US pumped 7.5 mn crude oil barrels/day in 2013; biggest boom in 40 yrs

Houston: The United States’ average daily oil production is on track to surge by 1 million barrels per day this year, the biggest one-year jump in the nation’s history, according to latest official figures.

The country has pumped an average of 7.5 million barrels of crude per day in 2013, up from 6.5 million barrels per day in 2012. This breaks last year’s record, when oil production jumped by 837,000 barrels per day year-on-year.

[caption id=“attachment_1081437” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption]

The data is evidence of the rapid turnaround in US’ energy story. Oil production declined in 29 of the 40 years between 1971 and 2011.

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Production fell by about 40 percent during this period, from 9.5 million barrels per day in 1971 to 5.6 million barrels per day in 2011.

The US Energy Information Administration projects that oil production will jump by another 1 million barrels per day in 2014, largely buoyed by drilling activity in Texas’ Eagle FordShale and Permian Basin regions, as well as North Dakota’s Bakken Shale.

The Gulf of Mexico also is seeing a boom, with oil production expected to grow to 1.4 million barrels per day in 2014, up by 100,000 barrels.

However, Americans consume about 18 million barrels of liquid fuels per day, far more than is produced domestically.

But the production surge has caused oil imports to drop considerably.

The nation shipped 7.9 million barrels of crude oil on an average per day in September. This is a significant drop from the peak in 2005, when the nation imported an average of 10.1million barrels per day.

PTI