Lower 48 gas production in January climbed half a percent or 0.36 Bcf/d, to a record 72.85 Bcf/d, mainly thanks to production gains in states in the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) “other states” category.

In its Monthly Natural Gas Gross Production report, EIA said the other states contributed an increase of 0.38 Bcf/d, or 1.8%, which was partly due to continued drilling activity in the Marcellus Shale and Colorado. New Mexico was also up by 0.10 Bcf/d, or 2.8%.

According to the most recent NGI’s Shale Daily Unconventional Rig Count, the Marcellus Shale rig count fell by 3%, or four rigs, to 151 as of March 23.

The latest EIA report said Louisiana posted the greatest production decrease at 0.16 Bcf/d, or minus 1.8% as some operators reported curtailed production. In Texas production was flat compared with December’s level, which was revised to a 1.2% decline from November. Oklahoma saw its January production fall by 0.6% from December.

Production in the federal offshore Gulf of Mexico was flat with December. Wyoming was up 0.9%, and Alaska was up 3.4%.

In February in its previous report, EIA said production in the Lower 48 states declined by 0.2% to 72.54 Bcf/d in December from November’s record 72.68 Bcf/d (see Daily GPI, March 1). With its latest report, EIA revised the December figures to a decline of 0.3% and production of 72.49 Bcf/d.

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