Natural gas production in the Permian Basin is climbing faster than oil, according to a new U.S. Energy Information Administration report. Permian marketed gas output jumped 60% from 2021 to 2025, and the widening gas-oil ratio points to more of the same as the field matures.
Natural gas is outrunning oil in the Permian Basin, and the EIA expects the gap to keep growing. Marketed natural gas production in the region grew by 60% from 2021 to 2025, climbing from 17.2 billion cubic feet a day to 27.6 b/cfd. Over the same stretch, Permian crude oil production rose 39%, moving from 4.7 million barrels per day to 6.6 mb/d.
The gas-oil ratio keeps climbing
The EIA ties the faster gas growth to a rising gas-oil ratio, which has steadily increased over the last five years. According to the EIA: “The higher growth in natural gas production is the result of increasing gas-oil ratio”.
In 2025 the ratio averaged nearly 4,200 cubic feet of natural gas per barrel of oil, a 16% increase from 2021. The agency said the ratio will likely keep rising as the basin matures. A bottleneck has been created and the solutions are slow in coming.
Three states drive U.S. gas growth
The Permian shift fits a wider national trend. A similar report from the American Petroleum Institute shows U.S. gas production up 27% since January 2019, with Texas, New Mexico and West Virginia accounting for 94% of the net growth.
Texas has led on a volumetric basis, while New Mexico has led by percentage, surging 168% since 2019. Those three states now make up 47% of total U.S. natural gas production, up from 35% in early 2019. Texas and New Mexico, both anchored by the Permian, sit at the center of that natural gas shift.
Source: Oklahoma Energy Today
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