"Drawing on growing output from the Bakken and Eagle Ford shale plays, U.S. crude production averaged 6.4 million barrels a day last year, a gain of 800,000 barrels daily over 2011 -- the largest annual increase since the birth of the U.S. oil industry in 1859, the Energy Information Administration said yesterday."

"EIA's 'Short-Term Energy Outlook' for January, the first with forecasts for 2014, projects U.S. crude oil output rising solidly to 7.3 million barrels a day this year and 7.9 million barrels daily the following year.

The federal agency's forecast for natural gas production is not as bullish. Production from shale gas plays has been propping up overall gas output in the lower 48 states, EIA noted."

Peter Behr reports for EnergyWire January 9, 2013. [2]