U.S. Energy Information Administration said last week U.S. crude oil production surged to a record of 13.2 million barrels a day for the week of Oct. 6. That eclipsed the previous record of 13.1 million b/d in February 2020 before the covid19 global pandemic slowed the economy. The record production comes as oil prices have increased in recent months with Brent crude up 24 percent since June as OPEC+ producers Saudi Arabia and Russia curtailed supplies.
And the record production comes amid declining counts of drilling rigs from the 2014 peak of more than 1,600 rigs. Baker Hughes reported 497 rigs in U.S. for the week of Oct. 6 representing a decline of about 69 percent since 2014. Business Insider from Yahoo!Finance said, “That shows just how efficient America’s energy industry has become.”