One other item of note: US oil production is up about 1 million barrels per day, and the apparent world wide surplus is reported to be 2 million barrels per day. Why is no one suggesting that the US cut production to 2010 levels?
I can't find anything real recent to show current numbers.
The downturn has been going on for about 6 mos now. It'll take a little while for todays production totals to become known. Also, it takes a little while for market conditions to affect the industry. We just started to see the beginning effects.
Until now, it's been a waiting game, to see what was going to happen. Companies have been reluctant to halt production in hopes that prices would rebound.
Once stopped, it's not as if production can be turned on to full speed in a matter of days.
Also, how much $$$ is invested into infrastructure and processing while prices are down??? It's kind of hard to pull the pin on multi billion $$$ projects, that are currently moving. But on the other hand, when prices are low, it's hard to spend capital that is no longer coming in.
A lot of gambling is going on right now. Everybody's watching to see who will blink first.
Shutting down now, could be costly if the downturn is short lived. On the other hand, the longer this goes on gets costlier.