The United States increased its crude oil production in July by an average of just 12,000 barrels per day, according to the latest monthly data published 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 that the largest increase was seen in Texas, which boosted its crude oil output by 43,000 bpd. New Mexico saw the second largest gains at 38,000 bpd. Those 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 hit 204.7 million barrels for July, or 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 stocks fell in July by 18.6 million barrels.
U.S. crude oil production has been slow to ramp up following the painful pandemic years. From the 13 million bpd high reached in November 2019, U.S. oil producers saw their production fall to 9.713 million bpd in May 2020. Since then, production has slowly ramped up, 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 has failed to live up to White House expectations made earlier this year that counted on U.S. producers ramping up production by a million bpd by the time the Strategic Petroleum Reserve releases were complete in October. Since the Biden Administration’s major SPR release was announced earlier this year—designed to bridge the gap as U.S. producers ramped up supplies—U.S. crude oil production has increased by just 100,000 bpd.
