Joe Biden Tops Donald Trump in Crude Oil Milestone

The Biden administration has outpaced the Trump administration when it comes to crude oil production, with the United States now producing more crude oil than at any other time in history at 13.2 million barrels a day, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said.

The second-highest crude-producing week in the U.S. was during the week of March 13, 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when 13.1 million barrels were produced under former President Donald Trump. When President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, the U.S. was producing 11 million barrels.

When former President Barack Obama took office in January 2009, the U.S. was producing around 5 million barrels of crude oil.

The U.S. is the largest producer of crude oil in the world, followed by Russia with 9.3 million barrels per day and Saudi Arabia with 8.94 million barrels per day. The U.S. became the largest crude oil producer in the world during the Trump administration in 2018.

The increase comes amid production cuts by Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members over the past year. According to the EIA, concerns about slowing economic growth reducing worldwide demand for oil have pushed crude oil prices down. Gasoline prices have also fallen in general across the country.

“Crude oil prices are the primary driver of U.S. gasoline prices, making up 55 percent of the total cost to produce a gallon of gasoline,” the EIA said in its Wednesday report.

Meanwhile, the average retail price of regular gasoline was $3.29 per gallon during the week of November 20. The highest gas prices in the country were seen on the West Coast with a gallon of regular gas averaging $4.42 per gallon, down 8 percent from the same period last year, the EIA said.

Global oil output increased overall by 320,000 barrels per day to 102 million barrels per day, according to the International Energy Agency.

“Growth in the United States and Brazil is outperforming forecasts, helping to propel global supply higher by 1.7 million barrels per day to a record 101.8 million barrels per day in 2023,” the IEA said in its November report. “Non-OPEC+ will again drive overall growth in 2024, projected at 1.6 million barrels per day. There has been no material impact on oil supply flows from the war between Israel and Hamas that started in early October.”

World oil supply, the IEA said, is on an upward trajectory despite fears that the Israel-Hamas conflict would disrupt supply.

“A temporary easing of U.S. sanctions on Venezuela in late October is expected to have only a marginal impact on supply, as production increases from the country’s battered oil sector will take time and investment,” the IEA report said.