According to Dow Jones, the head of Schlumberger, the world’s largest oil service company, said on Friday that shale oil production growth in the United States may slow this year as drillers have cut budgets to cope with falling oil prices.

Paal Kibsgaard, chief executive of Schlumberger, said in a conference call with investors that the recent drop in oil prices had prompted global oil producers to adopt a more conservative approach, especially in the United States.

Kibsgaard said that Schlumberger’s client, U.S. shale oil drillers, may have a slightly lower budget in 2019, especially at the beginning of the year. This means that the momentum of rapid growth in U.S. oil production will slow down in 2018.

Kibsgaard told the company’s fourth-quarter earnings conference by telephone: “The growth of shale oil production in the United States is likely to be more moderate in the next few years.”

Due to weak oil prices, some oil producers have begun to reduce their drilling plans for 2019. Oil prices in the United States have fallen by more than 30% in recent months. Although oil prices have rebounded in the new year, they are still at a low level, which has forced many shale oil producers to cut spending.

In public statements and documents, Chesapeake Energy, Diamondback Energy, Parsley Energy and Centennial Resources Development said they either planned to reduce the number of drilling platforms in 2019 or recently reduced production plans.

So far, however, production cuts by U.S. shale producers are still relatively modest, and this year is expected to push U.S. crude oil production to a record high, but the growth rate will not be as fast as 2018. The U.S. Energy Intelligence Agency (EIA) expects U.S. oil production to increase from an average of 10.9 million barrels a day last year to 12.1 million barrels a day in 2019.

As a result, Schlumberger said it would spend $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion in 2019, down from $2.2 billion in 2018. Kibsgaard said this was mainly due to a slowdown in oil and gas drilling in the United States.