By One Measure, America Has Already Surpassed Saudi Arabia As The World’s Top Oil Producer

By admin on December 18, 2012

oil derrick gushing

America may already be a bigger player in oil than Saudi Arabia, argues one analyst.

According to Brain Wang at NextBigFuture (via Platts), the U.S. is producing more fossil fuel than Saudi Arabia, making it the world’s top oil producer.

Here’s his math:

Saudi Arabia just announced it had cut production to 11.2 million barrels per day — 9.5 million in oil and 1.7 natural gas liquids
If you count all liquids, the U.S. just increased oil production so that its ending supply was 11.33 million bpd — 6.852 million b/d of petroleum, 4.45 for “other supply”
What is other? 2.458 million in NGL production and 1.1 million in refinery gains

Platts’ John Kingston doesn’t totally buy it:

…it seems a bit of a stretch to declare the US as the world’s biggest liquids producer when almost 10% of its supply is coming from refinery gains, and about another 8% is coming from ethanol and other biofuels that wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for various government regulations and incentives.

But he acknowledges the Saudis also subsidize their industry, and that the “refinery gains” category is inherently inexact.

The fact that the U.S. is even in the same ballpark seems to be the main takeaway.

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