Natural gas plant liquids production nearly doubles since 2010

U.S. natural gas plant liquids production rose to 3.7 million barrels per day in 2017, and since 2010 the production has nearly doubled and increased at a faster rate than natural gas production, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Natural gas plant liquids are produced at natural gas processing plants, and they separate the liquids from raw natural gas, which is used to produce dry natural gas. Marketed natural gas includes natural gas plant liquids and dry natural gas.

Natural gas production has risen as a result of shale gas from the Appalachian region and associated natural gas, which is a byproduct of crude oil production. The high amount of liquids in many shale plays has led to increased production of natural gas plant liquids as marketed natural gas production rises.

Between 2010 and 2017, the percentage of total marketed production that natural gas plant liquids accounted for in energy content terms increased from 11% to 15%, according to the EIA. The rise in the share of natural gas plant liquids production is a result of increased capacity to produce, transport and consume these products. Production of natural gas plant liquids led gross withdrawals and marketed production of natural gas to record highs in 2017.

Natural gas plant liquids that are produced at natural gas plants are a mix of ethane, propane, isobutene and normal butane and natural gasoline, which requires further processing to convert it into marketable products. Depending on the price of ethane, natural gas plants might leave more ethane in the dry natural gas stream. When ethane prices started to fall in late 2011, the share of ethane in natural gas plant liquids declined between 2012 and 2015. Over this period, natural gas producers had an incentive to leave as much ethane in dry natural gas as possible because the price of ethane was lower than the price of natural gas.

In 2016, ethane prices increased as demand rose, and the share of ethane in natural gas plant liquids increased. Also that year, two U.S. ethane export terminals opened, and in 2017, two ethane-consuming petrochemical plants opened in the United States. Between 2015 and 2017, natural gas plant liquids production increased by almost 400,000 barrels per day, and almost 175,000 barrels per day of this rise was a result of increased ethane production.

Ethane production in the first quarter of 2018 increased by 260,000 barrels per day compared to the same quarter in 2017, and between 2018 and 2019, ethane production is expected to rise 440,000 barrels per day, accounting for 86% of the growth in natural gas plant liquids production.