In 2023, 89.1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas was consumed in the United States, the most on record. Since 2018, U.S. natural gas consumption has increased by an average of 4% annually.

In 2023, U.S. residential electricity bills increased by 2% each month compared with 2022. That growth rate was slower than inflation, which was 4.1% in 2023. Over the past decade, residential electricity prices have increased more slowly than overall inflation.

Last year, U.S. hydropower electricity generation fell to its lowest since 2001. This year, we expect hydropower to increase 6% and account for 250 billion kilowatthours of electricity generation in the power sector, based on forecasts in our Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO). We expect hydropower to increase in nearly every part of the country, with notable increases in the Southeast and in the Northwest and Rockies. We expect other regions with significant hydropower generation to either increase slightly, such as in New York, or remain about the same, such as California.

In our recently released Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), we forecast that U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports will continue to lead growth in U.S. natural gas trade as three LNG export projects currently under construction start operations and ramp up to full production by the end of 2025. We also forecast increased natural gas exports by pipeline, mainly to Mexico. In our STEO forecast, net exports of U.S. natural gas (exports minus imports) grow 6% from 2023 in 2024 to 13.6 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). In 2025, net exports increase another 20% to 16.4 Bcf/d.

China, the world's largest importer of crude oil, imported 11.3 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil in 2023, 10% more than in 2022, according to China customs data. Refiners in China imported record volumes of crude oil in 2023 to supply the country's increasing refining capacity in order to support the country's transportation fuel needs and produce feedstocks for its growing petrochemical industry.