Natural Gas

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The average prices of both crude oil and natural gas in the United States were the highest since 2008. Proved reserves of crude oil and natural gas hit record highs for the United States in 2022.

Oil highlights

• U.S. crude oil and lease condensate proved reserves increased 9% from 44.4 billion barrels to 48.3 billion barrels at year-end 2022 (Table 1).
• U.S. crude oil and lease condensate production increased 6% in 2022.
• In Texas, which has more proved reserves of crude oil and lease condensate than any other state, proved reserves increased 9% in 2022 (1.7 billion barrels), the largest net increase in any state (Table 6).
• In New Mexico, crude oil and lease condensate proved reserves increased 26%, the second-largest net increase (1.3 billion barrels). In North Dakota proved reserves increased 14%, the third-largest increase (0.6 billion barrels).
• The largest net decrease, 13%, in proved reserves of crude oil and lease condensate in 2022 was in California (225 million barrels) (Table 6).
• The 12-month, first-day-of-the-month average spot price for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil at Cushing, Oklahoma, increased by 43%, from $66.26 per barrel in 2021 to $94.54 per barrel in 2022.

Natural gas highlights

• Proved reserves of U.S. natural gas increased 10%, from 625.4 Tcf at year-end 2021 to 691.0 Tcf at year-end 2022, establishing a new record for natural gas proved reserves in the United States for a second consecutive year (Table 8).
• Natural gas proved reserves in Alaska increased 25% in 2022, raising that state’s total from 99.8 Tcf to 125.2 Tcf—the largest increase of all states in 2022.
• Texas had the second-largest increase in proved reserves of natural gas in 2022 (21.2 Tcf, or 14%), and New Mexico had the third-largest increase (9.9 Tcf, or 27%).
• The 12-month, first day-of-the-month average spot price for natural gas at the Louisiana Henry Hub increased by 71% in 2022, from $3.67 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in 2021 to $6.29/MMBtu in 2022, which was the highest annual average price since 2008.
• Operators in Pennsylvania reported the largest net decrease in proved reserves of natural gas in 2022 (652 billion cubic feet, or 0.6%).
• In 2022, U.S. natural gas exports were 6.9 Tcf, the highest volume on record.

Proved reserves are estimated volumes of hydrocarbon resources that analysis of geologic and engineering data demonstrates with reasonable certainty are recoverable under existing economic and operating conditions. Reserves estimates change from year to year because of:

• Price and cost changes
• New discoveries
• Thorough appraisals of existing fields
• Existing reserves production
• New and improved techniques and technologies

To prepare this report, we collect independently developed estimates of proved reserves with Form EIA-23L from a sample of U.S. operators of oil and natural gas fields. We use this sample to further estimate the portion of proved reserves from operators who do not report. This year, we received responses from 397 of 404 sampled operators, which provided coverage of about 90% of proved reserves of oil and 93% of proved reserves of natural gas at the national level. We develop estimates for reserves located in the United States, each state individually, and some state subdivisions. States and regions with subdivisions are:

• California
• Louisiana
• New Mexico
• Texas
• Federal Offshore Gulf of Mexico

New for Report Year 2022

We redesigned Form EIA-23L, Annual Report of Domestic Oil and Gas Proved Reserves, for the 2022 report year. Our goal was to reduce the respondent burden of collecting and reporting proved reserves information.

We collected reserves and production data for 2022 at the state, state-subdivision, state waters, and Federal Offshore waters levels in tabular format instead of at the county-level. We collected combined crude oil and lease condensate reserves and production data instead of separate categories. We collected natural gas reserves and production data without distinguishing between associated-dissolved and nonassociated. We stopped collecting reserves and production by three reservoir types (C=conventional, LP=low permeability, and SH=shale) and instead collected the combined total plus subtotals for identified major shale plays.

The term natural gas refers to wet after lease separation unless otherwise specified in this report. Natural gas, wet after lease separation is the volume of natural gas remaining after removal of lease condensate in lease and/or field separation facilities, if any, and after exclusion of nonhydrocarbon gases where they occur in sufficient quantity to render the gas unmarketable. The term divestitures is when a respondent transfers or sells proved reserves to other operators during the report year. In previous years, we used the term sales for this volume. We will continue to use the term acquisitions to describe when an operator purchases or receives a transfer of proved reserves from other operators during the report year.

Contact: Petroleum and Other Liquids Data, eiainfopetroleum@eia.gov