U.S. natural gas production increased by 10% in 2019, according to the Department of Energy and its Energy Information Administration.

Volumes were up by 9.8 billion cubic feet per day last year, which is slightly less than the increase of 10.5 Bcf/d in 2018.

Total gas production in 2019 reached 111.5 Bcf/d — the highest volume on record, when measured as gross withdrawals, according to the EIA.

It added that the output also broke a record when measured as marketed natural gas production (99.2 Bcf/) and dry natural gas production (92.2 Bcf/).

The U.S. hit the record-high natural gas gross withdrawal of 116.8 Bcf/ last November.

Marketed natural gas production and dry natural gas production also reached monthly highs of 103.6 Bcf/ and 96.4 Bcf/, respectively, in November 2019.

Gross withdrawals are the largest of the three measures because they include natural gas plant liquids and non-hydrocarbon gases after oil, lease condensate and water have been removed.

The EIA also reported that natural gas exports through pipelines and via liquefied natural gas (LNG) increased for the fifth straight year. Shipments reached an annual average of 12.8 Bcf/d in 2019.

LNG accounted for 2.0 Bcf/d of the 2.9 Bcf/d increase in gross natural gas exports in 2019.

The EIA said the U.S. continued to export more natural gas than it imported in 2019 and the net natural gas exports averaged 5.2 Bcf/d.

In 2019, the U.S. also exported more natural gas by pipeline than it imported for the first time since at least 1985, mainly because of increased pipeline capacity to send natural gas to Mexico and Canada.

EIA said the Appalachian Basin remains the No. 1 natural gas producing region with gross withdrawals of 32.1 Bcf/d in 2019, an increase of 12.2%.

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