WV oil and gas production reaches record high for tenth year

Natural WV oil and gas production gas production in the state rose to 1.8 trillion cubic feet in 2018 from 1.5 trillion cubic feet in 2017, a year-over-year increase of 17 percent.

West Virginia household consumes about 72 thousand cubic feet of natural gas per year,” she said. “We produce enough gas in one day to meet the needs of all West Virginians.”

Charlie Burd, executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia. Said the industry has come a long way in just over a decade. “We started developing horizontally in late 2007. In 2008, we only produced 256 billion cubic feet of natural gas,” he said. “That’s many more times now than then.”

Oil production in West Virginia grew nearly 60 percent, from 7.5 million barrels in 2017 to 12 million barrels in 2018. This is the largest amount of oil produced in the state since 1900, when West Virginia produced 16 million barrels, according to the DEP.

Doddridge County is the state’s most prolific natural gas producer at 434 billion cubic feet a year. 2018 production in Doddridge County increased 53 billion cubic feet over 2017 levels, growing by 14 percent year-over-year. In Tyler County, production grew by 59 percent to 272 billion cubic feet from 2017 to 2018. Making it the state’s second largest gas-producing county. Coming in third, Ritchie County saw production increase 26 percent from 2017 to 2018. Rising from 158 billion cubic feet to 200 billion cubic feet in the span of one year.