Oil continues its rally supported by news about a drop in crude production in the US. Abnormally cold weather in the oil-producing states caused a sharp decrease in oil output.  Major US energy companies reported that crude production has been cut by more than 2 million barrels a day. The losses were particularly large in the Permian Basin as well as in the Eagle Ford and the Anadarko Basin. These oilfields saw the deepest decline in output. A sudden blast of winter forced some of the biggest oil refineries in Texas to stop their operation. According to Bloomberg, US crude production has now fallen by more than 4 million barrels a day. Earlier, a drop of 1 million barrels was reported. At the moment, the outlook remains gloomy as the weather conditions are not improving, and the situation may deteriorate further. Motiva and ExxonMobil are temporarily shutting down their refineries, while French oil company Total has reduced crude processing to minimal levels at its refining unit at Port Arthur, Texas.