LONDON, June 16 (UPI) -- The increase in U.S. oil production last year was the largest annual rise the world has ever seen, BP Chief Economist Christof Ruhl said Monday.
The British company published its 63rd annual energy review Monday. In its assessment of the oil sector, BP said Libya was one of the countries hardest hit in terms of production last year.
Internal rivalries that grew out of civil war have spilled over into the Libyan oil sector. Production rates are less than 20 percent of their pre-war peak of around 1.4 million barrels of oil per day.
Those disruptions, BP said, were offset by major production gains from shale deposits in the United States.
"The U.S. increase in 2013, up by 1.1 million barrels a day, was one of the biggest annual oil production increases the world has ever seen," the chief economist said in a statement.
BP's report said the United States accounted for nearly all of the production gains from outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
In terms of demand, the annual review said consumption didn't keep up with production, though the United States recorded the largest growth in the world.
The increase in demand of 400,000 bpd was the largest, outpacing Chinese demand growth of 390,000 bpd for the first time in 15 years.
