Glen,
Below is the spreadsheet of U.S. Field Production of Crude Oil provided by the EIA. The last time crude production was as high as it is today was in 1998.
That being said, the current administration has done everything it can to stifle domestic production. The current administration favors importing crude and exporting dollars as is witnessed by our huge deficit.
Obama and the democrats love taking control of industry. Does the automotive, insurance, and banking industries ring a bell? Now these economic fascist want to extract control over and or shut down the petroleum industry and they will do whatever it takes to find a way to accomplish that.
I think they found a way to take control:
Al Armendariz, the EPA administrator in the Region 6 Dallas office, made the remarks at a local Texas government meeting in 2010. He relayed to the audience what he described as a “crude” analogy he once told his staff about his “philosophy of enforcement.”
“It was kind of like how the Romans used to, you know, conquer villages in the Mediterranean,” he said. “They’d go in to a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw, and they’d crucify them.
“And then, you know, that town was really easy to manage for the next few years,” he said.
Furthermore, Al Armendariz said:
“Our enforcement initiative doesn’t depend on any state,” Armendariz said. “We have the clearance to do what our mission is. We don’t expect any political interference on me or any others.”
www.texassharon.com/ 1998 202,756 181,321 198,639 194,483 196,754 188,018 192,026 192,282 173,676 190,420 184,198 187,347
1999 184,864 167,034 182,362 176,616 182,122 172,808 179,738 179,187 174,113 184,361 178,811 184,716
2000 179,316 169,703 183,464 175,625 181,242 174,686 177,920 179,451 172,731 180,080 174,980 181,508
2001 179,767 161,843 182,290 175,879 180,712 172,974 178,208 177,488 171,270 178,129 176,441 182,511
2002 181,275 164,398 182,387 175,761 183,635 177,460 178,879 180,148 162,342 166,263 167,899 176,677
2003 179,328 162,136 180,314 173,218 177,733 171,028 171,316 173,448 170,504 174,675 166,815 172,939
2004 172,680 161,122 173,832 165,795 171,988 161,950 169,188 165,325 151,868 159,851 161,884 167,817
2005 168,679 153,828 173,637 166,674 172,997 163,802 162,444 161,758 126,119 140,553 145,100 154,516
2006 158,283 141,258 156,392 153,849 159,992 154,795 158,151 156,830 151,120 158,288 153,142 160,159
2007 158,820 143,504 158,282 155,675 161,112 152,894 155,750 152,321 146,511 156,333 150,506 156,742
2008 158,086 148,536 159,671 153,505 158,154 152,932 159,113 151,702 117,899 144,747 150,720 156,751
2009 159,764 147,269 162,040 158,200 166,749 158,443 167,469 167,950 166,398 170,522 162,807 168,985
2010 167,885 155,488 170,713 161,052 167,321 161,290 164,162 168,634 167,938 172,840 166,963 174,443
2011 171,280 152,127 174,533 166,654 174,915 167,600 169,243 175,614 167,470 182,244 179,368 185,459
2012 188,846 178,170
www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRFPUS1&f=M If Obama is re-elected and the democrats take control of congress in November, I predict unfathomable devastating change for the petroleum industry.