Debate fact check on oil production

[NMDemDist2]

Domestic oil production reaches a 15-year high

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-26/u-s-pumps-most-oil-since-1997-as-energy-independence-grows-1-.html

U.S. oil production surged last week to the highest level since January 1997, reducing the country’s dependence on imported fuels as new technology unlocks crude trapped in shale formations.

Crude output rose by 3.7 percent to 6.509 million barrels a day in the week ended Sept. 21, the Energy Department reported today. America met 83 percent of its energy needs in the first six months of the year, department data show. If the trend continues through 2012, it will be the highest level of self- sufficiency since 1991. Imports have declined 3.2 percent from the same period a year earlier.