The government says crude oil production was up in 2015 nationwide and in Oklahoma. But production also started showing some declines in December as oil prices continued their plunge, rigs were idled and layoffs started in the oil patch.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration indicated US produced averaged 9.43 million barrels a day which was up from the 8.71 million daily in 2014. But the increase in output also shrank to 722,000 barrels a day in 2015 from the 1.25 million produced daily in 2014.
The Monthly Crude Oil, Lease Condensate, and Natural Gas Production Report from the EIA indicated Oklahoma’s oil production grew by more than 10 percent from December of 2014 to December 2015, but in December 2015, it also started the decline.
Production in December 2014 was 363,000 barrels daily compared to the 400,000 in December 2015. However, by mid-December, the state’s oil production had tumbled 2 percent.
Other oil states saw similar drops in production.Texas was down narly 5 percent from 2014 to 2015. North Dakota experienced a 7 percent drop while the production in Kansas took a nearly 21 percent plunge.
Natural gas production also took a hit. But again, Oklahoma proved to be the anomaly because its production actually increased 2.4 percent from December 2014 to December 2015. Howeve, production started to decline in mid-December and fell by 0.4 percent. Nautural gas production in Texas fell 5.5 percent while the drop in Kansas was nearly 5 percent.
