According to recent data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), crude oil production in the United States set an all-time record in August of this year, rising to a historic monthly average of 13.4 million barrels per day (bpd).The EIA’s authoritative statistics show U.S. oil production rising dramatically since 2008, when average annual output stood at just 5.0 million bpd. The latest production increase is part of a persistent trend that has spanned three presidential administrations and made the United States the world’s leading oil producer for the last six years. The factual record contradicts a campaign argument frequently advanced by Former President Donald Trump that President Biden’s environmental policies have crippled U.S. oil production, increasing the cost of gasoline and hampering the U.S. economy.
Back in March, the EIA documented the unprecedented U.S. output in a special publication titled, “United States produces more crude oil than any country, ever.” The report states that average annual production in the United States surpassed that of Russia and Saudi Arabia in 2018 and achieved an all-time record of 12.3 million bpd the following year. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a global oil production downturn in 2020 and 2021, but the U.S. maintained its position as the world’s top driller as its own production was curtailed temporarily. The strong upward trend resumed in 2022, and the U.S. extended its lead over Russia and Saudi Arabia in 2023 with a new all-time record of 12.9 million bpd. Together, the top three oil producing nations pumped 32.8 million bpd in 2023, delivering roughly 40% of global oil production. Canada, Iraq, and China were the next three largest crude oil producers. Their combined output of 13.1 million bpd in 2023 was nearly matched by U.S. production alone.
It is especially difficult to argue that an inadequate supply of U.S. crude oil contributed significantly to gasoline price spikes during Biden’s presidency. In 2023, the U.S. pumped two and a half times more crude oil than it did in 2008. During the same time period, U.S. gasoline consumption remained relatively flat and U.S. gasoline exports multiplied nearly fivefold. According to the EIA, U.S. refineries supplied U.S. consumers with 8.99 million bpd of gasoline in 2008 and 8.95 million bpd in 2023,while gasoline exports rose dramatically from 172,697 bpd to 816,386 bpd. The all-time high for U.S. gasoline consumption was 9.33 million bpd, recorded in 2018. The U.S. continues to import more crude oil than it exports, but buys and sells a wide variety of petroleum products. Net imports of petroleum products have plummeted steadily since peaking at just above 12 million bpd in 2005, and the U.S. became a net petroleum product exporter in 2020 for the first time since 1949, remaining in the black for the last three years.
Donald Trump has made “Drill baby, drill!” a prominent mantra of his election campaign, but the picture he paints of a declining nation refusing to exploit its vast energy resources is hard to square with the facts. The misleading narrative appears to resonate with voters who are frustrated by post-pandemic inflation and inclined to blame high gas prices on environmental efforts. Nonpartisan statistics from the EIA reveal that domestic oil production has thrived under the leadership of Obama, Trump, and Biden, supplying U.S. refineries with all the crude they need to satisfy our thirst for gasoline.
