06 June 2013, News Wires – US domestic crude-oil production exceeded imports last week for the first time in 16 years, a report Wednesday said, citing government data.
Output was 32,000 barrels per day higher than imports in the seven days to 31 May, according to weekly data from the US Energy Information Administration, Bloomberg reported.
Production had been lower than international purchases since January 1997, the news wire said, noting that new applications of technologies like horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in the US have unlocked new domestic oil supplies.
The surge in oil and gas production helped the US meet 88% of its own energy needs in February, the highest monthly rate since April 1986, EIA data show.
Crude inventories climbed to the highest level in 82 years in the week that ended 24 May.
“The US market is much more comfortably supplied than a few years ago,” Tim Evans, an energy analyst at Citi Futures Perspective in New York, told Bloomberg. “We have a reduced need for imports.”
The US pumped 7.3 million bpd of oil last week, up 8000 barrels from the prior week, the EIA said in its Weekly Petroleum Status Report.
Imports fell 549,000 bpd last week to 7.27 million.
Stockpiles slid 1.6% to 391.3 million barrels last week as imports dropped and refineries used more crude to produce fuels.
Supplies reached 397.6 million barrels in the week ended 24 May, the highest level since 1931.
Production climbed 42% over the past five years and reached a 21-year high of 7.37 million bpd in the week that ended 3 May. Imports have tumbled 26% since May 2008.
“This is an extension of trends that have been well established over the last few years,” Evans told the news wire.
Crude futures for July delivery gained 43 cents, or 0.55%, to settle at $93.74 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Prices have slumped 35% since settling at an all-time high of $145.29 on 3 July 2008.