U.S. oil sector slowing, on and offshore

Though oil prices are moving to fresh highs, quarterly reports for offshore and U.S. shale companies show the industry behind market swings is slowing down.

A steady increase in U.S. oil production has pushed crude oil markets toward the supply side, pushing crude oil prices to less than 50 percent of their June highs above $100 per barrel. That's forced companies from BP to those in the oil services industry like Halliburton to cut spending and staff.

Rig company Hercules Offshore said revenue generated from work in the U.S. waters of the Gulf of Mexico declined 33 percent year-on-year to $90.2 million. For full-year 2014, the company reported a $216 million loss from continuing operations.

President and Chief Executive Officer John Rynd said the weak market was reflected in the fourth quarter and the downturn should continue in 2015 until commodity prices improve.

"The significant decline in crude oil prices during the fourth quarter exacerbated what was already a challenging environment in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and a softening international drilling market," he said in a Thursday statement.

Crude oil prices have rallied in February. The price for West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, is up 18 percent from late January.

Nevertheless, the ripple effect is spilling over into the shale industry. Apache Corp. said Thursday it was cutting the number of rigs deployed by 70 percent and reducing staff employed in hydraulic fracturing by half

"While we are fortunate to have a substantial inventory of projects that can make [money] at these oil prices, we believe it more prudent to curtail our activity until costs are lower and prices recover," Chief Executive John Christmann said in a statement.

The federal government expects oil production growth to continue. If forecasts are accurate, total U.S. crude oil production will in two years be close to the historic peak of 9.6 million bpd reached in 1970.