U.S. oil output was flat for a third consecutive week as demand fell amid increasing consternation about a looming economic recession, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data released Wednesday showed.

Production for the period ended Sept. 9 was even with the previous two weeks at 12.1 million b/d, EIA said in its Weekly Petroleum Status Report. That kept output near the 2022 high of 12.2 million b/d reached earlier in the summer, but it was still about 1 million b/d below the pre-pandemic peak reached in early 2020.

Exploration and production (E&P) companies have been cautious about raising output quickly because of political and investor pressure to focus more on renewable energy and share buybacks. Now, amid stubbornly high inflation that threatens to tilt the U.S....