Natural gas consumption in the industrial sector has grown slowly in recent years

In the industrial sector, natural gas consumption in the United States increased by 1.9% in 2021. In our November Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), we forecast that it will increase by 2.4% in 2022. We expect U.S. industrial consumption will reach record highs in 2022, which will reverse a multiyear downward trend caused by reduced economic activity that resulted from the pandemic. We expect a 3.4% decrease in natural gas consumption in the industrial sector in 2023, driven by a decline in the manufacturing production index as well as high natural gas prices.