U.S. oil producers sought on Wednesday to soothe OPEC’s worries about losing market share, telling the group that investors in the U.S. firms wanted a reduction in growth and higher payouts. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC allies such as Russia have cut output since 2017 to support oil prices, while watching producers in the United States, which is not party to the cuts, drive up production. The United States has overtaken Russia and Saudi Arabia to become the world’s biggest crude producer. Output is approaching 12 million barrels per day (bpd). OPEC’s forecasts and even U.S. government predictions have repeatedly underestimated U.S. output growth. The bosses of U.S. firms Occidental Petroleum and Hess Corp, attending a session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, said that growth of U.S. shale oil output would slow. The session was a rare occasion when […]