United States Tops the Global Petroleum and Natural Gas Production in 2020

Recent statistics and reports have stated that more petroleum and natural gas were produced in the United States than in any other country during 2020. The US petroleum and natural gas output in 2020 totaled 66.9 quadrillion British thermal units (quads), whereas Russia produced 45.5 quads and Saudi Arabia produced 26.5 quads of petroleum and natural gas in 2020.

Petroleum and natural gas production fell in all three countries in 2020 due to pandemic and there was a consequent crude oil price declines, particularly in the first quarter of 2020. Saudi Arabia and Russia reduced their crude oil production as part of an OPEC+ agreement. Still, in the United States, reduced production resulted in the drop in oil price and tight oil investments, and, to a lesser extent, unplanned outages.

Petroleum production includes various liquid fuels, including crude oil and lease condensate, natural gas plant liquids (NGPL), and bitumen. The US petroleum production decreased from 31.8 quads in 2019 to 30.4 quads in 2020. But, NGPL production in 2020 grew by 0.4 quads, boosted by an increase in domestic ethane consumption and ethane exports. This resulted in the production of more crude oil and natural gas in the US.