Wellheads across the United States pushed out 137 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day in July 2026, the highest daily rate the U.S. Energy Information Administration has recorded for gross withdrawals. EIA announced the milestone on Oct. 2 in its Today in Energy column, writing that gross withdrawals “reached a record 137 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in July 2026.”
It was the first new monthly record for gross withdrawals in 2026, and it followed five record-setting months in 2025.
Gross withdrawals versus marketed and dry gas
The record belongs to a specific measure. EIA’s glossary defines gross withdrawals as the full well-stream volume from oil and gas wells, including natural gas plant liquids and nonhydrocarbon gases once oil, lease condensate and water have been removed. The definition also counts production delivered as royalty payments and gas used as fuel on the lease, so the figure sits at the top of EIA’s three production measures and is the largest of them by a wide margin.
The same Today in Energy article says July 2026 also set all-time records for marketed production and dry gas production. EIA’s Natural Gas Monthly, whose latest release covers July, puts gross withdrawals at 4,247 Bcf for the month, or 137.00 Bcf/d, up 5.6 percent from July 2025. Dry gas came to 3,525 Bcf, or 113.71 Bcf/d, a gain of 5.3 percent from a year earlier. EIA’s state production table shows U.S. marketed production at 3.88 trillion cubic feet in July.
Texas and New Mexico lead the July gain
EIA attributes the monthly jump mainly to the Permian region of Texas and New Mexico, the oil basin whose associated gas has made it the second-largest gas-producing region in EIA’s 2025 ranking, behind Appalachia, at 27.7 Bcf/d, or 23 percent of the national total that year. Gross withdrawals in the two states increased by a combined 1.7 Bcf/d, or 3.2 percent, from June to July 2026. Gross withdrawals were also up in Louisiana, Oklahoma and North Dakota, each by more than 0.1 Bcf/d.
The state table shows how much weight Texas carries. Texas marketed production reached 1.16 trillion cubic feet in July, ahead of Pennsylvania at 647 billion cubic feet and New Mexico at 403 billion. Those three states alone account for about 2.2 trillion cubic feet of the 3.88 trillion cubic feet the U.S. marketed in the month. The table carries a caveat from EIA that production series data from 2021 forward are estimates.
Hugh Brinson Pipeline and Gulf Coast takeaway
EIA ties part of the gain to pipeline capacity. Its article says the Hugh Brinson Pipeline began interstate flows ahead of schedule this summer, easing constraints on moving Permian gas toward Gulf Coast liquefied natural gas export terminals. An earlier EIA review of new pipeline infrastructure for 2026 and 2027 listed Hugh Brinson at 2.2 Bcf/d of total capacity, with the first phase expected to begin flowing in the fourth quarter of 2026; the Oct. 2 article places the actual start earlier than that.
BIC Magazine reports that Energy Transfer’s Hugh Brinson system runs about 442 miles across 18 Texas counties, with the first phase targeted to reach its full 1.5 Bcf/d on Sept. 1, 2026, and added compression in a second phase able to lift throughput to 2.3 Bcf/d. The trade publication describes the line as a direct link between West Texas supply and demand centers in central and North Texas, where industrial facilities, power plants and data centers are leaning more heavily on natural gas.
Five record months in 2025 and the price signal
The July record extends a climb that EIA traced in its review of 2025. U.S. marketed production averaged 118.5 Bcf/d that year, 5.3 Bcf/d more than in 2024, with Appalachia at 36.6 Bcf/d, the Permian at 27.7 Bcf/d and the Haynesville at 14.9 Bcf/d. Those three regions made up 67 percent of output and 81 percent of the year’s growth.
EIA’s explanation is economic as much as geological. Production grew, the agency wrote, as a result of higher natural gas prices, continued gains in new-well productivity and increased operational efficiency; Henry Hub spot prices rose 60 percent in 2025 to $3.52 per million British thermal units.
The July number is a wellhead figure, and the gas that reaches pipelines is smaller: EIA’s Natural Gas Monthly puts dry production at 113.71 Bcf/d against 137.00 Bcf/d of gross withdrawals, a gap of about 23 Bcf/d between the two records.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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