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Oil and Gas Industry: A Research Guide

Statistical Data

Data for the oil and gas industry in the United States comes from the federal and state government, business associations, and private analysts. The International Energy Agency (IEA) and the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) provide international data.

At the state level in the United States, various state agencies monitor oil and gas consumption and production. For example, the California Department of Conservation, Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources External "oversees the drilling, operation, maintenance, and plugging and abandonment of oil, natural gas, and geothermal wells" in that state. Data is also reported at the Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts (PADD) level External, which breaks the United States into five regions. Originally used in World War II for rationing purposes, it now is used to track oil and gas industry data. For example PADD 3 covers the Gulf Coast region meaning Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas.

In addition to the resources listed on this page, industry reports compiled by analysts contain recent data and comprehensive industry outlooks. These industry reports are often produced by private publishers and are available through subscription databases. Data can also represented visually through maps.

U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration Statistics

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) collects and publishes a variety of statistics related to energy information for both domestic and international tracking of: Consumption (Demand); Production (Supply); World Oil Balance; Prices; Reserves and Resources; Imports and Exports (Trade); Stocks (Inventories); Refinery Capacity; Rotary Rigs in Operation; Carbon Dioxide Emissions; Gross Heat Content; and Conversion Factors. 

National Oil and Gas Statistics

Besides the U.S. Energy Information Administration, a number of other federal offices responsible for regulating the oil and gas industry, along with national trade associations, publish statistics. Below is a sample of their statistics collections. 

International Oil and Gas Statistics

The following materials link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are provided when available.

Library of Congress Catalog Searches

Additional works on statistics in the oil and gas industries in the Library of Congress may be identified by searching the Library of Congress Online Catalog under appropriate subject headings. Choose the topics you wish to search from the following list of Library of Congress subject headings to link directly to the Catalog and automatically execute a search for the subject selected. For assistance in locating the many other subject headings which relate to this subject, please consult a reference librarian.

Below are Library of Congress subject headings that include sample geographic locations, but they can be replaced with the location (usually country or state) needed. 

Also see publications in our collections authored by these organizations: