U.S. natural gas wells produced a record 137 billion cubic feet per day in July 2026, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The measure is gross withdrawals, the volume of gas pulled out of the ground before anything is removed or burned off, and July was the first new monthly record of 2026.
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Which EIA series carries the 137 Bcf/d record
Gas production is reported on three different scales, and the 137 figure belongs to only one of them. In its Today in Energy note on the record, EIA says gross withdrawals “reached a record 137 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in July 2026.” The same series appears on EIA’s Natural Gas Gross Withdrawals data page, which reports the U.S. total in million cubic feet a month and shows 4,247,306 million cubic feet for July 2026. Spread across the 31 days of July, that monthly volume works out to 137.0 Bcf/d.
The state-level companion is the agency’s Natural Gas Monthly, whose Table 6 lists gross withdrawals for selected states and the Federal Gulf of America. The September 2026 issue, released September 30, carried the July data, and the next issue is scheduled for October 30.
Gross withdrawals, marketed production and dry gas are different numbers
EIA’s glossary defines gross withdrawals as the full well-stream volume of gas extracted at the wellhead, from both gas wells and oil wells. Marketed production is that volume minus the gas used for repressuring, vented and flared gas, and nonhydrocarbon gases removed. Dry production goes a step further and excludes natural gas plant liquids, leaving the consumer-grade gas that moves through pipelines to homes, power plants and export terminals.
Because each step subtracts something, the 137 Bcf/d figure sits above the other two. EIA says July 2026 also set all-time highs for marketed production and dry gas production, but its note does not give numbers for either, so no marketed or dry figure should be read from the gross record. A reader who sees 137 Bcf/d and assumes that much gas reached customers is overstating supply.
The scope has another consequence: because gross withdrawals count gas from oil wells as well as gas wells, a record can come from crude drilling as easily as from gas drilling. That matters in the Permian, where much of the gas arrives alongside oil. An EIA article on the basin put its 2025 marketed gas output at 27.6 Bcf/d, a different series covering one basin and one year, and it should not be set beside the national gross figure.
The Permian Basin and the pipelines behind the July jump
EIA attributes the growth primarily to increased output in the Permian Basin of western Texas and eastern New Mexico. Combined gross withdrawals in those two states rose by 1.7 Bcf/d, or 3.2%, from June to July 2026. Louisiana, Oklahoma and North Dakota each rose by more than 0.1 Bcf/d, which makes them smaller contributors to the record.
Two forces are at work in the Permian. New wells are one. The other is a rising gas-to-oil ratio: in an EIA analysis from June, the Permian ratio averaged nearly 4,200 cubic feet of gas per barrel of crude in 2025, up 16% from about 3,628 in 2021, because gas becomes easier to produce as reservoir pressure falls. Higher ratios mean gas output can climb even when oil drilling flattens.
Takeaway capacity matters just as much as drilling. EIA’s July note cites new pipelines easing Texas transport bottlenecks, including the Hugh Brinson Pipeline, which began interstate flows ahead of schedule. A May EIA review of pipeline plans found developers intend to add about 44.9 Bcf/d of new U.S. pipeline capacity across 2026 and 2027, with Texas accounting for 29.7 Bcf/d of it. The review lists Hugh Brinson at 2.2 Bcf/d in total, with its first phase expected in the fourth quarter of 2026, and Blackcomb at 2.5 Bcf/d over 365 miles from the Waha hub to the Agua Dulce hub, described as further clearing the Waha bottleneck. Waha is where constraints have depressed local gas prices.
How rare a monthly gross record has become
July’s high was the first new monthly gross-withdrawal record in 2026, following five record-setting months in 2025. That cadence is the more telling fact: records came five times in 2025, none arrived in the first half of this year, and July broke the pause. EIA’s note does not state the previous record’s value, so the size of the step up cannot be given from that source.
A single record month also does not settle the trend. EIA’s monthly data are revised as reports arrive, and the next Natural Gas Monthly on October 30 will bring August data, which will show whether July was a peak or a waypoint.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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