<article><p>US gross natural gas production rose to an all-time high in December of more than 83 Bcf/d (2.4bn m³/d) as producers brought new wells on line and restored production from shut-in wells in the Marcellus shale and in Texas.</p><p>Output from the 48 contiguous US states, which includes production that does not reach market, rose during the final month of 2014 to 83.03 Bcf/d, up by 1.42 Bcf/d from November 2014 and 15pc higher than a year earlier, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said today in its monthly natural gas gross production report.</p><p>The largest month-over-month increase occurred in the EIA's "Other States" category. That category includes output from the Marcellus shale, a mammoth gas-bearing formation in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and the top-producing gas field in the US. Production from other states increased in December to 34.26 Bcf/d, a 3pc increase from November and a year-over-year gain of 29pc.</p><p>Output from Texas, the biggest gas-producing state by volume, rose by 2pc from November to 24.6 Bcf/d in December. Texas output in December increased by 11pc from a year earlier as producers continued to tap oil-rich formations in the Eagle Ford shale and the Permian basin, where wells often produce large amounts of gas.</p><p>Production from the US Gulf of Mexico rose to 3.42 Bcf/d, up by 2.1pc from November. </p><p>Those production gains more than offset month-over-month declines from the gas-producing states of Louisiana, New Mexico, and Wyoming and Oklahoma, the EIA said. </p><p>jw/tdf</p><p><br> Send comments to <a href="mailto:feedback@argusmedia.com" target="_parent"> feedback@argusmedia.com </a></p><p><u><a href="http://www.argusmedia.com/Info/General/News" target="_TOP"> Request more information </a></u> about Argus' energy and commodity news, data and analysis services. </p><p><i> Copyright © 2015 Argus Media Ltd - <a href="http://www.argusmedia.com/" target="_TOP"> www.argusmedia.com </a> - All rights reserved. </i></p></article>
