US Crude Oil Production at Highest Point in 5 Years
The surge of production from the Gulf of Mexico has led the US to produce more crude oil than it has since 2004. (image: cruisebruise.com)
United States crude oil production for 2009 is on target to have its biggest one-year jump since 1970, according to a Platts analysis of industry data, reports MarketWatch. If the average production level recorded in the first ten months of the year—5.268 million barrels per day (bpd)—holds through December, this year’s output would show a 6.4 percent increase from the 4.95 million b/d average of 2008 and rank as the best year of US oil production since 2004, when output averaged 5.419 million b/d.
According to PR Newswire, in the 40 years since US oil production peaked, annual output has only risen eight times. Seven of those increases were minimal; only in 1978 was there a jump of significance, increasing 5.6 percent to 8.7 million barrels per day.
The production numbers for 2008 were distorted by curtailments caused by hurricane activity, shown by the 183,000 bpd of Gulf of Mexico output that was still offline at the end of that year. However, 2009 is still expected to post increases of 3 percent and 4 percent from the relatively storm-free years of 2006 and 2007, respectively.
The US Minerals Management Service (MMS) believes that 2009 is only the beginning of a revival in US oil production. The engine of growth in oil production is the Gulf of Mexico, where a decade of exploration is beginning to reap rewards and companies continue to make discoveries.
The good news is that with such vigorous oil production, home heating oil prices might just come down for homeowners.
