HOUSTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) -

Growth in oil output from the U.S. Permian basin, the

country's most prolific formation, is expected to slow by at

least 25% this year despite President Donald Trump's vow to

maximize production, energy executives forecast on Thursday.

At a conference in Houston, they said production is

expected to rise in 2025 by about 250,000 barrels per day (bpd)

to 300,000 bpd from the area spread across Texas and New Mexico.

This compares to a 380,000 bpd increase last year.

That forecast aligns with the U.S. Energy Information

Administration's projection of a 300,000 bpd rise. Total Permian

output hit 6.3 million bpd last year, accounting for about half

of total U.S. output.

"Drill, baby, drill is not going to happen," said

Shannon Flowers, director of crude and water marketing at

Coterra Energy Inc ( CTRA ) on the sidelines of the Argus Global

Crude Summit in Houston.

"The tension that we have right now is that the Trump

administration said it wants lower energy prices. That's not

necessarily good for producers," Flowers added.

U.S. refiner Delek's CEO Avigal Soreq concurred.

Producers are focusing on keeping capital spending under

control and achieving higher prices for their oil and gas. They

have prioritized returning cash to shareholders after a pricing

rout in the last decade hurt profits and share prices.

While the U.S. is already the world's top oil producer with

output of about 13.2 million bpd in 2024, total U.S. production

growth has slowed in recent years, climbing only about 280,000

bpd last year.

(Reporting by Georgina McCartney and Arathy Somasekhar in

Houston; Editing Cynthia Osterman

)