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LONDON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - U.S. oil production growth willstop this month and begin to decline early next year due to lowoil prices, the former head of oil firm EOG Resources,Mark Papa, said on Tuesday.
Papa, now a partner at U.S. energy investment firmRiverstone Holdings LLC, told an industry conference in Londonthat the U.S. shale oil industry needed oil prices of at least$80 a barrel to resume production growth.
"We are about to see a pretty dramatic decline in U.S.production growth," said Papa, who was a key figure helping tospur the U.S. shale oil boom when he was at EOG Resources.
U.S. oil production has been growing by around 1 millionbarrels per day (bpd) year-on-year since mid 2012, thanks to theintroduction of new drilling techniques that have released oiland gas from shale formations.
But output in North America has started to slow in recentmonths as prices have fallen sharply.
Papa said U.S. oil production would stall this month andbegin to decline from early next year. He said the main reasonfor the decline would be the lack of bank financing for newshale developments. (Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov)
