EIA sees record July natural gas production, consumption
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said September 29 dry natural gas production in July increased year-over-year for the 28th consecutive month, reaching 103.9bn ft3/day, a 3.5% increase over July 2022 and the highest for any month since it began tracking dry gas production in 1973.
At the same time, estimated natural gas consumption in July averaged 86bn ft3/day, up from 83.3bn ft3/day in July 2022 and the highest for any month since 2001.
Gas consumption increased in three of the four sectors tracked, the EIA said, led by a 5.1% increase in electric power deliveries as power utilities in the US worked to meet summer cooling demand.
Deliveries to electric power utilities averaged 47.5bn ft3/day, the highest for any month since 2001. Deliveries to residential gas users averaged 3.59bn ft3/day, a 1% increase, while industrial deliveries edged 0.5% higher, to 21.55bn ft3/day.
Only deliveries to commercial users declined in July, to 4.6bn ft3/day from 4.7bn ft3/day, the EIA said.
LNG exports in July averaged 11.3bn ft3/day, 16.7% higher than the daily rate for LNG exports in July 2022 and the highest for the month since the EIA began tracking in 1997.
Overall, total natural gas exports (LNG and piped) were 2.5 times higher than natural gas imports, rising to 20.5bn ft3/day from 18.1bn ft3/day. Total imports slipped about 0.4%, to 8.26bn ft3/day from 8.3bn ft3/day in July 2022.