Save for later Print Download Share LinkedIn Twitter Crude output averaged just under 11.2 million barrels per day in 2021. The Covid-19 pandemic and oil price collapse had caused crude production in the US in 2020 to drop 940,000 b/d and reverse three years of average annual 1.2 million b/d growth. In the final tally, 2020 production was 11.308 million b/d. An expected recovery in 2021 was interrupted by a cold spell that caused production output to drop below 10 million b/d in February before recovering to 11.1 million b/d in March 2021. Hurricane Ida struck late in August, following the same path as Hurricane Katrina did in 2005. While Ida was considerably more damaging to refineries, resulting in the permanent closure of Phillips 66’s Alliance plant in Louisiana, it too had an effect on oil production, taking some 400,000 b/d off line in September. Upstream discipline has also kept the pressure up on crude output in 2021 as most onshore grades were in decline, with the exception of benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI), which benefited from development in the western areas of the Permian Basin. Production in 2022 has grown more aggressive and, while not quite back to pre-Covid-19 levels, had breached both 2021 and 2022 readings by midyear.
