The current domestic drilling boom has brought plenty of jobs, traffic and concerns about pollution and sustainability. It’s also put the U.S. in a position that was unimaginable a decade ago: this year, the U.S. will be the number one producer of oil and gas, according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA) according to State Impact Texas.
Petroleum production in Texas and North Dakota has played a dramatic role in that increase. Natural gas production has also risen, with much of that coming from the eastern United States,” the EIA says in a recent analysis.
Production is also up in Russia and Saudi Arabia, but not nearly as dramatically.
The clear lead in fossil fuel production for the U.S. is due largely in part to the use of drilling techniques like hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” and horizontal drilling. Those methods — largely proven viable in Texas — have allowed large domestic deposits of oil and gas to be reached. Texas has taken the lead in that domestic production, and is projected to continue to do so.
