Report: Pa. natural gas production grew in 2019 but at lower rate
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Total natural gas production in Pennsylvania grew by 7.6% in the fourth quarter of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018 — the lowest growth rate in more than two years, a report by the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office said.
Pennsylvania remains the second-highest natural gas producing state after Texas, with 6.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas produced in 2019, the Natural Gas Production Report said.
“Through November 2019, nationwide (natural gas) production grew by 10.2% compared to the prior year, largely driven by significant gains in Texas and Pennsylvania,” the report said.
Production volume for horizontal wells in the fourth quarter of 2019 reached 1,775 billion cubic feet, the report said. All of the production growth for the quarter was from unconventional wells — i.e., wells requiring horizontal drilling into deep formations and fracturing with fluids.
Horizontal well production in Pennsylvania has grown for 14 consecutive quarters, but average production-per-well growth moderated in 2019, the report said.
There were 9,319 producing horizontal wells in the state in the fourth quarter of 2019 — an 8.3% increase over the previous year. Since the fourth quarter of 2017, total producing wells increased by 18.2%, the report said.
Southwestern Pennsylvania has four of the top 10 natural gas producing counties in the state — Washington (No. 2), Greene (No. 3), Butler (No. 8) and Allegheny (No. 10), the report said.
Allegheny County, although representing only 2.1% of the production volume in the state, had the highest rate of production growth — 34.4% — from 2018 to 2019, the report said.
The IFO report is based on data from the state Department of Environmental Protection.