Shale producers pushed the United States past Saudi Arabia and Russia to become 2014’s largest oil producer, BP said in a report on Wednesday.
Spencer Dale, the London-based oil company’s chief economist, said U.S. daily oil production rose by 1.6 million barrels in 2014 — the world’s highest growth for the year and the first time in three years that any nation increased daily production by more than 1 million barrels.
The growth brought 2014 U.S. oil production past its previous peak in 1970, and made the U.S. the world’s largest oil producer for the first time since 1975.
U.S. drillers also accounted for nearly 80 percent of the increase in total natural gas supplies in 2014. BP’s data shows that the U.S. overtook Russia as the world’s largest producer of oil and gas combined.
BP presented its findings at the company’s annual statistical review of world energy, where executives serve up a massive collection of data on the world’s energy production, energy demand and economic prospects.
This year’s charts showed an unmistakable trend: oil production, especially in North America, grew sharply while demand stayed about even. Global energy consumption increased just 0.9 percent in 2014, a big decrease from 2013’s 2.0 percent growth and the 10-year average of 2.1 percent.
Meanwhile, global oil production hit an average of 88.7 million barrels per day, up 2.1 million barrels per day or 2.3 percent. Oil remained the world’s leading fuel with a 32.6 percent share of energy consumption, though that share fell for the fifteenth consecutive time.
The mismatch between supply and demand ended a years-long period of stable prices, said Bob Dudley, BP’s CEO who spoke to open the presentation. Crude prices have fallen from more than $100 a barrel last July to around $60 now.
“The $100 dollar plus plateau of the years leading up to 2014 now feels like ancient history,” he said. “It was the exception not the rule. I think we’re back to business as usual.”
The lower prices will stretch producers and force producers to find new technologies and more efficient drilling to keep production and profits high amid lower prices, Dudley said.
Source: Fuel Fix
