North Dakota's January oil production fell further to 1.176 million b/d (-5,000 b/d m-o-m), in line with our forecast of 1.177 million b/d. We see production higher in February on higher completions. We engage with some analysis of the Eagle Ford by geologist Arthur Berman, which suggests the basin’s wells may have hit a recovery wall. Though far from proven, if so this calls the EIA and IEA projections of continued strong LTO growth through to 2025 into question. In the largest Permian basin merger seen yet, Concho acquires RSPPermian for $8 billion in stock. This may start a long overdue round of M&A in the basin, with several other companies looking to be promising takeover targets....