US set to be top oil, gas producer in 2013: EIA

US could push past Russia and Saudi Arabia as world's largest single producer of oil and of natural gas this year.

WASHINGTON: The United States could push past Russia and Saudi Arabia as the world's largest single producer of oil and of natural gas this year, a US government agency said Friday.

While the US was roughly even with Russia as the top producer in 2012 of the petroleum and gas fuels combined, it still lagged the longtime leader Saudi Arabia as an oil producer.

But helped by the boom in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, production from shale deposits, the US will surpass the Saudis in petroleum output in 2013, making it the world leader in each fuel, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said.

The EIA includes in its petroleum product calculations crude oil, natural gas liquids condensates and biofuels.

The EIA said that US oil production had increased dramatically over the past five years due to production in Texas and North Dakota, where the exploitation of shale-based reserves by controversial fracking techniques has rocketed.

Meanwhile, natural gas production has shot up thanks to fracking-based production in the eastern part of the country, particularly in Pennsylvania.