EIA’s new Petroleum Supply Monthly report revised up US crude oil production for November 2012 from 6.893 million barrels per day (bpd) to 7.013 million bpd.
The report said that this is the first time any US monthly oil output was above 7 million bpd since December 1992, while crude oil production for December 2012 was even higher at 7.030 million bpd, a 16.7% rise from a year earlier.
In 2012, US yearly oil production averaged 6.474 million bpd, up 826,000 barrels a day from 2011, the highest yearly output level since 1995.
According to EIA, extensive use of new technology such as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling allowed oil producers to extract oil that was previously inaccessible.
The biggest rise in production has been in North Dakota, where output increased 58% to 662,000 barrels a day in 2012, from a year earlier.
North Dakota’s output surpassed flow from the Alaska North Slope and California in 2012, mainly driven by strong growth in the Bakken oil field.
In December 2012, North Dakota output reached a record level at 769,000 barrels a day, an increase of 43.7% from a year earlier.
