The United States increased crude oil production in July by just 12,000 barrels per day on average, according to the latest monthly data released by the Energy Information Administration.
The United States produced 365.8 million barrels of crude oil in July, an average of 11.8 million bpd.
The data showed the biggest increase was seen in Texas, which increased its crude oil production by 43,000 bpd. New Mexico posted the second largest gains at 38,000 bpd. These larger gains were partially offset by losses in California (-5,000 bpd), Colorado (-13,000 bpd), Oklahoma (-25,000 bpd) and North Dakota (-54,000 bpd), according to the Petroleum Supply Monthly.
U.S. crude oil imports reached 204.7 million barrels in July, an average of 6.6 million bpd. Crude oil exports totaled 117.7 million barrels for the month, or 3.8 million bpd.
Total crude oil inventories fell in July by 18.6 million barrels.
U.S. crude oil production has been slow to rise after the painful pandemic years. From a peak of 13 million bpd reached in November 2019, US oil producers saw production drop to 9.713 million bpd in May 2020. Since then, production has slowly increased, reaching 11.8 million bpd in July, the highest level since April 2020, according to EIA data.
Meanwhile, crude oil exports have surpassed their pre-pandemic highs.
U.S. crude oil production fell short of White House expectations made earlier this year that U.S. producers would increase output by a million bpd as oil releases the strategic petroleum reserve would be completed in October. Since the Biden administration’s major SPR release was announced earlier this year — designed to fill the gap as U.S. producers ramped up supplies — U.S. crude oil production has risen just 100,000 bpd .
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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