Natural gas production reaches record levels again

U.S. natural gas production rose 11% or by 10 billion cubic feet per day in 2018, from 2017, and the growth was the largest annual increase in production, reaching a record high for the second consecutive year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. U.S. natural gas production measured as gross withdrawals was an average of 101.3 billion cubic feet per day, and this was also a record. Natural gas production measured as marketed production and dry natural gas production also reached record levels of 89.6 billion cubic feet per day and 83.4 billion cubic feet per day, respectively.

U.S. natural gas gross withdrawals rose every month in 2018, except in June, and reached a monthly high of 107.8 billion cubic feet per day in December. Marketed natural gas production and dry natural gas production rose to record levels of 95 billion cubic feet per day and 88.6 billion cubic feet per day, respectively, in December. Marketed production is gross withdrawals minus natural gas used for repressuring wells, quantities vented or flared and nonhydrocarbon gases removed in treating or processing operations. Dry natural gas is consumer-grade natural gas or marketed production minus extraction losses.

Natural gas exports through pipelines and as liquefied natural gas (LNG) rose for the fourth consecutive year to 9.9 billion cubic feet per day. Total exports rose 14% in 2018, and LNG exports increased 53% to 3 billion cubic feet per day. Pipeline and LNG exports reached record monthly levels of 7.7 billion cubic feet per day and 4 billion cubic feet per day, respectively, in December. The United States exported more natural gas than it imported for the second consecutive year in 2018 after becoming a net exporter in 2017 for the first time in almost 60 years.

In September, the United States exported more natural gas by pipeline than it imported via pipeline for the first time in at least 20 years. Natural gas exports by pipeline are expected to exceed natural gas imports via pipeline in 2019 for the year.

The Appalachian region in 2018 remained the largest natural gas-producing region in the United States. Texas had the largest total volumetric increase in gross withdrawals in 2018, rising to 24.1 billion cubic feet per day, up from 21.9 billion cubic feet per day in 2017.