Gross US natural gas output falls in May: EIA

OREANDA-NEWS. August 03, 2015. Natural gas production fell in May, signaling that low prices and pipeline maintenance curbed output from key producing states.

Gross output from the 48 contiguous US states — which includes gas that does not make it to market — dropped to 81.06 Bcf/d (2.3bn m?/d), down by 1.2pc from April but up by 4.5pc from a year earlier, according to the US Energy Information Administration's (EIA) monthly production report.

Production from large gas-producing states such as Texas and Pennsylvania fell in May as producers reined in gas field development because of low prices.

Output from Pennsylvania, which sits atop the mammoth Marcellus shale natural gas field, dropped in May by 3.7pc to 12.61 Bcf/d. Production has surged in that state, but producers there began choking back some Marcellus production this year because of low prices and pipeline constraints. Spot prices at Tennessee Gas Pipeline zone 4 in the Marcellus are among the lowest in the country, averaging \\$1.27/mmBtu over the past week.

In Texas, producers have dialed back drilling in large gas-producing areas such as the Eagle Ford shale and the Permian basin because of low energy prices. Output from Texas, the biggest producing state by volume, fell in May by 1.1pc to 24 Bcf/d, the EIA said.

But production did increase in West Virginia and Ohio, where producers are developing the Utica shale. Producers such as EQT and Consol Energy have recently announced prolific new wells that tap the Utica.

Ohio output in May rose by 6.5pc from April to 2.5 Bcf/d, while production from West Virginia, where the Utica and Marcellus overlap, increased by 1pc to 3.74 Bcf/d, the EIA said.