Based on the general analysis of the grand canonical partition function in the 𝑆-matrix framework, a method is presented to calculate the equation of state of dilute warm nuclear matter. The result is a model-independent virial series for the pressure and density that systematically includes contributions from all the ground and excited states of all the stable nuclear species and their scattering channels. The multiplicity distribution of these species to keep the matter in statistical equilibrium is found out and then the pressure, incompressibility and the symmetry energy of the system are evaluated. The calculated symmetry energy coefficients are found to be in fair agreement with the recent experimental data.