EIA: U.S. Oil and Gas Production Hit Record High in December

U.S. crude oil and natural gas output set records in December, and oil demand touched multi-month highs, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its Petroleum Supply Monthly report on Friday.

Crude oil output hit 13.491 million barrels per day (bpd) in December, up from 13.314 million bpd in November and topping the prior all-time high of 13.436 million in October, the EIA said.

Oil output from the Federal Offshore Gulf of Mexico region rose 12.3% in December to 1.86 million bpd, the highest since October 2023, the EIA said. Producers in the region were forced to shut-in more than a quarter of oil production due to Hurricane Rafael in November.

Oil output in Texas, the largest producer in the country, fell 1.3% from November to 5.72 million bpd in December, the lowest since July, while New Mexico output rose to a record-high 2.11 million bpd, EIA data showed.

Gross natural gas production in the U.S. Lower 48 states rose by 2.0% in December to a record 118.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd), according to the agency's 914 production report.

The prior record for gross natural gas production was 117.8 bcfd in February 2024.

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

That compares with the prior monthly all-time high of 36.3 bcfd in October 2024 in Texas and the current record high of 21.9 bcfd in December 2021 in Pennsylvania.

Product supplied of crude oil and petroleum, EIA's way of measuring demand, rose by 198,000 bpd to 20.433 million bpd in December, the most since October 2024, the data showed.

That compares with a monthly oil demand record of 21.666 million bpd, set in August 2005.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino and Shariq Khan; Editing by Nia Williams and Leslie Adler)