Natural gas production rises to record levels in 2017

Two of three ways the U.S. Energy Information Administration measures natural gas production showed U.S. production reached record levels in 2017.

Production measured as gross withdrawals rose to 90.9 billion cubic feet per day in 2017, the highest on record, according to the EIA. Marketed natural gas production also hit a record high of 78.9 billion cubic feet per day. However, dry natural gas production didn’t exceed the high of 74.2 billion cubic feet per day set in 2015.

EIA collects monthly oil and natural gas production data from a group of operators of oil and natural gas wells in 15 states, the Federal Offshore Gulf of Mexico and altogether from the remaining states and the Federal Offshore Pacific.

Starting in July 2017, U.S. natural gas gross withdrawals rose for five consecutive months and reached a record monthly high of 96.7 billion cubic feet per day in December 2017. Marketed natural gas production hit a monthly record high of nearly 84 billion cubic feet per day in December 2017. Marketed production is the difference between gross withdrawals and the amount of natural gas used for repressuring reservoirs, quantities vented or flared and nonhydrocarbon gases removed from treatment or processing operations.

In 2017, dry natural gas production was 73.6 billion cubic feet per day, according to the EIA. Dry natural gas is consumer-grade natural gas or the difference between marketed production and extraction losses.

Exports of natural gas rose 36% in 2017 as liquefied natural gas exports nearly quadrupled. Also, the United States became a net natural gas exporter for the first time in nearly 60 years.

In Louisiana, gross withdrawals of natural gas increased 20.8% to 5.8 billion cubic feet per day in 2017. Increased drilling and economic and technology improvements have led to a rise in natural gas production from the state’s Haynesville play. The Appalachian region is the largest natural gas producing region, and production from the plays there rose 9.5% to 24.3 billion cubic feet per day in 2017. Gross withdrawals in Texas fell 2.3% to 21.7 billion cubic feet in 2017 but had the largest natural gas production of any state.