Natural gas production in August in the Lower 48 states of 65.79 Bcf/d marked a 1.8% increase over July and nearly a 5% increase over August a year ago, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its monthly report. Production from the federal offshore Gulf of Mexico (GOM) advanced for the first time in six months.

Total Lower 48 production has posted fairly steady gains since August a year ago when it was 62.83 Bcf/d.

GOM production was up 6.4% in August over July, going from 5.82 Bcf/d to 6.19 Bcf/d. Gulf output had been sliding since it registered 680 Bcf/d in February. Offshore production a year ago in August was 6.86 Bcf/d, EIA said.

All other reporting areas in the Lower 48, except Oklahoma, posted gains.

Louisiana production in August of 6.43 Bcf/d represented nearly a 50% jump over year-ago August production of 4.33 Bcf/d. Louisiana’s August production was up by 3.4% or 0.21 Bcf/day over July, led by new wells coming online in the Haynesville Shale and other areas of the state, EIA said.

Texas, the largest producer, gained only 0.4% over the previous month, producing 20.64 Bcf/d. Texas production has been hovering just above and below the 20 Bcf/d mark for the last year.

Wyoming production was up 1.5% over the previous month to 6.83 Bcf/d, on par with its production a year ago. New Mexico gained 0.3% over July 2010 to 3.80 Bcf/d, but slipped from 4.01 Bcf/d during August 2009. Oklahoma was down 0.2% from July 2010 to 5.02 Bcf/d, which was also below the year-ago total of 5.13 Bcf/d.

Production from all other states in the Lower 48 was up 2.4% from July 2010 to 16.88 Bcf/d in August 2010, which was also nearly a 13% increase from August a year ago when production was 14.97 Bcf/d. The EIA monthly report included slightly revised figures for July 2010.

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