U.S. oil and gas production rose to record highs in August, data from the Energy Information Administration released on Friday showed, despite concerns that the market is heading towards a surplus. Record U.S. oil production has been one of the main causes for a slump in commodity prices this year, with global benchmark Brent crude prices trading just above $65 on Friday, about 14% below the same time last year. It is also partly what has pushed the OPEC+ group to unwind years of deep supply cuts, as it looks to claw back market share.
U.S. crude oil output rose 86,000 barrels per day to a record 13.8 million bpd, the EIA data showed. The previous record was in July, which the EIA now estimates at about 13.7 million bpd, up from a report last month that pegged July production at 13.6 million bpd.
Oil output from New Mexico, the second-largest oil producing state, hit a record 2.3 million bpd, while output from the federal offshore gulf region rose to 1.98 million bpd, the highest since February 2020.
Future U.S. oil output growth is widely expected to be concentrated in the offshore gulf region as the country’s top onshore fields are maturing.
U.S. gross natural gas production from the Lower 48 states also rose to a record 122.8 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in August, up from the prior all-time high of 122.1 bcfd in July, according to the agency’s 914 production report.
In top gas-producing states, monthly output in August rose by 1.2% to a record 38.0 bcfd in Texas, but fell 0.7% to 20.9 bcfd in Pennsylvania, the EIA said.
That compares with prior monthly all-time highs of 37.5 bcfd in July in Texas and 21.9 bcfd in December 2021 in Pennsylvania.
(Reporting by Shariq Khan and Scott DiSavino in New York; Editing by Richard Chang)