U.S. natural gas production and demand will both rise to record highs in 2022 as the economy grows, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its Short Term Energy Outlook (STEO) .

EIA projected that dry gas production will rise to 96.23 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in 2022 and 99.98 bcfd in 2023 from a record 93.55 bcfd in 2021.

The agency also projected gas consumption would rise from 82.98 bcfd in 2021 to 85.85 bcfd in 2022 before sliding to 85.38 bcfd in 2023. That compares with a record 85.29 bcfd in 2019.

EIA’s supply projection for July 2022 was lower than its June forecast of 96.50 bcfd, while its demand projection was higher than its June forecast of 85.33 bcfd.

The agency forecast U.S. liquefied natural gas exports would reach 10.85 bcfd in 2022 and 12.69 bcfd in 2023, up from a record 9.76 bcfd in 2021. That was lower than its June forecast of 11.94 bcfd in 2022 due to the ongoing Freeport LNG outage in Texas.

EIA projected U.S. coal production would rise from 578 million short tons in 2021 to 595 million short tons in 2022 as power companies burn more coal due to an expected rise in U.S. gas prices and higher demand for the fuel overseas.

Coal output was expected to slide to 594 million short tons in 2023.

In 2020, coal output fell to 535 million short tons, its lowest since 1965.

As the economy grows, EIA projected carbon emissions from fossil fuels would rise to 4.945 billion tonnes in 2022 from 4.873 billion tonnes in 2021, before sliding to 4.928 billion tonnes in 2023.

That compares with 4.577 billion tonnes in 2020, which was the lowest since 1983 because the coronavirus pandemic depressed demand for energy.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Scott DiSavino, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Tomasz Janowski)