The United States has gained the status of being the biggest oil producer that the world has ever seen, according to recent data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
The previous annual record oil production of 12.3 million barrels per day (bpd) was set in 2019, after years of steady increases in oil production. US-based operators like ExxonMobil and Chevron, the makers of the Mobil and Texaco lubricant and coolant fluids, developed shale resources like those in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico.
Following a lull in production due to the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the US pumped an average of 12.9 million bpd of crude oil last year, setting a new global record for the amount of oil ever produced by a single country. Furthermore, the country set a new monthly record of 13.3 million bpd last December.
In a statement, the EIA said the US will likely retain its top spot for some time, because last year’s record:
“…is unlikely to be broken in any other country in the near term, because no other country has reached production capacity of 13.0 million b/d. Saudi Arabia’s state-owned Saudi Aramco recently scrapped plans to increase production capacity to 13.0 million b/d by 2027.”
The closest competitors to the US are Russia and Saudi Arabia, and while both have cut production as part of the OPEC+ deal, neither has the theoretical capacity to beat the record set by the US last year.
