U.S. Feb natgas production jumps 10 pct yr/yr -EIA

NEW YORK, April 30 (Reuters) - U.S. gross natural gas production in February rose more than 1.6 percent from January and more than 10 percent from the same year-ago month, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

In its EIA-914 Monthly Natural Gas Production Report, EIA said "wet" gas output in the lower 48 states climbed to 61.28 billion cubic feet per day in February, up nearly 1 bcf per day from January levels and nearly 6 bcf per day higher than in February 2007.

The data presented by EIA are gross estimates and are the basis for calculating marketed production after subtracting gas used for repressuring, quantities vented and flared, and nonhydrocarbon gases removed in treating or processing operations.

EIA said all areas reported increases for February, but Texas had the biggest year-on-year gain, accounting for almost half of the total, primarily due to strong output from Barnett Shale production in North Texas.

The monthly increase continued a 13-month upward trend in domestic production resulting from strong, successful drilling, EIA said in the report.

In a report early this month, EIA estimated that marketed production of U.S. natural gas in 2008 would be up 1.6 bcf per day, or 2.9 percent, but some industry analysts expect the increase to be much larger, as strong gains from deepwater Gulf of Mexico wells and unconventional supply sources like shale gas keep output growing at a brisk pace. (Reporting by Joe Silha; Editing by Walter Bagley)