The Natural Gas Supply Association reports U.S. producers used 91.5% of their capacity to deliver gas to the marketplace in 1994, more than in any previous year and up from 90.2% in 1993.
Phil Budzik, NGSA technical analysis director, said, "Producers have made significant progress in removing the excess inventory or 'gas bubble' problem. In the first year we reported the results of the deliverability survey, producers used only 81% of their 1988 capacity.
"Today, we are operating much closer to the equipment's practical utilization. That helps us reduce our per unit cost of production and remain a low cost energy supplier in today's highly competitive energy market."
Use of capacity rose because gas deliveries exceeded an increase in productive capacity.
Fields in the Gulf of Mexico posted the largest regional increase in gas deliveries, rising 11% in 1994 compared with 1993.
The Anadarko basin rose 3.8% and the San Juan basin 2.6%. The Permian basin dropped 2.3%, the Rocky Mountain/Pacific region 2.2%, and the East/North Central region 2%.
NGSA's deliverability survey uses field capacity as a measure of potential supply. When well downtime for maintenance and the like is taken into consideration, the result is the maximum feasible capacity, the amount of gas an operator can produce from a field. In 1994, producers reported a maximum feasible capacity of 94.6%.
NGSA said 106 gas producers, representing 58% of U.S. Lower 48 gas production in 1994, responded to the survey.