US oil production will jump by a quarter by 2014 to its highest level in 26 years, figures suggest.
This is mainly because of the discovery of vast reserves of shale oil.
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) in the US also forecast average global oil prices would fall from $112 a barrel in 2012 to $99 in 2014.
It said US oil imports would fall by a quarter between 2012 and 2014, because of rising domestic production and the discovery of shale gas.
US oil imports have been falling since 2005, when they stood at 12.5 million barrels a day. By 2014, they will have halved to six million barrels, the EIA said.
Domestic production, which stood at 6.4 million barrels last year, will rise to 7.9 million barrels next year, the highest level since 1988.
“US oil production is rising extraordinarily quickly, entirely because of the application of fracking, [which is] unleashing very significant new resources into the market,” Seth Kleinman, global head of energy strategy at Citigroup, told the BBC.
Fracking is the process of blasting water at high pressure into shale rock to release oil or gas held within it. It has become widespread in the US and domestic gas prices have plummeted as a result.
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