The United States has "probably" taken over as the world's largest oil producer

By DAVID KOENIG AP Business Writer
The United States may have recovered earlier than expected the title of the world's largest oil producer.

The US state of energy information said on Wednesday that, based on preliminary estimates, America would have "overtaken" Russia in June and August after crossing Saudi Arabia earlier this year.

If these estimates are accurate, it would be the first time since 1973 that the United States has been leading global production, according to government figures.

The Energy Information Administration and the International Energy Agency, a global group of oil-consuming countries, predicted that the United States would eventually pass through Russia and Saudi Arabia, but probably not before 2019.

US production has surged in recent years due to techniques such as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," which uses chemicals, sand, water and high pressures to crack deep rock formations.

Fracturing is causing a drilling boom in the Permian Basin, Texas and New Mexico. The practice is controversial, however. Opponents say fracking leads to toxic contamination of groundwater and increases the number of earthquakes in places like Oklahoma and Texas.

The US Energy Agency estimates that the United States produced an average of 10.9 million barrels a day in August, compared to about 10.8 million barrels a day in Russia and about 10.4 million barrels a day in Saudi Arabia. . The United States crossed Saudi Arabia in February for the first time in more than two decades and this summer, they surpassed Russia for the first time since 1999.

The agency expects the United States to continue to dominate Russia and Saudi Arabia for the rest of the year until 2019.

US production has risen sharply since 2011, driven by production from the Permian Basin, North Dakota and the Gulf of Mexico. The pace of drilling slowed after the drop in oil prices in 2014, but operators learned how to produce oil more efficiently and crude prices rebounded.

Production was relatively stable in Russia and Saudi Arabia, two countries that participated in an OPEC agreement to limit production from 2016 to raise prices.

The US agency said its data on Russian production came mainly from the Russian Ministry of Petroleum, but also from oil companies and industrial publications. The agency said the figures on Saudi production are based on its own internal estimates.

The United States dominated world oil production for most of the last century until the Soviet Union and, later, Saudi Arabia adopted it in the 1970s. In recent years, it seemed an exaggeration for the United States to regain first place.

Daniel Yergin, author of "The Prize," a history of the oil industry, said the rebound in US production has averted a severe global oil shortage that would have resulted in much higher prices .

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