Production of crude oil and natural gas across the U.S. continued to soar in March as natural gas production stands almost 10% higher year on year and crude oil output remains on pace to break all-time highs this year.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration's latest "Monthly Crude Oil and Natural Gas Production" report released May 31 showed gross oil production at 10.47 million barrels per day, up 2.1% month on month and up 14.6% on the year.
Texas saw the biggest increase in oil production in March, rising 159,000 barrels per day to almost 4.2 MMbbl/d.
U.S. crude oil production is on pace to reach its highest levels ever recorded. According to the latest Short-Term Energy Outlook released May 8, U.S. crude oil production will average 10.7 MMbbl/d in 2018, which would mark the highest annual average U.S. crude oil production level, surpassing the previous record of 9.6 MMbbl/d set in 1970.
The EIA forecasts that 2019 crude oil production will continue to rise to an average of 11.9 MMbbl/d, an upward revision of more than 400,000 bbl/d from its prior-month forecast.
The latest monthly production report also showed gross withdrawals of natural gas were up 1.01 Bcf/d, or 1.0%, from the month prior to an average near 98.32 Bcf/d, up 9.7% year on year.
Total U.S. natural gas production, as measured by the EIA as "gross withdrawals," includes the natural gas liquids present in "wet" gas, as well as nonhydrocarbon gases, and any gas delivered as royalty payments or consumed in field operations.
Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana each saw natural gas production increase by more than 0.2 Bcf/d month on month.
