U.S. gas consumption, production & exports rise in June

Dry natural gas production increased in June to 93.1 Bcf/d, up 5.4% from a year earlier, according to preliminary statistics released from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The same study showed that gross withdrawals for the month of June reached 113.2 Bcf/d, up 5.3% from a year earlier and the highest for the month since the EIA began tracking that data in 1980.

Marketed production for the same month was 101.0 Bcf/d, up 5.4% from a year earlier and the highest since the EIA began tracking this data since 1973. Total gas consumption in June was 73.9 Bcf/d, up 3.9% from a year earlier. Total consumption in June was the highest since the EIA began using its current definitions for consuming sectors in 2001.

When broken down by sector, demand increased in three of the four consumption sectors that the EIA tracks: commercial, industrial and electric power, the EIA reported.

Commercial consumption reached 4.4 Bcf/d, up 7.6%from a year earlier. Industrial consumption was 21.3 Bcf/d, up 5.4% from a year earlier. Consumption among electric power producers was 36.1 Bcf/d, up 3.4% from a year earlier.

Residential deliveries were the only one of four sectors that saw gas consumption fall in June. Residential deliveries reached 4.3 Bcf/d, down 5.9% from a year earlier, the EIA reported.

Total net gas exports, which shows exports less imports, was 10.9 Bcf/d in June, the highest since the agency began tracking imports and exports in 1973. The U.S. exported 2.6 times more natural gas than it imported in June.

Total exports were 17.9 Bcf/d, up 58.6% from a year earlier. Liquefied natural gas exports in June more than doubled from a year earlier, reaching the highest for the month since the agency began tracking LNG in 1997. In June, U.S. exporters sent 9.0 Bcf/d of LNG to 25 countries. Meanwhile, imports were 6.9 Bcf/d, up 10.7% from a year earlier, the EIA reported.