POLITICO (August 7, 2024) – Preliminary data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed oil companies pumped an average of 13.4 million barrels a day from U.S. oil fields during the week ended Aug. 2, surpassing the previous record of 13.3 million the industry has hit several times this year. U.S. oil production began a long climb upward starting in 2008, setting an annual record peak in 2023 that is likely to be broken this year.

Analysts warned that the EIA could revise the number when it releases its monthly data, which generally lags its weekly bulletins by several months. But for now, the number indicates that oil companies have gotten more efficient at pumping oil even as the number of drilling rigs in operation has fallen compared with last year, according to data from oilfield services company Baker Hughes.

“Seems to be an all-time weekly record and indicative of improving the efficiency of using drilling rigs in the oil patch,” Andrew Lipow, head of Houston-based consulting firm Lipow Oil Associates, said of the latest EIA production number.

The United States and other countries are essentially filling in for the oil supply that OPEC+, the production cartel and its larger grouping that includes Russia, have cut in recent years, said Tamas Varga, analyst at PVM Oil Associates.

“The U.S. output surprises to the upside,” Varga said in an email. “Four years ago the consensus was that it will go nowhere near the 13 million barrel mark. What we have been seeing is that the US, amongst other non-OPEC+ producers, has happily filled in the gap left on the supply side of the equation by OPEC+.”