Conflicting With Efforts to Cut Heat-Trapping Pollution and Republican Disinformation
United States domestic oil production hit an all-time high last week, contrasting with efforts to slice heat-trapping carbon emissions by the Biden administration and world leaders.
And it conflicts with oft-repeated Republican talking points of a Biden “war on American energy.”
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration reported that American oil production in the first week of October hit 13.2 million barrels per day, passing the previous record set in 2020 by 100,000 barrels. Weekly domestic oil production has doubled from the first week in October 2012 to now.
While output is growing to record highs, the number of rigs in operation at U.S. fields has declined this year. In the week to Oct. 6, the rig count fell to 497, the lowest since February. 2022.
U.S. producers, however, are squeezing more oil out of shale fields with longer horizontal drills and more simultaneous fracking.
“Private industry is doing a very good job of extracting more oil out of the ground at the same time that the rig count has been declining,” said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates.
