U.S. natural gas-directed rigs decreased for second consecutive year in 2024
The number of rigs deployed to drill for natural gas in the United States decreased over the last two years. U.S. natural gas-directed rigs decreased 32% (50 rigs) between December 2022 and December 2024. This decline has been concentrated in the natural gas-rich Haynesville and Appalachia regions, where the combined natural gas rig count declined by 34% during 2023 (43 rigs) and by 24% during 2024 (21 rigs). The decline in drilling rigs coincides with record-low natural gas prices for most of 2024 and the wider adoption of advanced drilling and completion technologies.
Read More ›Tags: natural gas, rig count, Haynesville, Henry Hub
Refinery closures and rising consumption will reduce U.S. petroleum inventories in 2026
In 2026, we forecast that inventories of the three largest transportation fuels in the United States—motor gasoline, distillate fuel oil, and jet fuel—will fall to their lowest levels since 2000 in our February Short-Term Energy Outlook.
Read More ›Pipeline companies deliver most of the U.S. electric power sector's natural gas
Note: Other includes deliveries from storage, renewable natural gas, and liquefied natural gas facilities.
According to our Natural Gas Annual Respondent Query System, 1,653 natural gas delivery companies delivered natural gas to end-use customers in 2023 in the United States. A delivery company is defined as any entity that delivers natural gas directly to end users. Natural gas deliveries by pipeline companies to the electric power sector made up the largest share of deliveries to end-use consumers, accounting for 33% of all natural gas delivered to end-use consumers in 2023.
Read More ›Tags: pipelines, electricity, generation, natural gas
Planned retirements of U.S. coal-fired electric-generating capacity to increase in 2025
Electricity generators plan to retire 12.3 gigawatts (GW) of capacity in 2025, a 65% increase in retirements compared with 2024. Last year, 7.5 GW was retired from the U.S. power grid, the least generation retired since 2011, according to data reported to us in our latest inventory of electric generators. Coal generating capacity accounts for the largest share of planned capacity retirements (66%), followed by natural gas (21%).
Read More ›Tags: coal, natural gas, generation, electricity, retirements, liquid fuels, map, oil/petroleum, capacity
Solar, battery storage to lead new U.S. generating capacity additions in 2025
We expect 63 gigawatts (GW) of new utility-scale electric-generating capacity to be added to the U.S. power grid in 2025 in our latest Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory report. This amount represents an almost 30% increase from 2024 when 48.6 GW of capacity was installed, the largest capacity installation in a single year since 2002. Together, solar and battery storage account for 81% of the expected total capacity additions, with solar making up over 50% of the increase.
Read More ›Tags: natural gas, generation, electricity, storage, wind, solar, map, capacity
Average state tax rates for retail gasoline and diesel fuel nearly flat since July 2024
As of January 1, 2025, state taxes and fees on gasoline and diesel fuel averaged $0.33 per gallon (gal) of gasoline and $0.35/gal of diesel fuel, according to our table on federal and state motor fuel taxes. Since July 2024, average taxes on both gasoline and diesel have remained nearly flat, increasing less than half of one cent each.
Read More ›Residential energy expenditures have increased with colder weather and higher prices
Data values: Winter Fuels Outlook
Residential energy expenditures for homes heating with natural gas and propane for the current winter (November through March) have grown, and now we expect them to total 10% more than last winter. In our initial Winter Fuels Outlook forecasts published in October 2024, we had expected that homes mainly heating with natural gas would spend between 2% less or 7% more this winter than last, depending on weather conditions. As the winter has progressed and energy prices and consumption have increased beyond our initial expectations, we have revised these forecasts upward.
Read More ›Consumption of renewable diesel continues general growth trend on the U.S. West Coast
Note: Renewable diesel consumption, which is defined as renewable diesel product supplied plus refinery and blender net inputs, is inflated because we do not collect renewable diesel export data. The difference between consumption and the sum of production, imports, and receipts reflects inventory changes.
Renewable diesel is increasingly replacing petroleum diesel on the U.S. West Coast, where state-level policies are attracting new production capacity and shipments to the region. The fuel continues to mostly be consumed in California but is also making up a substantial share of Oregon’s and Washington’s smaller distillate pools, according to quarterly data published by California, Oregon, and Washington.
