New map shows exactly which US states have booming oil production

The UN’s leading authority on climate science issued a stark warning earlier this week that the world’s target of limiting global heating to 1.5C is slipping beyond reach with the climate crisis already affecting every region of the planet.

There is a real risk of far greater and more disastrous global warming, if little is done to tackle rapidly rising greenhouse gas emissions.

And while the US has set ambitious climate goals including a clean power sector by 2035, a new data visualization shows that the country produced 15 per cent of global oil in 2020 - more than Russia or Saudi Arabia

Texas is consistently the top state producing the most oil largely because of the permian, an oil basin that produces 5.8 million barrels per day, which is more than any other basin in the country.

But Texas isn’t the only state responsible for the US’ oil production. Thirty-two states in the US produce oil, adding up to almost 4.1 billion barrels or 15 per cent of the world’s oil production, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

The 32 states are split among five groups. Altogether, the groups are named the Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts (PADD), which was created during World War II.

Other top-producing oil areas include North Dakota and New Mexico. But neither state produces nearly as much oil as Texas. The top five oil-producing states account for 71 per cent of the US’s total production. The Gulf of Mexico produces a good chunk of oil, too, accounting for 14 per cent of the US production.

The US has been a top oil-producing country since 2018. Other countries that produce millions of barrels of oil per day include Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Oil production in the US has ebbed and flowed since 1985. While oil production was going in a downward trend from 1985 to 2008, it increased from 2009 to 2019.

Because a deep freeze halted oil production in Texas in February, the Energy Information Administration said the US oil production will drop from 11.15 million barrels to 11.04. The organisation said the US will produce 100,000 fewer barrels a day in 2022 as well.

On Monday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report underscoring in stark terms the need to reduce carbon emissions.

The oceans and forests, otherwise known as carbon sinks, play a big role in absorbing carbon dioxide emissions. But its ability to absorb carbon dioxide becomes impaired as temperatures rise.

“Under future scenarios in which we emit more carbon, those carbon sinks become less effective, in the sense that a smaller fraction of the emitted carbon is absorbed and therefore more stays in the atmosphere,” Charles Koven, Berkeley Lab scientist and lead author for the report’s chapter on global carbon cycles, said in the report.

“It underscores the urgency to start acting soon.”