At various election campaign rallies, incoming President Trump used the slogan ‘Drill, baby, drill’ to highlight his plan to boost oil and gas production in the US through deregulation. One way to deregulate would be to make more federal land available for oil and gas exploration. Trump’s plan to increase production would come on top of already record high oil production in the US. In August, the US produced an all-time high 414 million barrels of oil. The record increase in oil production is largely driven by advancement in hydraulic fracturing also called ‘fracking’ and horizontal drilling technologies. Up to 95% of new wells drilled in the US use fracking. US oil production has risen so much that in 2020 the US turned into a net oil exporter and the country now produces slightly more oil than it consumes.
Source: US Energy Information Administration, December 2024.