The latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), released Dec. 10, shows that five states accounted for more than 70% of record U.S. natural gas production this year and last, including a period when electricity generation from natural gas also reached new levels. summer highlights. The availability of domestic natural gas, along with increased demand for electricity from data centers and other technology-related ventures, is also driving the construction of new natural gas-fired power plants, with one analytics firm recently saying that more than 200 gas-fired units are under development across the U.S. That will record record production of natural gas is because gas-fired power plants are regularly used to balance the electricity grid, while more intermittent renewable energy, including wind and solar energy, is deployed. According to the EIA, the share of U.S. energy generation from natural gas during the summer months increased from 29% in 2014 to 45% this year. Officials with grid operator PJM Interconnection, which serves parts of the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, said Monday during a discussion about load forecasts for the region that they expect summer and winter peak loads to fall by 2% and 3% .2% per year will increase. on average through 2045, up from 1.6% and 1.8% growth respectively in last year’s forecast. The increase would mainly be caused by the power demand from data centers CURRENT Reportedly, this is likely to encourage the construction of more gas-fired electricity generation. Other grid areas, especially those in gas-producing regions, are looking at additional generation from gas-fired units. Corianna Mah, an analyst in the Power & Renewables group at Enverus, a leading energy analytics company, told CURRENT: “Enverus’ market benchmarking for natural gas-fired power plants indicates SPP are the most attractive markets for development [Southwest Power Pool]WEC [Western Electricity Coordinating Council]and ERCOT [Electric Reliability Council of Texas]. SPP stands out as the leading market for natural gas generation, driven by favorable electricity prices, low gas commodity costs, the absence of carbon pricing, higher expected price volatility and relatively low entry costs.” Officials in Austin, Texas, in the ERCOT territory, will Dec. 12 to vote on plans for a new natural gas plant in that city. NET Power, a Texas-based group, said Monday it had an agreement to build about 1 GW of new gas-fired capacity in California said the factories would use Carbon TerraVault’s carbon capture and storage technology.
New gas-fired production and record gas production
The EIA said in its report released Tuesday that the U.S. produced an average of 113 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas from January through August of this year, following record production of 113.1 Bcf/d in all of 2023. According to the report, the Permian region of Texas and New Mexico – where gas production is also affected by the price of crude oil – has led production this year, while shale gas extraction in Pennsylvania and Louisiana has driven production compared to the previous year due to lower natural gas prices. Domestic gas production is rising as U.S. energy producers continue to add more natural gas-fired capacity. Colorado-based analytics firm Yes Energy recently said that more than 200 gas-fired units were in various stages of development in the US, with the potential to add about 86 GW of electricity production by 2032. EIA has said it expects at least 7.7 GW of electricity. new gas-fired capacity will come online this year and next, after around 8.6 GW of capacity was added last year and 5.6 GW of new generation came online in 2022. The Agency said these additions include both combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) and simple gas turbine (SCGT) power plants, with most of these units built near natural gas producing areas in the Gulf Coast states and the Appalachia region. S&P Global Market Intelligence said in a May 2024 report that the data shows “U.S. utilities and investors plan to add 133 new natural gas-fired power plants to the national grid in the coming years.” CURRENT recently reported on Entergy Louisiana’s plan to build 2.2 GW of new gas-fired capacity in that state. Pennsylvania officials discussed earlier this month their plan to replace the state’s largest coal-fired power plant, which closed in 2023, with as much as 4 GW of gas-fired electricity generation.
States leading gas production
Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, West Virginia and Pennsylvania together produced about 73% of marketed natural gas in the U.S. this year, according to the EIA. Those five states produced about 72% of all U.S. marketed gas in 2023, led by Texas with 28%, followed by Pennsylvania (18%), Louisiana (10%), West Virginia (8%) and New Mexico (8%). . Texas’ figures include production from offshore platforms in state waters. Texas also produces oil and natural gas from the Permian and Haynesville plays. The Permian region, which is partly in New Mexico, has shown a marked increase in production because most Permian natural gas production comes from natural gas from oil wells. EIA wrote: “This means that producers are reacting to changes in crude oil prices rather than natural gas prices when planning their exploration and production activities,” with higher oil prices leading to higher production in recent years. The EIA states that “Louisiana’s marketed natural gas production, including offshore production from state waters, averaged 11.8 Bcf/d in 2023, an increase of 6% from 2022 and the most natural gas produced in Louisiana since 1996, despite low natural gas production. prices.” Louisiana’s production comes primarily from the Haynesville play, located in both Louisiana and Texas. The Haynesville supplies most of the natural gas going to the Gulf Coast’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals, and the market for producers there has gained support in recent years as the U.S. has become the world’s largest LNG exporter. The EIA said in Tuesday’s report that producers in the Haynesville and Appalachia regions “have production in 2024.” curtailed as they faced record low Henry Hub prices, which averaged $2.09 per million British thermal units through August 2024, and flat growth in demand from LNG export facilities” That comes after production in Pennsylvania (20. 9 Bcf/d) and West Virginia (8.9 Bcf/d) reached record highs in 2023. These states include the Marcellus and Utica shale gas plays in Appalachian Basin. —Darrel Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.
