Administration

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said natural gas production in Pennsylvania increased 69% in 2012, despite a reduction in drilling activity.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Thursday that natural gas production in Pennsylvania increased 69% in 2012, despite a reduction in drilling activity.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) in its Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) reports has tended to underestimate natural gas production and growth, and consequently overestimate net gas imports as well, the agency said in a report issued Friday.

The big spenders for natural gas in 2011 were Texans who paid $14.7 billion at the burner tip, Californians who paid $14.4 billion and New Yorkers, who paid $11.2 billion, according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) tally, released earlier this month of 2011 state natural gas consumption statistics, which include residential, commercial, industrial, electric power and transportation customers.

The Obama administration should “take a timeout” on natural gas exports until economic, environmental and trade concerns “are thoroughly analyzed and carefully addressed,” said a coalition of environmental groups.

The big spenders for natural gas in 2011 were Texans who paid $14.7 billion at the burner tip, Californians who paid $14.4 billion and New Yorkers, who paid $11.2 billion, according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) tally, released last Friday of 2011 state natural gas consumption statistics, which include residential, commercial, industrial, electric power and transportation customers.

U.S. natural gas working inventories hit a record high in November of 3.923 Tcf, but domestic inventories ended January at an estimated 2.7 Tcf, or 0.2 Tcf below January 2012 levels, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said last week. The lower storage numbers were blamed in part on wellhead freeze-offs in several onshore basins.

As U.S. operators move onshore from the offshore, wellhead freeze-offs are becoming a bigger risk to natural gas supplies, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Tuesday in the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO).

Christopher A. Smith, the Obama administration’s point man on liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, shed little light last Monday at a national regulatory commissioners’ meeting on when the Department of Energy (DOE) will begin acting on pending applications for authorization to export natural gas to countries with which the United States does not have free trade agreements (FTA).