API CHIEF: New Records in Fracking Help Achieve Energy Independence

WASHINGTON, DC – The “fracking revolution” in the U.S. oil and gas industry has reached a new milestone, with the American Petroleum Institute (API) announcing an incredible new record during a Tuesday event with Breitbart News and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

Speaking with Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matt Boyle, API CEO Mike Sommers touted the achievements of some of the hundreds of experts and companies within his trade association. 

Not only has oil production nearly tripled over the last two decades, but an API member company recently achieved a record-breaking horizontal drill of seven miles, the industry leader said. 

“What a difference the last 20 years have made,” he said, telling the audience to “think about the fact” that the U.S. was producing about five million barrels of oil per day in 2005.

“… And we’re now at the point where we’ve tripled it,” Sommers stated. “We’re at about 13 point 5 million barrels of production every single day. That is only because of the fracking revolution that has occurred as a consequence of innovation in the American oil and gas industry.”

He continued, “We figured out a way where we can drill a mile down, and at this point, we just broke the record seven miles across to produce the kind of the oil and gas that we have in the United States.”

Speaking of Wright, a Trump nominee who was confirmed by the Senate in a bipartisan vote, Sommers said, “I can’t think of a Secretary of Energy that is more knowledgeable about the United States energy system.”

During his own interview with Boyle earlier in the event, Wright applauded President Donald Trump’s “energy dominant” policies, citing the price of oil is a “great testament” to this agenda.

He continued, “Not only is the United States by far the largest producer of oil in the world today, and by a factor of two the biggest producer of natural gas in the world today, but we have a rational policy around energy.”

“Everyone knows that American energy exports are going to grow. They’re not under threat,” Wright added, emphasizing that the Trump administration is undoing damaging actions taken against the oil and gas industry under former President Joe Biden. 

Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.