U.S. Oil Production Hits 12 Million Barrels a Day for First Time

A new government report shows the United States crude oil output as reaching new heights in the month of April.

The report said production grew from 2.1 percent in April to 12.16 million barrels a day. Shale production in areas such as the Permian Basin of West Texas have recently experienced a boom, causing U.S. oil production to overtake that of Saudi Arabia and Russia.

“We continue to see the Permian representing the key driver of global oil supply growth for the next five years,” Goldman Sachs analyst Brian Singer told clients in a statement on June 10.

Rystad Energy said earlier this year that the United States would likely produce 12.5 million barrels of oil per day during the month of May. Reports state that an estimated 4 million of those barrels will come from shale oilfields and those numbers are expected to rise by the end of 2020.

However, 2020 presidential hopeful, Robert “Beto” O’Rourke, said during an interview on June 13 that we need to “free ourselves from fossil fuel,” adding “it is not going to necessarily be easy.”

O’Rourke said:

As we free ourselves from that dependence on fossil fuels, we’re going to see more of my fellow Texans and fellow Americans transition into renewable energy jobs —high demand, high skill occupations – and I think it’s really important that we invest in the training to make sure that we have the skilled workforce that’s ready to take on this global challenge.

Breitbart News reported in December 2018 that “in 2016, independent oil and gas consulting firm Rystad Energy released data that revealed Texas held 60 billion barrels of shale oil, more recoverable oil than in Saudi Arabia,” making this area of Texas one of the largest and most productive when it comes to oil. “The Permian Basin region encompasses a series of basins and other geologic formations in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. The Delaware consists of roughly 10,000 square miles that span five Texas counties and three New Mexico counties. It is one of the most productive areas for oil and gas in the nation.”