Continental Resources, Inc. (CLR), EOG Resources Inc (EOG), ConocoPhillips (COP): Can the U.S. Really Become the World’s Top Oil Producer?

To put this growth in perspective, ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), a more diversified global oil and gas producer, expects to grow its oil and gas production by just 3%-5% over this same timeframe. However, 60% of its projected production growth will come from its U.S. onshore assets. The growth is truly remarkable, as the company expects to grow its Eagle Ford production by 130,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, or 16% annually, while growing Bakken production by 45,000 BOE/d ,or 18% annually. And last but not least, the company sees its Permian Basin production growing by 40,000 BOE/d, or 7% annually. Clearly, the U.S. is one of the key growth drivers for ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) over the next few years.

This brings me to one final point. One area of oil production many overlook is the Permian. That legacy oil play could actually be the best of the bunch thanks to the Sparberry/Wolfcamp, which just might be the second largest oil field in the world, at 50 billion barrels of oil equivalent. That’s almost double the Eagle Ford’s potential and more than four times that of the Bakken. One company that sees huge potential here is Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD). Overall, the company believes it has the potential to capture about 9 billion barrels of oil equivalent as it drills about 40,000 wells over the coming years.

By 2018, this part of the Permian could be producing more than a million barrels of oil equivalent per day, with much more in the years to come:

Source: Pioneer investor presentation.

The potential really is there for the U.S. to become the world’s largest oil producer. Still, a lot needs to go right, chief among which is that oil prices need to stay high enough to reward producers for drilling all those oil wells. If that happens, and I believe it will, investors should do very, very well.

The article Can the U.S. Really Become the World’s Top Oil Producer? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Matt DiLallo.

Fool contributor Matt DiLallo owns shares of ConocoPhillips. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.

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