American exploration and production (E&P) companies last week continued to pump oil at a robust pace, maintaining output at the highest level of the pandemic era.

E&Ps produced 12.3 million b/d for the week ended Feb. 17, even with the prior week and the high mark of 2023, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest Weekly Petroleum Status Report showed. It also kept crude production at the highest level since March 2020, when widespread coronavirus outbreaks arrived in the United States.

EIA’s latest result, released Thursday, comfortably outpaced the year-earlier level of 11.6 million b/d. E&Ps posted a record 13.1 million b/d of oil output in March 2020, shortly before public officials declared the global pandemic. 

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