The Phenomenal Bakken Phenomenon

Bloomberg is reporting:

U.S. crude production climbed to a 28-year high last week as the shale boom moved the world’s biggest oil-consuming country closer to energy independence.

Output rose 78,000 barrels a day to 8.428 million, the most since October 1986, ... attributed to shale deposits in the Bakken (North Dakota) and the Eagle Ford (Texas).

The U.S. met 87 percent of its energy needs in 2013, and 90 percent in December, the most since March 1985, according to the EIA, the statistical arm of the Energy Department. 

Crude output will average 8.46 million barrels a day this year and 9.24 million in 2015, up from 7.45 million last year. 

Next year’s projection would be the highest annual average since 1972.

The EIA forecasts that the gain in production at shale fields will be augmented by greater offshore output this year and next. Crude output in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico will climb by 150,000 barrels a day in 2014 and by an additional 240,000 barrels in 2015, following four consecutive years of declines, according to the May 6 report.