US Set to Zoom Past Saudi Arabia As Number One Oil Producer

The United States is expected to overtake Saudi Arabia as the number one liquid petroleum producing nation in the world for the first time in over two decades, thanks to America's fracking boom, Financial Times reported Monday.

According to journalists Ed Crooks and Anjli Raval, this could happen as soon as "this month or next."

The article cites information from the International Energy Agency, which shows that "US production of oil and related liquids such as ethane and propane was neck-and-neck with Saudi Arabia in June and again in August at about 11.5m barrels a day." The article argues, "With US production continuing to boom, its output is set to exceed Saudi Arabia’s this month or next for the first time since 1991."

The explosion is largely due to a "shale revolution," explains the article, referring to the controversial practice of extracting oil from shale using a process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Organizations and communities across the U.S. have pushed for a ban on this extraction method, due to its role in destabilizing the climate, devastating residents near fracking sites who suffer cancer and disease from water and air pollution, marring natural landscapes, and killing wildlife.