Production from tight oil formations in the US and oil sands in Canada along with rebounding output in parts of Africa and Asia helped push global oil production to a record high in 2012.

But the Middle East maintained its position as the top oil producer with 24.1 MMb/d of crude oil.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA), which released the findings this week, said global oil production reached 75.6 MMb/d in 2012, up by 2% from the previous year.

In North America, “average annual production, which dipped to 10.4 million bbl/d in 2008, climbed to 12.2 million bbl/d by 2012,” the EIA reported. “The rise in production was largely the result of rising production in tight oil formations in the United States but also includes increased bitumen and synthetic crude oil production from oil sands in Canada. Mexico’s production declined steadily.”

In February, the EIA pointed to increased oil production in North Dakota and onshore Texas as the major drivers for increased crude oil production in the US, mostly as a result of shale and other tight formations. In November and December 2012, crude oil production surpassed the previous high reached in December 1992 when production averaged 7 MMb/d. The EIA predicts in its higher resource scenario that that number could rise to about 10 MMb/d between 2020 and 2040, again driven mainly by tight oil plays, although the agency cautioned that estimates from tight oil formations are uncertain and change as new data becomes available.

“This increased production results from assumed greater technically recoverable tight oil resources, as well as undiscovered resources in Alaska and the offshore Lower 48 states,” the EIA said.

Although overall production in the Middle East was flat, inching up only 0.3% to 24.1 MMb/d, the spike in production in Iraq was a bright spot for the region. “While production growth slowed in most of the region, new export infrastructure contributed to a 14% increase in Iraq’s oil production in 2012,” the EIA said. “Middle East production gains in many countries, however, were offset by declines in Syria, Qatar, and also Iran, where sanctions targeting the oil sector contributed to a 17% decrease in the country’s production.”

However, regional production in the former Soviet Union continued its upward climb, increasing about 150,000 b/d to 12.7 MMb/d between 2010 and 2012, the EIA reported. Taking the lead in the growth was Russia, where “development of eastern Siberia oil fields, use of advance technologies and improved recovery techniques in mature fields in western Siberia, and development of new export infrastructure” have pushed production higher since 2009.

Countries in Africa as well as in China also contributed to the higher global oil production figure. In Africa, production grew by 6% to 9.1 MM b/d thanks to recovery in Libya following a supply outage in 2011 and more oil from Ghana and Niger, according to the EIA. In Asia, the return of production from the Peng Lai field contributed to the 2% oil production increase in China, although overall output in Asia and Oceania remained stagnant at 7.6 MMb/d in 2012.

The Central/South America region lost some ground in 2012 as production slowed, dropping 1% to 6.6 MMb/d, after increasing 3% the previous year.

The news was even bleaker in Europe, where production in the North Sea has steadily declined since 2000. “The rate of decline, which averaged 5% annually between 2000 and 2010, increased to a 9% annual decline in both 2011 and 2012,” the EIA said. “Steeper declines in 2011 and 2012 were mainly driven by a number of severe unplanned outages in the United Kingdom as well as recent increases to tax rates for the nation’s oil and gas sector.”

Contact the author, Velda Addison, at vaddison@hartenergy.com.

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