One thing we love about the oil and gas industry is its capacity to change and to surprise, and often. U.S. crude oil production recently approached 7 million barrels a day, the highest level since 1970—and this is an amazing increase of about 50% since the summer of 2008.

Our oil production could grow by another 900,000 barrels per day in 2013 to 7.3 million a day, according to the most recent forecast by the Energy Information Administration. The government can’t keep up with what’s happening out in the field—this ...