Crude oil production for the US and the rest of the world

In the last part of this series, we discussed the US rig count compared to the rest of the world. Higher drilling activity in the US led to higher production. In this part of the series, we’ll see how oil production in the US stacked up against the world’s oil production.

For 2009–2013, the total number of rigs in the world increased by ~64%. The world’s crude oil production increased by 4.6%. The world’s natural gas production increased by 9.5%.

For 2009–2013, international crude oil production, outside the US, increased ~2%. In comparison, US crude oil production grew by ~39% during the period.

In 2014, crude oil production growth in the US continued to surpass the rest of the world. From the beginning of the year, crude production increased ~7%. It increased from ~7.8 million barrels per day (or MMbbls/d) in January to 8.4 MMbbls/d in July. Outside the US, oil production only increased by ~0.5% from January through July.

The largest US oil and gas companies—like ConocoPhillips (COP) and ExxonMobil (XOM)—are shifting their exploration and production focus to the US. These companies are part of the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE).

XOM, Hess Corporation (HES), and EOG Resources (EOG) have strong oil and gas production bases in various countries throughout the world. These companies will benefit from higher international drilling and production activities.