Since 2013, nearly 3.0 Bcf/d of natural gas pipeline capacity has been added from Appalachia to the heavily populated, hard-to-reach demand centers along the East Coast. And another nearly 3.0 Bcf/d is in the works. The need for gas supply reliability in the heavily populated East, along with producers’ need to move their gas to market, is driving these expansions. But concentrated population centers, along with the geography, geology and regulatory environment of the area, all also make it tough and expensive for upgrading, expanding and developing the gas transportation system. Many of the proposed projects have been delayed or canceled as a result. Today, we provide an update on eastbound pipeline expansions from Appalachia.
This is Part 2 of our "In a Northeast Minute" blog series, updating our analysis of pipeline expansion projects versus production growth from Appalachia. In Part 1, we looked at the effect of supply and demand trends and transportation capacity additions on natural gas flows. What we found is that even as production has flattened out in recent months (see Unchain My Heart), outbound flows from the Northeast are at record highs, underscoring the role that takeaway capacity additions are playing in balancing the region. More than a dozen pipeline projects have already come online and there are 19 more expansions totaling 15.5 Bcf/d planned to move gas out of Appalachia, all targeting in-service in the next few years. To understand how the timing of these will coincide with production growth, we organized the projects into five transportation corridors branching out from the Marcellus/Utica supply areas: to the East, to Canada, to the Midwest via Ohio, to the Gulf Coast via Ohio and to the Southeast via the Atlantic Coast (see Figure 3 in Part 1 for the schematic). Today, we start by looking at expansions targeting Mid-Atlantic and New England demand markets.
Join Backstage Pass to Read Full Article
About the song
"New York Minute" is a song written by Don Henley, Danny Kortchmar and Jai Winding and originally recorded by Henley for his 1989 album The End of the Innocence. The song was later covered by the Eagles on the Hell Freezes Over album released in 1994.
