[imgcontainer][img: change+in+oil+gas+production.jpg][source]USDA Economic Research Service[/source]Dark blue counties saw an increase in oil and gas production from 2000 to 2011. Light blue saw little change. And red counties had a decrease in production. Click on the map to make it interactive and explore county-level data. (Data is for the Lower 48 only; sorry, Alaska and Hawaii.) [/imgcontainer]
President Obama in his State of the Union address last week touted the “booming” oil and gas business in the country.
The map above shows where that boom sounds the loudest.
The dark blue counties increased their oil and/or gas production by at least $20 million a year from 2000 to 2011, according to figures compiled by the Economic Research Service, an arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The dark red counties saw declines of at least $20 million in oil and/or gas production in 2011 compared to 2000. The light blue counties showed little change and the gray counties (two-thirds of U.S. counties) had no production.
Remember, this isn’t a map of oil and gas production – it’s a map of change in production; it shows where production has increased or decreased since the turn of the century. There are red counties that produce much more oil and gas than some blue counties.
If you click on the map, you can mouse over a county to find the 2011 oil and gas production totals. The map also tells the percent increase or decrease in production from 2000 to 2011.
Most of the increase in oil and gas production since 2000 came from outside metropolitan areas. Rural counties increased their oil production by more than half since 2000, while metro counties pumped 15 percent less oil in 2011 than in 2000.
Natural gas production increased 62 percent in rural counties since 2000, 19 percent in counties with small cities (between 10,000 and 50,000) and 57 percent in metro counties.
Most energy produced in this country is pumped from counties outside cities. Rural counties and counties with small towns produced two-thirds of the nation’s oil and gas in 2011. These counties have about 15 percent of the nation’s population.
Oil production is shifting to rural counties. In 2000, rural counties and counties with small towns had 57 percent of the nation’s total oil production. In 2011, these same counties produced 67 percent of the nation’s oil.
The map shows (in dark blue) the current oil and gas plays that have changed many rural counties — in western North Dakota and eastern Montana; in Pennsylvania; in several different regions of Texas, New Mexico and Colorado.
Play with the map and tell us what is happening in your county.
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