Ethane production at U.S. natural gas processing plants, which has been growing annually since 2017, rose to just above 2.5 million barrels per day (b/d) in March, and it has remained above 2.4 million b/d since then. In EIA's August Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), they forecast average ethane production to grow by 9% to over 2.6 million b/d in the second half of 2022. The forecast 2022 annual production exceeds 2021 production by 16%, or 340,000 b/d.