By Mark Jaffe, EUCI energy writer
The United States is set to produce a record amount of natural gas in 2026 – an average of 122.5 billion cubic feet a day – surpassing the 2025 record by 3.3%, according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA).
From 2009 through 2024, the most recent year for global production data is available, the U.S. was the world’s largest natural gas producer.
For the first half of 2026, marketed natural gas production averaged 121.3 billion cubic feet a day, about 4% more than the first six months of in 2025.
The Permian Basin in western Texas and New Mexico and the Haynesville Basin in Louisiana and Texas accounted for most of the production.
The Permian is one of the most prolific unconventional oil- and natural gas-producing regions in the world.
Operators in the region are increasing that productivity by drilling longer horizontal wells including increasingly using so-called super-lateral wells that exceed 15,000 feet, and are getting more oil and gas out of the ground.
“Longer lateral wells allow operators to contact significantly more reservoir rock with each well, maximizing production while keeping well counts, and therefore overhead costs, down,” the EIA said.
Laterals of fewer than 5,000 feet were common, making up 43% of the wells completed in 2015. By 2025, they made up 4% of horizontal wells.
The number of new wells being drilled has remained relatively stable, the increasing length of the laterals has boosted combined production of oil and gas, measured in barrel oil equivalent (BOE) per day, has grown 284% in the past decade to 11.2 million BOE per day.
Natural gas production in the region is driven by oil output with the gas an associated product. So as oil prices rise, so does natural gas production in the basin.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil prices rose from $65 a barrel in 2025 to $85 a barrel in July 2026 – surpassing the region’s break-even price – the price where production costs are covered by the market.
The EIA is forecasting that Permian gas production will average 29.2 billion cubic feet a day in 2026, a 6% increase over 2025.
In the Haynesville Basin, natural gas production increased by 1.1 billion cubic feet a day, or 7%, in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025.
“Drilling in the Haynesville formation—which, at 10,500 feet to 13,500 feet deep, is one of the deepest in the U.S. Lower 48 states—has higher development costs associated with drilling deeper wells,” the EIA said.
Unlike the Permian, where operators are drilling primarily for oil, the Haynesville is a gas play, and production is driven by benchmark natural gas wholesale prices at the Henry Hub.
The EIA forecasts a 2% drop in Henry Hub spot prices in 2026 to an average of $3.44 per million British thermal units. “At this forecast price, drilling in the Haynesville remains economical despite the relatively deeper wells and more expensive development costs,” the agency said.
The Haynesville shale is also close to liquefied natural gas export terminals and major industrial natural gas consumers along the U.S. Gulf Coast.
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