In a year when the country’s natural-gas production went down, Ohio’s went up — way up.

The 2016 results, part of a government report issued this week, show that Ohio passed West Virginia to become the nation’s sixth-largest gas producer. Ohio also had the largest percentage increase of any of the top states.

“The region has been blessed with this great resource below us, and these companies are just starting to tap into that,” said Larry Merry, executive director of the Belmont County Port Authority in the heart of Ohio’s shale region.

Ohio energy companies produced 1,465 billion cubic feet of gas, up from 1,015 billion in 2015, according to the Energy Information Administration. 

The growth is notable because last year was difficult for many people in the energy business. Low prices for oil and gas and cost-cutting led to a pervading sense of gloom among producers.

Nearly all of Ohio’s gas comes from the Utica and Marcellus shale formations, which are deep below ground and accessible through horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

A few positive factors helped to cancel out the negatives for Ohio, such as several pipelines and processing sites coming online to allow producers to move pent-up gas supply to market.

The United States produced 28,296 billion cubic feet, down from 28,753 billion the prior year. 

Much of the decrease can be attributed to Texas, the country’s leading producer, which produced 6,985 billion cubic feet, down from 7,881 billion.

The places with declining production probably were responding to low prices and a glut of supply. 

Among the exceptions were Ohio and Pennsylvania, where new pipelines helped to encourage production.

The near future for the natural-gas industry in Ohio looks positive. One reason is that prices seem to be stabilizing, with the U.S. benchmark price hovering in the range of $3 per thousand cubic feet of gas. The industry went on a wild ride last year, with prices dropping to less than $2.

First Published April 28, 2017, 4:00 a.m.