U.S. crude oil production soared last week to an all-time high of more than 13 million barrels per day, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Thursday, exceeding analysts’ forecasts and boosting the nation’s oil inventories.
According to the EIA's Weekly Petroleum Status Report, U.S. crude oil production increased by roughly 300,000 barrels per day last week compared to the previous seven-day period, averaging a record-high production level of 13.2 million bpd.
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That’s a significant increase from the previous high, set in March 2020, just before the pandemic struck, when U.S. output rose to 13.1 million bpd. It's also the largest week-on-week gain since early August.
The record-high output does not fit well into the messaging promoted by either party. It complicates accusations from Republicans that President Joe Biden has carried out a war on energy. And it runs counter to Biden's preelection pledge to "transition from the oil industry."
Just in the past several months, Republicans have been sharply critical of the Biden administration's proposed ban on oil and gas drilling on 13 million acres in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, its recent cancellation of seven planned lease sales in Alaska's North Slope, and its proposed change to its Public Lands Rule that would allow it to include conservation and restoration in its existing "multiple use" framework that governs the use of federal acres. Most recently, the administration sparked anger in publishing its five-year leasing plan that authorized just three offshore oil and gas drilling sales to be held in the Gulf through 2030, or the lowest number of sales in the history of the leasing program.
At the same time, Biden's environmentalist allies have been dismayed that he would allow any lease sales after pledging on the campaign trail not to do so. They're also frustrated with other actions he's taken in favor of drilling and constructing pipelines. In response to the market disruptions that followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the administration has encouraged oil companies to produce more oil in the short term.
Still, domestic oil producers have said that Biden administration policies are holding them back from investing in additional production, even as prices rose in recent weeks.
The high production also boosted U.S. crude inventories, which rose to 464.2 million barrels in the last seven-day period, or a 10.2 million barrel jump compared to the previous week.
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The numbers far outpace market forecasts, which had predicted inventories to increase from between 500,000 barrels to 900,000 barrels in the seven-day period, according to respective surveys conducted by Reuters and the Wall Street Journal.
U.S. gasoline stocks fell by 1.3 million bpd last week, EIA said, down to 225.7 million barrels, while U.S. distillate stocks fell by 1.8 million barrels to 117 million barrels, a sharper drop than the 800,000 barrel drop projection from analysts, EIA said.