With Regard To Bragging Rights Among Oil Producers, Has CNN Been Under The Geico Rock For The Past Four Years? Nope -- January 3, 2018

From CNN: American could be crowned the oil world's new king in 2018.

The United States is poised to ramp up crude oil production by 10% in 2018 to about 11 million barrels per day, according to research firm Rystad Energy.

Surging shale oil output should allow the United States to dethrone Russia and Saudi Arabia as the planet's leading crude oil producer, Rystad predicted in a recent report.

The U.S. hasn't been the global leader, nor ahead of both Russia and Saudi Arabia, since 1975.

"The market has completely changed due to the U.S. shale machine," said Nadia Martin Wiggen, Rystad's vice president of markets.

Has CNN been under the Geico Rock for the past four years? I don't think so. CNN is correct on a technicality. But it's close. The headline in the next story is slightly "off."

Flashback, July 10, 2014, from IER: US overtakes Saudi Arabia and Russia as largest oil producer.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Bank of America, the United States is now the world’s largest oil and natural gas liquids producer and will remain so for awhile, overtaking both Saudi Arabia and Russia.

U.S. production of crude oil, along with liquids separated from natural gas, surpassed all other countries with daily output exceeding 11 million barrels during the first 5 months of this year.

Oil production is soaring from shale formations in Texas and North Dakota using hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling technology.

According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), those two states produced almost 50 percent of the nation’s oil in April 2014.

The United States became the world’s largest natural gas producer in 2010, ousting Russia for the top spot. The United States also ranks as the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas combined.

Now, it is also the largest producer of oil and natural gas liquids.

The technicality:  

• CNN -- oil only
• IER -- oil + natural gas liquids