(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE—In this file photo from March 12, 2020, work continues at a shale gas well drilling site in St. Mary’s, Pa. Pennsylvania attorney general Josh Shapiro is scheduled to release results on Thursday June 25, 2020 of a grand jury investigation into natural gas hydraulic fracturing. The fracking process has raised environmental concerns while turning the state into a major energy producer. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Harrisburg, PA) The production of natural gas in Pennsylvania went up by 5.1%, which is the biggest increase in the state since 2021. The annual natural gas production report from the Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) in Harrisburg released on Wednesday found that 7.76 billion cubic feet of production and 446 new wells begun in 2025. The volume for natural gas production increased all year and the number of wells were a higher amount beginning in the second quarter, even as the average price in Pennsylvania was the highest in the first quarter at a total of $3.69 per thousand British Thermal Units. $2.83 per thousand British Thermal Units was the average price in 2025, which was up 70% from a year ago. According to the IFO, the number of new wells that began in Pennsylvania was the first increase in annual totals since 2022.