In 2012, oil prices ranged from $80 to $110 per barrel (West Texas Intermediate spot price) and remain high (above $90/barrel) in early 2013. A number of proposals designed to increase domestic energy supply, enhance security, and/or amend the requirements of environmental statutes are before the 113th Congress. A key question in this discussion is how much oil and gas is produced in the United States each year and how much of that comes from federal versus non- federal areas. Oil production has fluctuated on both federal and non-federal lands over the past five fiscal years. On non-federal lands, there were modest fluctuations in oil production from fiscal years (FY) 2008-2010, then a larger increase from FY2010 to FY2012, increasing total U.S. oil production by about 1.1 million barrels per day over FY2007 production levels. All of the increased production from FY2007 to FY2012 took place on non-federal lands, causing the federal share of total U.S. crude oil production to fall by about seven percentage points (see Table 1).

Natural gas prices, on the other hand, have remained low for the past several years, allowing gas to become much more competitive with coal for power generation. The shale gas boom has resulted in rising supplies of natural gas. Overall, U.S. natural gas production rose by four trillion cubic feet (tcf) or 20% since 2007, while production on federal lands (onshore and offshore) fell by about 33% and production on non-federal lands grew by 40% (see Table 2). The big shale gas plays are primarily on non-federal lands and are attracting a significant portion of investment for natural gas development.

This report examines U.S. oil and natural gas production data for federal and non-federal areas with an emphasis on the past six years of production.2