Alaska oil production continues its decline as US oil production increases.

• Author: Malone, Michael
• Position: ALASKA TRENDS

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) says that field production of crude oil is on the rise in the United States, while production continues to decline in Alaska. The EIA is part of the US Department of Energy (DOE), and was created in 1977 as the single federal government authority for energy information. DOE gave EIA independence from the rest of DOE with respect to data collection-and from the whole government with respect to the content of EIA reports--and incorporated all the provisions of the Office of Energy Information and Analysis. EIA is highly respected by those within government and by the world's leading energy companies for providing the most accurate and relevant energy resource information. EIA data shows that field production of crude oil in the United States peaked in 1970 at 9.637 million barrels per day, and Alaska's production peaked in 1988 at 2.017 million barrels per day.

The top chart shows that, since the US field production of crude oil fell to a level of 5 million barrels per day in 2008, production has trended upward reaching 6.488 million barrels per day in 2012. EIA data indicates most of the nation's...