The United States is on track to overtake Saudi Arabia to be the largest oil supplier in the world.
The growth in US oil output, which includes natural gas liquids and biofuels, has risen to 3.2 million barrels per day (bpd) since 2009.
The US spike in oil production is the fastest over a four-year period since Saudi Arabia’s output growth from 1970-1974, energy analysis firm PIRA said in a statement.
“(The US) growth rate is greater than the sum of the growth of the next nine fastest growing countries combined and has covered most of the world’s net demand growth over the past two years,” PIRA Energy Group wrote.
PIRA also said the increase is largely driven by shale, which has been centered in Eagle Ford, Texas and the Bakken, North Dakota. This expansion of the shale industry has seen U.S. supply grow by 1 million bpd/year in both 2012 and 2013.Total energy liquids produced by the US, which PIRA defined broadly to include crude oil, condensate, natural gas liquids, biofuels, etc., should average 12.1 million bpd in 2013, forecasting it to be ahead of last year’s leading supplier, Saudi Arabia.
Last month, China surpassed the United States as the largest importer of crude, according to the US government.
