According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the US production of crude oil rose by 5% in 2017 to 9.3 mb/d, which is an increase of 464 kb/d from 2016 levels after a decline of 551 kb/d in 2016. Moreover, November 2017 was the highest monthly level of crude oil production ever in US history. The main driver behind this increase is the development of production from tight rock formations using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. This trend is likely to continue in 2018 and the production is expected to grow in 2018 and 2019, to 10.7 mb/d and 11.3 mb/d, respectively.
Texas continued to dominate US crude oil production, with an average output level of 3.5 mb/d in 2017, thanks to a growth in the Permian region (spanning parts of Texas and New Mexico) with +74 kb/d). The Federal Gulf of Mexico (GoM) is the second largest producing region, and new projects and expansions that started in 2016 ramped up GoM production by 51 kb/d in 2017.