EIA: 90% of natural gas used in the US in 2018 was produced domestically

US natural gas production and consumption have both generally increased since the mid-2000s, and both dry, or consumer-grade, natural gas production and consumption reached record highs of about 30 trillion ft³ in 2018. In both 2017 and 2018, annual dry natural gas production exceeded consumption for the first time since 1966.

US natural gas production has increased in the past decade as the widespread adoption of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques has allowed producers to more economically produce natural gas from shale formations. Shale gas now makes up a higher percentage of total US natural gas production than natural gas produced from both traditional natural gas wells and from crude oil wells as associated natural gas. Smaller volumes of natural gas are also produced from coal seams, called coalbed methane.

In 2018, gross withdrawals of natural gas and other compounds extracted at the wellhead in the United States totalled 37 trillion ft³, with more than half coming from shale gas wells. Marketed natural gas production, which excludes natural gas used for repressuring the well, vented and flared gas, and any non-hydrocarbon gases, was nearly 33 trillion ft³. US marketed natural gas was further processed into 30 trillion ft³ of dry natural gas and 2 trillion ft³ of natural gas plant liquids.

As US natural gas production has increased, exports of natural gas have also increased and recently have started to surpass natural gas imports. The United States became a net exporter of natural gas in 2017. In 2018, the United States exported a record of nearly 4 trillion ft³ of natural gas, either by pipeline to Mexico and Canada or shipped overseas as liquefied natural gas (LNG). Natural gas imports that year were 3 trillion ft³, the lowest since 2015.

In the United States, significant amounts of natural gas are also added to or withdrawn from storage throughout the year. Natural gas is added, or injected, to storage during periods of low demand, typically during the spring and fall, and is withdrawn from storage during periods of high demand, typically in the winter and summer. Natural gas is stored in large volumes in underground facilities and in smaller volumes in above-ground tanks, sometimes as LNG.

In 2018, more than two-thirds of the dry natural gas consumed in the United States was used by the electric power and industrial sectors. Smaller amounts of natural gas were consumed by the residential, commercial, and transportation sectors; exported to other countries; or added to storage.

The U.S. electric power sector has been the largest end user of natural gas in three of the last four years, surpassing the industrial sector for the first time in 2012. In 2018, about 35% of the natural gas consumed in the United States was used by the electric power sector to generate electricity and heat.

The industrial sector consumed 34% of natural gas in 2018 for process heating; as fuel for combined heat and power plants; and as raw material (feedstock) to produce chemicals, fertilizer, and hydrogen. The residential and commercial sectors use natural gas mainly for heating.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/special-reports/10072019/eia-90-of-natural-gas-used-in-the-us-in-2018-was-produced-domestically/