The US overtook Russia as the world’s largest natural-gas producer last year as operators tapped unconventional resources while demand in Russia plunged amid the country’s worst economic decline on record.

“Minimal hurricane disruptions and significant growth in production from onshore shale basins have contributed to the increase in domestic supply,” the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Agency said on its Web site last month.

Russia’s annual gas output fell 12% to 582 billion cubic metres compared to last year. Demand for gas in Russia, the world’s largest user of the fuel after the US, contracted last year along with the economy. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said 30 December that annual gross domestic product declined 8.5%, the most since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Industrial output fell about 11.5%, the Russian Economy Ministry said last month.

Read more: Upstream Online [1]