This is just the beginning. Should not have sold the TorquayRecord natural gas productionfrom the Marcellus shale deposit in the Northeast is helping send U.S. output to an all-time high, as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling unlocked underground supplies.
Gross output from the region will average 15.235 billion cubic feet a day this month, up 28 percent from a year earlier, and 15.482 billion in August, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said yesterday in a monthly report. Marcellus gas accounts for about 16 percent of gross U.S. production, up from 2 percent in 2008.
Marcellus supplies are contributing to record U.S. output, a change from six years ago, when federal regulators were evaluating plans for gas import terminals to make up for a domestic shortfall and cut prices. Exports from the Gulf Coast are now scheduled to start next year as prices that have dropped 70 percent since July 2008 make the fuel attractive to overseas consumers.
“This is the latest round of big numbers from the Marcellus,”Martin King, an analyst with FirstEnergy Capital Corp. in Calgary, said in a phone interview yesterday. “There is more focus on supply and how that is weighing on prices.”