EIA reports that US oil and natural gas production reached a record high in December.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Friday that U.S. crude and natural gas production set records in December and oil demand reached multi-month highs.

The EIA reported that crude oil production reached 13,491 million barrels a day (bpd), up from 13,314 million in November, and surpassing the previous all-time record of 13.436 in October.

EIA reported that oil production in the Federal Offshore Gulf of Mexico Region increased 12.3% to 1.86m bpd in December, marking the highest level since October 2023. The hurricane Rafael forced producers in the Gulf of Mexico region to stop more than 25% of their oil production in November.

EIA data show that oil output in Texas, which is the nation's largest producer, dropped 1.3% in November to 5.72 millions bpd. This was the lowest output since July. Meanwhile, New Mexico produced a record 2.11 million BPD, according to EIA.

The agency's 914 report on production shows that the gross natural gas production of the Lower 48 U.S. states increased by 2.0% in December, reaching a record level of 118.5 billion cubic foot per day (bcfd).

The previous record for natural gas production gross was 117.8 Bcfd, in February 2024.

In the top-producing gas states, December's output rose 0.9% in Texas to a new record of 36.6 bcfd and by 6.7% in Pennsylvania to 21.3bcfd.

This compares to the previous monthly record of 36.3 billion cubic feet per day in October 2024, Texas and the present record high of 21.9% bcfd set in December 2021, Pennsylvania.

The data revealed that the EIA's measure of demand for crude oil and petroleum, product supplied, increased by 198,000 barrels per day (bpd) to reach 20.433 billion bpd, the highest since October 2024.

This compares to a monthly record for oil demand of 21.666 millions bpd set in August 2005. (Reporting and editing by Nia Adler and Leslie Adler; Shariq Khan and Scott DiSavino)

(source: Reuters)