1 Big Energy Story - 7.6.2026: US Oil Production by State from 1981-2025

Jul 06, 2026

I came across this fascinating video bar graph of U.S. oil production by state from 1981 through 2025, courtesy of RankingRoyals on X. It is a stunning piece of work to be appreciated by all who value the blessings of America’s oil and gas abundance:

This is especially interesting to me since my career in the oil and gas industry began in the summer of 1979. So, given that I spent all but two years of that career with U.S. focused large independent producers, this basically covers my life in business.

Some interesting dynamics to appreciate:

The rapid rise of oil production from the U.S. offshore during the Clinton administration, thanks to enactment of the Deepwater Royalty Relief Act of 1995. Clinton signed that bill, but Newt Gingrich and the Republicans in the House were the driving force.
That royalty holiday spurred deepwater drilling - incredibly risky and costly at the time - and made the Gulf of Mexico an oil powerhouse which endures to this day.
Alaska surpassing Texas as the top state producer briefly in 1988 as Prudhoe Bay achieves maximum production and Texas’s big conventional fields start to decline.
The severe decline in overall U.S. production beginning with the price crash in the late 1990s and continuing until 2009 following the discovery of shale oil production in the Eagle Ford Shale and the 2010 advent of shale oil production in the Permian Basin.
The rise of oil production in Texas from a little over 1 million bpd in late 2008 to 5.7 million by the end of 2025. New Mexico’s production rose from a little more than 100,000 bpd in late 2008 to 2.2 million in 2025. North Dakota rises from ~150,000 bpd to 1.15 million bpd.
Those three states alone have combined to add 7.7 million bpd over that 17-year time span, more production than any world country other than Saudi Arabia and Russia.
That is the blessing of the Shale Revolution.

Great stuff. That 2008-2025 period of time in the U.S. industry represents the real energy miracle of the 21st century. No other development remotely rivals it.

That is all.