Spurred by advances in automation and digitalization, the United States has become the world's biggest producer of oil and natural gas, surpassing such stalwarts as Saudi Arabia and Russia in an energy revolution that has served as the engine of the nation's economic recovery. Whereas the U.S. produced 9.2 million barrels of crude oil a day in 2012, daily output now exceeds 11 million barrels, and, according to the International Energy Agency, is expected to surge to 14 million barrels a day in 2020. However, this impressive output happens to coincide with extreme price pressures in the oil market, as a number of factors-highlighted by OPEC's unchanging production levels-caused the international benchmark price of oil to drop nearly 50 percent in 2014. As such, the question today isn't a simple one of supply or demand-the IEA projects worldwide oil demand to increase from 700,000 to 910,000 barrels a day in 2015-but of how to lower costs in an industry that accounts for 20 percent of private fixed-structure spending in the U.S.
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机译：在自动化和数字化技术的推动下，美国已成为世界上最大的石油和天然气生产国，在能源革命中超过了沙特阿拉伯和俄罗斯等坚定国家，这已成为美国经济复苏的引擎。美国在2012年每天生产920万桶原油，而如今的日产量已超过1100万桶，而据国际能源机构（International Energy Agency）预测，到2020年，美国的日产量将激增至1400万桶。碰巧与石油市场的极端价格压力相吻合，因为一些因素（由欧佩克不断变化的生产水平突出显示）导致国际基准石油价格在2014年下降了近50％。因此，今天的问题不是IEA预测，到2015年，全球石油需求将从每天700,000桶增加至910,000桶，但这只是一种供需关系，但如何降低该行业的成本，该行业占美国私人固定结构支出的20％
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