New Mexico, home to part of the Permian basin, saw the highest crude oil production growth of any U.S. state last year, with output gains of 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) accounting for half of America’s oil production increase, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report on Thursday.
Total U.S. crude oil production increased by 600,000 bpd in 2022 compared with 2021, averaging 11.9 million bpd, per EIA’s Monthly Crude Oil and Natural Gas Production report.
For the third year in a row, New Mexico’s oil production growth eclipsed the growth of crude output in any other U.S. state, including Texas, the biggest U.S. oil-producing state and also home to part of the Permian shale basin.
Crude oil production in New Mexico jumped by 300,000 bpd to 1.6 million bpd in 2022, a record for the state, the EIA has estimated.
New Mexico and Texas contributed the most growth to U.S. crude oil production in 2022, while oil output in the rest of the United States grew by just 0.6% last year, or by 33,000 bpd.
Crude oil production in California fell for the eighth consecutive year, and production in Alaska declined for the fifth consecutive year. North Dakota, which had been one of the leading states in oil production growth in the past decade, saw oil production fall for the third consecutive year in 2022, the EIA noted.
The administration forecast in its Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) in May that U.S. crude oil production would continue to increase this year and next. Total U.S. crude oil production is set to climb to 12.5 million bpd in 2023 and to 12.7 million bpd in 2024, according to EIA’s most recent estimates.
However, production growth could be lower than expected as the new priorities of the shale patch – capital discipline and a focus on returns to shareholders and debt repayments – have coupled with supply chain constraints and cost inflation to weigh on growth in recent months.