Despite the pandemic slump, production from the Beast in the East shows no signs of slowing down.

Dry natural gas production from shale formations in the Appalachian Basin has shown growth since 2008 and monthly production set new record highs during the first half of the year, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Sept. 1.

The region recorded 32.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) production in December 2020, which averaged 31.9 Bcf/d during the first half of 2021—the highest average for a six-month period since production began in 2008. Gas production from Appalachia’s sibling shale plays Marcellus and Utica accounted for 34% of all U.S. dry natural gas production in the first half of 2021, making the Appalachian Basin the third-largest natural gas producer in the world, trailing only all of the U.S. and Russia.

The EIA attributes the basin’s record-breaking production to the growth in pipeline takeaway capacity that allows natural gas produced in the Appalachian Basin to reach other demand markets, especially the Midwest. The total takeaway capacity—which increased from 4.5 Bcf/d to 24.5 Bcf/d since 2008—has helped ease congestion, supporting higher wholesale natural gas prices in the region.

While the pipeline takeaway capacity from Appalachia to Canada and to the Southeast U.S. has also increased, recent expansions of pipeline capacity in the Southeast are also supporting export growth of U.S. LNG.

EIA Pipeline takeaway capacity

(Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. state-to-state pipeline capacity)

Although natural gas pipeline capacity out of the Northeast has grown every year since 2014, the EIA said the rate of increase has slowed recently, not keeping pace with the growth in regional production. The Mountain Valley Pipeline, which is the largest natural gas pipeline under construction, is currently set to startup in the summer of 2022.

One of several U.S. pipelines that have faced several delays due to regulatory and legal fights with environmental and local groups, the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which started construction in February 2018, had originally been expected to enter service by late 2018. 

Mountain Valley is a proposed underground, interstate natural gas pipeline system that spans approximately 303 miles from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia. The pipeline is designed to move 2 Bcf/d of natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale regions to markets in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast areas of the U.S. and is intended to further alleviate pipeline congestion.

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