U.S. crude production climbed to its highest level in at least three decades last week as the shale boom moved the country closer to energy independence.
Bloomberg reports output rose 0.4% to 8.97 million barrels a day, according to weekly Energy Information Administration estimates that began in January 1983. The EIA’s monthly data, which goes back to 1920 and is based on data collected by state and federal agencies, shows production at the highest since 1986.
The combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has unlocked supplies from shale formations in the central United States, including the Bakken in North Dakota and the Eagle Ford in Texas. The surge in production has helped push oil prices down 16% this year to a two-year low on Oct. 27.
The higher output is filling storage tanks across the country. U.S. inventories climbed by 2.06 million barrels to 379.7 million barrels in the week ended Oct. 24, according to the EIA report. Crude imports dropped 5% last week to 7.1 million barrels a day, down 4.8% from a year earlier.
U.S. crude production will grow by a million barrels a day this year and next to reach 9.5 million in 2015, the most since 1970, the EIA says in its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook on Oct. 7. Read the full story.
