US natural gas producers are making cautious preparations to raise their output to meet steady growth in the nation’s LNG export capacity and ensure they are ready to satisfy future demand for gas-fired power to keep data centers humming 24-7. During recent earnings calls, major gas-focused upstream companies talked about holding production steady or pushing it moderately higher in the coming quarters to meet growth in near-term demand — and to be ready to reap the benefits if some of the rosier long-term forecasts prove accurate. The number of rigs drilling for gas in the US recently rose to a two-year high, but gas prices remain volatile despite producers’ efforts to persuade the market that their production won’t race ahead of demand at the first sign of firmer pricing. “If you think about where we are in the broader scheme of the year, on the macro, demand is still growing pretty attractively,” Expand Energy CEO Nick Dell’Osso said during the company’s most recent earnings call. Expand, the largest US gas producer, increased its production from 6.8 billion cubic feet of gas equivalent per day in the first quarter of 2025 to 7.2 Bcfe/d in the second and will keep it at that level through the end of the year before raising it to 7.5 Bcfe/d in 2026. Meanwhile, Appalachian Basin pure plays EQT and Range Resources kept their second-quarter output relatively flat, while Haynesville player Comstock Resources added a drilling rig to allow it to grow production into the end of 2026. US gas prices have dipped over the past few months, with the Nymex front-month September futures contract recently falling below $3 per million Btu on a mix of factors including mild weather, robust production and growing LNG demand. However, the December and January contracts have been trading above $4/MMBtu because the market is expected to tighten. Expand’s Dell’Osso said he was not too bothered by recent price volatility.
