The Undisputed Global Oil Superpower

The newly released 2026 Statistical Review of World Energy reinforces a point that sometimes gets lost in political discussions about energy: the United States remains the world’s largest oil producer.

But the size of the U.S. lead depends on what is being counted.

When most people talk about “oil production,” they generally mean crude oil and condensate.

That is the narrow measure most closely aligned with what the public thinks of as oil.

But another important measure is total liquids, which includes natural gas liquids, or…