U.S. Overtakes Saudi Arabia and Russia as World’s Biggest Oil and NGL Producer

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Bank of America, the United States is now the world’s largest oil and natural gas liquids producer and will remain so for awhile, overtaking both Saudi Arabia and Russia. U.S. production of crude oil, along with liquids separated from natural gas, surpassed all other countries with daily output exceeding 11 million barrels during the first 5 months of this year. Oil production is soaring from shale formations in Texas and North Dakota using hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling technology. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), those two states produced almost 50 percent of the nation’s oil in April 2014.(i)