Natural Gas Production Flat in 2012

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

October 1, 2012 | 4:26 PM

The Energy Information Agency says after rising steadily for five years, natural gas production has flattened in the first six months of 2012. Aside from a sharp decline in October, 2008 as the economy began to collapse, the EIA says production levels increased consistently, reaching historical levels. But the agency says the decline in natural gas prices have leveled recent production.

“While production was higher for each month from January through July 2012 compared to the same month a year earlier, monthly production has remained close to its level at the end of 2011. Data for August 2012 will likely show a significant drop in average daily production as Hurricane Isaac shut in many offshore wells for several days.”

EIA screen shot

The EIA also says natural gas producers are moving away from tapping methane, and instead investing in the higher priced natural gas liquids like propane and ethane.