Illinois crude oil production totaled 7,513,835 barrels in 2020, according to data compiled by the Illinois Petroleum Resources Board (IPRB) that is based on first-purchaser reports. Click here to view IPRB’s annual Illinois oil production report.
The state’s 2020 oil production was 8.9 percent below 2019 levels. A similar production drop was observed throughout the United States, as the COVID-19 pandemic-induced oil demand and price shock led to national production dropping 8.1 percent, from a record 12.3 million barrels per day in 2019 to 11.3 million barrels per day in 2020.
Though production was down significantly overall in Illinois last year, monthly production levels trended upward in the second half of the year as oil prices recovered modestly following the worst of the demand and oil price shock in the spring.
White County – by far the state’s top-producing county – actually saw strong production growth in 2020 despite the pandemic. White County oil production totaled 2,206,100 barrels in 2020 – a 7.6 percent increase from 2019 levels. White County has now topped 2 million barrels of production two years in a row and accounted it for just under 30 percent of the state’s production last year. White County’s annual production has more than doubled from levels seen just a decade ago.
The state’s top-15 producing counties – White, Marion, Crawford, Lawrence, Fayette, Wabash, Clay, Wayne, Franklin, Clark, Hamilton, Richland, Jasper, Gallatin and Jefferson – collectively produced 91 percent of the state’s oil in 2020. All 15 of those counties – as well as Edwards, Brown and Effingham counties – have recently passed Resolutions of Support for the Illinois oil production industry.
