US Oil Production Hits 14-Year High, Could Overtake Russia and Saudi Arabia
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The United States produced 6 million barrels of oil per day in the first quarter of 2012, the highest production rate since 1998. According to an energy official, the US could overtake some of the world’s biggest producers in the next decade.
According to the data recently released by the United States Energy Information Administration, the 6 percent oil production growth is the primary result of increases in output in North Dakota, Texas and the Gulf of Mexico.
The United States produced 6 million barrels of oil per day in the first quarter of 2012, the highest production rate since 1998. According to an energy official, the US could overtake some of the world’s biggest producers in the next decade.
According to the data recently released by the United States Energy Information Administration, the 6 percent oil production growth is the primary result of increases in output in North Dakota, Texas and the Gulf of Mexico.
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In particular, North Dakota overtook Alaska in March as the second largest oil producing state in the United States.
Collectively, the top five oil-producing states in the US (Texas, North Dakota, Alaska, California, and Oklahoma) account for more than 50 percent of total domestic production.
Greater use of methods including hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and horizontal drilling have given energy companies access to vast new supplies of crude oil in North Dakota and Texas.
Speaking at the International Economic Forum of the Americas in Montreal yesterday, David Sullivan, commissioner in Alaska’s department of natural resources, said that in 2011, the US registered the largest increase in oil production of any country outside of OPEC.
Quoting PFC Energy, an oil and gas industry consulting expert, Sullivan added:
[quote] The US could be the largest hydrocarbon producer – that’s oil and gas – in the world, overtaking Russia and Saudi Arabia. [/quote]
Saudi Arabia, the largest oil producer in the OPEC nations, produced about 9.9 million barrels per day in March, one of its highest levels in decades, as the kingdom sought to provide stability in the oil market after the West imposed tough financial sanctions on Iran, crippling Tehran’s oil export market.
Russia, the world’s top crude producer, produced about 10.36 billion barrels per day in March.
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