U.S. oil production will remain 'historically high’ through 2050 — new government report

Despite his campaign rhetoric of ending fossil fuels, President Biden acknowledged in his recent State of the Union address that "we’re going to need oil for at least another decade."

But a new report released Thursday by an independent agency of Biden’s own government projects it will even be much much longer than that.

In fact, the 2023 Annual Energy Outlook from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) finds that U.S. oil production may even increase between now and 2050 even as clean energy sources like wind and solar power increase dramatically as well.

The analysts say that U.S. demand for oil and gas is likely to remain remarkably steady for decades and “we expect U.S. production to remain at historically high volumes as exports of finished products grow,” said Angelina LaRose, EIA Assistant Administrator for Energy Analysis, during a session Thursday around the release of the report.

The EIA is an independent government agency that prepared this week’s report without the input of the White House or other officials like Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. Their predictions have also been echoed by outside experts in recent months, but Thursday's release marks an official government acknowledgment of the widespread expectation that U.S. oil and gas production isn’t likely to wane anytime soon.

‘Motor gasoline and diesel fuel are still in demand for 2050’

The U.S. currently produces about 20 million barrels of oil per day. Looking to 2050, the EIA analysts see the possibility of one “high oil and gas supply” scenario where that number jumps to around 30 million barrels per day in 2050. Production stays steady or goes down slightly in other models but in every case that the analysts modeled, the U.S. will remain a net exporter of petroleum products and natural gas through 2050.