According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the United States remained the world's top producer of natural gas and petroleum in 2017, reaching a record high. The U.S. has been the world's top producer of natural gas since 2009 when it surpassed Russia. It topped Saudi Arabia for the petroleum hydrocarbon crown in 2013. Since 2008, U.S. petroleum and natural gas production have increased by nearly 60 percent.
Total petroleum production is made up of several types of liquid fuels, including crude oil and lease condensate, extra-heavy oil, tight oil, and bitumen. In addition, various processes produce natural gas plant liquids (NGPL), biofuels, and other liquid fuels, some as a result of refinery processing gains.
U.S. petroleum production increased by 745,000 barrels per day in 2017 and was accompanied by a 21 percent increase in the price of oil. In the United States, crude oil and lease condensate accounted for 60 percent of total petroleum hydrocarbon production, and natural gas plant liquids accounted for 24 percent. Saudi Arabia and Russia have much smaller volumes of natural gas plant liquids, as well as refinery gain and biofuels production. Importing from the U.S. accounted for most of the remaining share.
U.S. dry natural gas production grew slowly in early 2017 because of unfavorable economic conditions, but output increased during the last nine months of the year. From 2016 to 2017, domestic dry natural gas production increased by one percent as liquefied natural gas exports quadrupled. Consumer natural gas demand was mixed, because of a warmer winter and higher natural gas prices.
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