FILE – A man wears a face mark as he fishes near docked oil drilling platforms, on May 8, 2020, in Port Aransas, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
Federal energy forecasters expect natural gas production to decline in the Gulf of Mexico in 2023 even though a suite of new projects is coming online this year.
Most of the natural gas produced offshore in the Gulf is what’s known as “associated gas” – or, the gas that’s released when drilling for oil. New projects are focused on supporting crude oil production, which is expected to stay relatively flat, according to the short-term energy outlook from the Department of Energy’s statistics and analysis administration.
Meanwhile, natural gas production in the Gulf will average 2.1 billion cubic feet per day in 2023, down from 2.2 this year, because the gas associated with new oil drilling will naturally decline over time.
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“Today, most of the natural gas produced in the Gulf of Mexico comes from associated-dissolved natural gas production in oil fields instead of natural gas fields,” the report said. “In 2020, gross withdrawals of natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico that came from natural gas wells accounted for less than 30 percent of total Gulf natural gas production, compared with 80 percent in 2003. Since the late 1990s, new development in the Gulf has primarily targeted oil-bearing reservoirs.”
Overall the U.S. averages more than 90 billion cubic feet of natural gas production per day. To power a regular home for one day it would take around 325 cubic feet of natural gas.
Kyra Buckley is an energy reporter for the Houston Chronicle.
Kyra specifically covers the region’s oil and gas companies, focusing on drilling and oil field services. Before joining the Chronicle’s business desk in April 2022, Kyra covered energy at Houston Public Media for two years. She previously worked at NPR member stations in Colorado and Oregon, and is a 2015 graduate from the University of Oregon in journalism and political science.
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Gulf of Mexico natural gas production set to decline next year, oil to remain flat – Houston Chronicle
