U.S. oil production hits all time high

United States domestic oil production hit an all-time high last week, contrasting with efforts by the Biden administration and world leaders.

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.

But the U.S. isn’t alone in this. Norway, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada has announced plans to boost drilling.

“From Exxon-Mobil to Shell, Guyana to Cote d’Ivorie, those with fossil resources seek to boost production and delay action to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions,” said MIT professor John Sterman.

Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson, who heads the emissions-tallying group Global Carbon Project, said no country or company wants to cut oil and gas production if someone else is going to sell oil anyway.

Republican senators and congressmen, including the House Energy and Commerce Committee, this year have repeated the phrase “Biden’s War on American Energy.”

Stanford’s Jackson said the Biden administration has swung back and forth on energy exploration, approving the Willow oil project in Alaska but cancelling drilling permits in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The Biden administration and the United Nations say the world needs to cut carbon emissions — from burning coal, oil and natural gas — by 43% by 2030 and down to zero or close to it by 2050.

Global forces could cause pump prices to ease next year, with the Paris-based International Energy Agency forecasting that oil supply next year will outstrip demand. That prediction, however, was made before the Hamas attacks and turmoil in the Suez Canal region of the Middle East.




A pumpjack outside of Goldsmith, Texas. United States domestic oil production has hit an all-time high, contrasting with efforts to slice heat-trapping carbon emissions by the Biden administration and world leaders. (Eli Hartman/Odessa American via AP, File)