Read More ›Tags: consumption/demand, renewables, Oregon, diesel, California, states, biofuels, Washington
Petroleum liquids supply growth driven by non-OPEC+ countries in 2025 and 2026
Data values: Non-OPEC Petroleum and Other Liquids Production
Note: The OPEC and OPEC+ data series reflect those countries participating in the OPEC+ agreement. OPEC members Iran, Libya, and Venezuela are exempt from the agreement. Years 2025 and 2026 are forecasts.
We forecast that worldwide production of petroleum and other liquids in 2025 and 2026 will grow more in non-OPEC+ countries than in OPEC+ countries in our February Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO). We estimate that total world petroleum and other liquids supply increased by about 0.6 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2024 and will increase by 1.9 million b/d in 2025 and 1.6 million b/d in 2026. Increasing crude oil production from four countries in the Americas—the United States, Guyana, Canada, and Brazil—drives this growth. Because of ongoing production restraint among OPEC+ countries, we forecast the group’s production to grow by 0.1 million b/d in 2025 and 0.6 million b/d in 2026.
Read More ›The cost of transporting coal to the U.S. electric power sector fell slightly in 2023
We released new data on the U.S. electric power sector’s coal transportation costs. The release incorporates final data for 2023 from Form EIA-923, which we collect from electric power plant owners and operators. The data release based on our Form EIA-923 includes tables with costs, in nominal and real (2023) dollars, across regions, states, and modes of transportation. These transportation rates are calculated as a weighted average of the difference between the commodity cost and total delivered cost of coal shipments to plants in the electric power sector. In addition, the rates are based on the primary transport mode that a plant's owner or operator selects, but they may include other secondary or tertiary modes.
Read More ›Tags: coal, electricity, generation, rail, power plants
China’s crude oil imports decreased from a record as refinery activity slowed
Slower oil demand growth in 2024 led to less crude oil processed by China’s refineries and fewer crude oil imports compared with the record high set in 2023. China, the world’s largest importer of crude oil, received 11.1 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2024, down from 11.3 million b/d in 2023. Even though total imports decreased about 2%, imports from some countries increased while others decreased.
Read More ›Recent cold snap results in fourth-largest withdrawal from underground natural gas storage
Note: Weekly net changes in natural gas storage are netted across the East, Midwest, Mountain, Pacific, and South-Central regions.
Colder-than-normal temperatures across much of the United States in mid-January increased natural gas consumption, resulting in the fourth-largest reported weekly withdrawal from natural gas storage in the Lower 48 states, according to our Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report (WNGSR). During the week ending January 24, 2025, stocks fell by 321 billion cubic feet (Bcf), which was nearly 70% more than the five-year (2020–24) average withdrawal for the same week in January. With withdrawals in January totaling nearly 1,000 Bcf, U.S. natural gas inventories are now 4% below their previous five-year average after being 6% above the five-year average at the start of the 2024–25 heating season, which began in November.
Read More ›Tags: weather, natural gas, storage
Natural gas-fired power plants have different owner types
Note: IPP=independent power producer
Natural gas-fired generating plants in the United States can be categorized by different ownership type, which can influence where individual plants are located, as well as how they operate and even the way fuel is purchased. Those different owners, through the investments they have made, have been instrumental in making natural gas the single-largest source used to generate electricity in the United States, with a 43% share of both capacity and energy output. EIA collects data for the different ownership types of natural gas-fired power plants.
Read More ›Tags: power plants, electricity, generation, natural gas
Rarely used oil, coal helped power New England during recent cold snap
Note: EST=eastern standard time
Below average temperatures in the eastern United States during the week of January 19, 2025, resulted in high demand for electricity. On January 21 at 6:00 p.m. eastern time, ISO-New England (ISO-NE), the organization operating an integrated grid in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, recorded peak hourly demand of 19,600 megawatts (MW). Although demand was elevated, it was lower than the 20,308 MW that ISO-NE forecast peak demand would be in its 2024/2025 winter assessment published on November 7, 2024. Temperatures were more moderate in New England than in the Midwest, which tempered electricity demand somewhat in New England.
Read More ›U.S. coal exports reached a six-year record in June 2024
Gross U.S. coal exports in June 2024 totaled 10 million short tons, the most in a month since October 2018, data from our Short-Term Energy Outlook data browser show. Annual average U.S. coal exports were 9.0 million short tons in 2024. U.S. coal exports have increased each year since 2020, when they averaged 5.8 million short tons amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read More ›Tags: coal, exports/imports