The U.S.' natural gas processing plant capacity increased by around 5 percent between 2014 and 2017, the country's Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a statement on Thursday.
This increase is despite the fall in the number of natural gas processing plants in the U.S.' Lower 48 states, excluding Alaska and Hawaii, the EIA shows.
Between those years, utilization rates in gas processing plants stayed constant at 66 percent, the EIA said.
There were a total of 510 active natural gas processing plants in the Lower 48 states, as of the end of 2017, with a total processing capacity of 80.8 billion cubic feet (2.29 million cubic meters) per day, it said.
On average, these plants processed about 53.3 billion cubic feet (1.51 million cubic meters) of gas per day operating at about 66 percent of capacity, it added.
The EIA explained that gas plants operate less than their full capacity for various reasons, such as transportation constraints, change in production volumes, and regional economics.
The highest amount of change in natural gas processing capacity between 2014 and 2017 was seen in the state of Texas, according to the EIA.
This was followed by the states of West Virginia and Oklahoma, while the least amount of change was seen in the state of California.
By Ovunc Kutlu
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr