US gas output hits fresh record in July: EIA

US gross natural gas output hit another record high in July as producers developed gas-rich formations in the northeast and shored up new supplies of oil from fields in Texas and North Dakota.

Gross gas production from the lower-48 states — which includes volumes that do not reach market — rose in July to 92.7 Bcf/d (2.6bn m³/d), up by 1.9pc, or about 1.8 Bcf/d from June, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said today in its monthly production report. July output was 12pc higher than a year earlier.

Gas production has surged this year as new pipelines allowed more gas in the Appalachian region to reach market; lower development costs spurred more drilling in Louisiana's Haynesville shale; and crude prices continued to support drilling in the Permian basin and other oil-rich areas.

US gas output has been in the spotlight this year. Rising gas demand for exports and at power plants have left inventories of the fuel at low levels and could leave the US market more dependent on production rather than stockpiles to meet demand for heating this winter.

Gas output from Texas, the state with the highest gas production, rose in July to 24.6 Bcf/d, up by 1.5pc from June and 9.9pc higher than a year earlier, the EIA said.

North Dakota gas production, a byproduct of crude output from the Bakken formation, increased in July to 2.4 Bcf/d, a 3.9pc gain from July and a rise of 26pc from a year earlier.

Production from Louisiana, home to a portion of the Haynesville shale, increased by 3.3pc in July to top 8 Bcf/d, a year-over-year increase of 49pc.

Production from Pennsylvania and Ohio, which sit atop parts of the Marcellus and Utica shales, rose by 3pc and 4.3pc, respectively, to nearly 17 Bcf/d and 6.5 Bcf/d. Output from West Virginia, another key producing state in Appalachia, fell to 4.6 Bcf/d in July, down by 4.4pc from a month earlier, the EIA said.