Lhe black gold permeates the economic history of the United States. On August 27, 1859, oil gushed from the first well drilled by Edwin Drake in Titusville, Pennsylvania. In twenty-four hours, the population of this village of 250 inhabitants increased forty-fold. Today, the oil passion has moved from Pennsylvania to Texas. Midland, the town in the heart of the Permian basin, has in turn become the oil capital.
Thanks to it, never in history has a country produced as much black gold as the United States in 2023, far ahead of Saudi Arabia or Russia. This is what emerges from the latest statistics published Monday March 11 by the United States Energy Information Administration.
Last year, U.S. production was 12.9 million barrels per day. This is even better than its previous record of 2022 (12.3 million barrels per day). And, in December, 13.3 million barrels were extracted every day from American soil. One million barrels more than Saudi Arabia’s total capacity and 3 million more than its current production.
Considerable geopolitical consequences
It seems a long time ago when the United States watched its activity decline, resigning itself to buying from the Gulf countries enough to satisfy the frantic consumption of the enormous 4 x 4s which crisscross the country’s highways. In 2005, production did not exceed 5 million barrels per day. Then, in 2009, hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling technologies changed the game and made it possible to suck the black blood flowing from the shale rocks of Texas, New Mexico and elsewhere.
For six years, the country has regained its crown and widened the gap. Despite calls from scientists and the International Energy Agency to reduce global fossil fuel production to combat climate change. The desire for energy sovereignty got the better of the rest.
An autonomy with considerable geopolitical consequences. As the American administration points out, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Russia will concentrate nearly 40% of global oil production in 2023. The next three countries, Canada, Iraq and China are far behind. Hence Riyadh’s difficulties in imposing its price on the world market. The country is reduced to voluntarily limiting its production to stabilize prices in a context where demand is stagnating. In 2023, his company Saudi Aramco saw its profits drop by 25%. Which did not prevent it from increasing its dividends by 30% to finance the State’s industrial projects. As in America, we are preparing for the post-oil era, without really taking the path.