A US Oil Production High ?  

The Globe And Mail has one of the worst articles I've read on energy in the mainstream media - now wonder much of the newspaper business is going down the drain - North America: The new energy kingdom. After proclaiming US oil production had reached an all time record and declaring the US is well on the way to energy independence and becoming an LNG exporter to China, they somewhat quietly published a little correction later, noting that current US oil production is actually half that of the record reached around 40 years ago. Its all very well to be an energy optimist, but this sort of lunacy really muddies the debate for no useful purpose that I can determine.

The American Petroleum Institute reports that the United States produced more crude oil in October than it has ever produced in a single month, “peak oil” or not.

This reversal of trend helps explain why U.S. domestic production for the year will be 140,000 barrels a day higher than last year (which was 410,000 barrels a day higher than 2008). Although the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) says U.S. production will decline next year, who knows?

Could these numbers reflect the beginning of the end for U.S. dependence on Mideast oil? Well, in fact, they could be. As Forbes magazine publisher Steve Forbes optimistically asserted the other day, the whole world is “awash in energy.” ...

Correction: U.S. domestic crude oil production reached 5.5 million barrels a day in October, half the production of the U.S. “peak oil” high in 1970. Incorrect information was published in this online and in the print versions of this column.