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Butler County is third in state for natural gas production

Pennsylvania has been named the nation’s second-largest producer of natural gas for the fourth year in a row, according to a report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The group, which monitors energy production and consumption statistics across the country, said Pennsylvania produced nearly 5.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in 2016, nearly all of it from unconventional wells tapping into the Marcellus Formation.

Pennsylvania is second only to Texas in terms of natural gas production.

And Butler County is playing a big part. The County is one of the region’s leaders in natural gas production, according to online information kept by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection.

For 2016, the department reported, unconventional natural gas wells in Butler County produced more than 170 billion cubic feet of natural gas — 3.34 percent of the 5.1 trillion cubic feet produced by unconventional gas wells across the state.

That’s the third-most of any county in Western Pennsylvania, according to the DEP. Only Washington County (838.9 billion cubic feet) and Greene County (693.8 billion cubic feet) produced more natural gas with unconventional wells last year. Those two counties produced more than 30 percent of the state’s natural gas in 2016.

According to state data Butler County’s unconventional well production has increased every year since 2011, the first full year DEP began breaking out unconventional well production from its annual oil and gas reports.

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