toiling offshore to outpace their own production records. In January, Gulf of Mexico (GOM) production totaled 1.75 million barrels per day, less than a percentage point away from the previous record set in 2009, according to Housley Carr, an analyst at RBN Energy LLC. Within the next month or so, the 2009 record is expected to fall. By 2018, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects a total of 1.9 million barrels per day in 2018, Carr noted in an April 24 report. “Admittedly, that’s an increase of only [300,000 barrels per day] from 2016, […]