U.S. crude
production rose to the highest level in a quarter-century as a shale drilling boom in states such as
Texas and
North Dakota cut the need for foreign oil and pushed the country closer to energy independence.
The U.S. pumped 8.075 million barrels a day in the week ended Dec. 6, a gain of 0.8 percent, or 64,000 barrels a day, the Energy Information Administration said today. It’s the most since October 1988.
“You can’t swing a cat without hitting a barrel of oil in North America,” said
Stephen Schork, president of the Schork Group Inc., an energy consulting firm in Villanova, Pennsylvania. “It’s amazing how quickly things can change.”
U.S. oil output grew 18 percent in the past 12 months, the fastest pace on record, boosting fuel exports and reducing reliance on imports, according to the EIA. The boom will make the country the world’s largest producer by 2015, five years sooner than last year’s forecast, the
International Energy Agency in Paris said last month.
Imported crude and petroleum products will dip to 28 percent of domestic demand next year, the lowest since 1985 and down from a peak of 60 percent in 2005, the EIA said yesterday in its Short-Term Energy Outlook. Refined product exports have advanced 16 percent so far this year, EIA data show.
West Texas Intermediate oil for January delivery dropped $1.07, or 1.1 percent, to settle at $97.44 a barrel on the
New York Mercantile Exchange. WTI traded at a discount of $12.26 a barrel to
Brent crude, the European benchmark.