The U.S. Energy Information Administration has released the latest field production of crude oil data, which indicates that American crude oil production has now exceeded 8.5 million barrels per day – the highest level since July 1986, and within only 1.5 million barrels per day of the all-time record set back in November 1970. Click to enlarge. Between June 2013 and June 2014 (the latest data available), production grew by 1.3 million barrels per day.  This is the largest year-over-year increase in U.S. history if we look critically at the production records. As the chart above shows, the U.S.-EIA's oil production estimates can have a significant amount of month-to-month variability.  It is not always clear whether that short-term variability is real or not. Three previous year-over-year periods have – on their face – seen oil production climb faster than 1.3 million barrels per day: August 1939-1940, 1.6 million barrels per day; May...(Read Full Post)