Associated natural gas production in major U.S. shale plays declined in 2020, following three years of growth, according to a recent report by the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Between 2016 and 2019, associated gas production in the combined five major U.S. onshore crude oil-producing regions comprising the Permian, Bakken, Eagle Ford, Niobrara and Anadarko grew at its most rapid pace (6.1 Bcf/d). However, as the demand for crude oil decreased last year following responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, both crude oil and associated gas production in the U.S. declined, the EIA noted in its report on Aug. 23.
Only the Permian Basin increased its production of both crude oil and associated gas in 2020, the EIA said, but these increases did not offset declines in both crude oil and associated gas production in the other four regions.
In 2020, the Permian region, which spans parts of West Texas and eastern New Mexico, produced 50% of total U.S. associated gas.
“Some of this increase in associated gas production can be attributed to greater natural gas takeaway capacity in the Permian region,” the EIA wrote in its report.
Overall, the share of associated gas produced in the combined five regions (Permian, Bakken, Eagle Ford, Niobrara and Anadarko) declined by 1.5% year-over-year and averaged 37.7% of natural gas production in the regions.
U.S. associated gas production averaged 14.2 Bcf/d in 2020 (a 4.1% decline from 2019) amid a drop in oil production in these regions.
Despite the decline last year in associated gas, years of rising associated gas production in the U.S. led to record high volumes in 2020 of natural gas plant liquids such as ethane, propane, normal butane, isobutane and natural gasoline production, driven by high ethane demand.
“Ethane consumption has been growing steadily both domestically and through exports since 2014,” the EIA added.
Recommended Reading
Defeating the ‘Four Horsemen’ of Flow Assurance
2024-04-18 - Service companies combine processes and techniques to mitigate the impact of paraffin, asphaltenes, hydrates and scale on production—and keep the cash flowing.
Tech Trends: AI Increasing Data Center Demand for Energy
2024-04-16 - In this month’s Tech Trends, new technologies equipped with artificial intelligence take the forefront, as they assist with safety and seismic fault detection. Also, independent contractor Stena Drilling begins upgrades for their Evolution drillship.
AVEVA: Immersive Tech, Augmented Reality and What’s New in the Cloud
2024-04-15 - Rob McGreevy, AVEVA’s chief product officer, talks about technology advancements that give employees on the job training without any of the risks.
Lift-off: How AI is Boosting Field and Employee Productivity
2024-04-12 - From data extraction to well optimization, the oil and gas industry embraces AI.
AI Poised to Break Out of its Oilfield Niche
2024-04-11 - At the AI in Oil & Gas Conference in Houston, experts talked up the benefits artificial intelligence can provide to the downstream, midstream and upstream sectors, while assuring the audience humans will still run the show.