While gasoline prices are headed towards a perilously high level, Obama administration officials Monday delivered to President Obama a report that was relatively rosy about the progress the country has made in the past year on the energy front.

“There are signs that [the administration’s] all-of-the-above strategy is making an impact. Domestic oil and natural gas production has increased every year you have been in office. And in 2011, American oil production reached the highest level in nearly a decade and natural gas production reached an all-time high,” wrote seven of the Obama administration’s top energy policy makers, including Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, in a letter accompanying the report.

Last year, domestic crude oil production reached its highest level since 2003, increasing by an estimated 120,000 bbl/d over 2010 levels to 5.6 million bbl/d. In addition, U.S. natural gas production grew by more than 7% in 2011 — the largest year-over-year volumetric increase in history — and easily eclipsed the previous production record set in 1973, they said.

Currently the United States has a record number of oil and gas rigs operating, more than the rest of the world combined, according to the administration’s energy policy makers.

“The progress report I received today from members of my administration underscores the headway our nation has made towards reducing our reliance on foreign oil, while also expanding American-made energy.

“And yet, despite the pains we’ve made, today’s high gas prices are a painful remainder that there’s much more work to do,” the president said.

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