There’s a horse race among Gulf Coast gas storage developers to provide the tens of billions of cubic feet of incremental space that will be needed by the early 2030s. Out front are the owners of existing salt cavern storage, whose brownfield expansions almost always offer better economics than their greenfield competitors. But which brownfield projects have that special something — an advantageous site, better pipeline connectivity, or higher injection and withdrawal rates — that gives them a critical edge? In today’s RBN blog, we continue our series on Gulf Coast gas storage by looking at a few leading brownfield projects.
This is the third blog in the series. In Part 1, we said that after a long period of storage-capacity surplus and relatively low storage prices, the Gulf Coast market has been unusually busy of late, with more than 350 Bcf/d of new storage capacity now under development. This massive buildout, expected to continue for at least a few more years, is driven primarily by the storage needs of new and expanding LNG export facilities, each of which needs a place to quickly store large volumes of gas in the event of a liquefaction plant outage.
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In Part 2, we discussed the sharply higher gas storage rates that LNG terminal operators in particular are now willing to pay for Firm Storage Services (FSS) and looked at how much new gas storage is likely be built along the Gulf Coast over the next few years. Our conclusions were that:
- Most of the storage capacity required for the liquefaction/LNG export projects coming online later this year and in 2027-28 has already been lined up by terminal operators — some from the shrinking volumes of storage space remaining from the 2006-10 overbuild and the rest from new storage projects recently completed or under construction.
- At least 100 Bcf of additional storage capacity — and likely more than 130 Bcf — will be needed along the Gulf Coast over the next five years, mostly for the LNG export projects that will be coming online in 2029 and the early 2030s. The storage needs of power generators (many tied to new data centers) also will play a role.
- The vast majority of the new storage projects will be brownfield expansions to existing salt cavern facilities because they (1) provide the rapid injection rates that LNG terminal operators require as well as the rapid withdrawal rates that power-plant operators need, and (2) offer more favorable economics than most greenfield projects.
Today, we begin a review of the Gulf Coast storage projects currently under development, beginning with several brownfield expansions at existing salt cavern facilities.
In the race to sanction the newest gas storage capacity in the region, it’s Enbridge by a nose: The Calgary, AB-based midstream giant has reached a final investment decision (FID) on about 48 Bcf of new salt cavern space, edging out Caliche Storage, with about 45 Bcf. (More on Caliche in a moment.)
Enbridge
Enbridge’s incremental capacity is divided among three projects. The largest is a three-cavern, 25-Bcf expansion at the company’s Tres Palacios facility in Matagorda County, TX. When Enbridge acquired Tres Palacios (light-blue dome icon in Figure 1 below) in April 2023, it had three caverns with a combined capacity of 35 Bcf; in December 2024, Enbridge brought online a fourth cavern that added 6.5 Bcf.
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About the song
“Long Time” was written by Tom Scholz and appears as the third song on side one of Boston’s eponymous debut album. The intro section leading into the song, “Foreplay,” has been used in many commercial applications, including motion pictures, television shows and commercials, sporting events, video games, and sampling. Tom Scholz has said that “Foreplay” was the first song he ever recorded on a two-track tape recorder in his basement. “Long Time“ is about Scholz‘s long, hard path to success as a musician and never giving up on that quest. The 7:47-minute suite, including “Foreplay,“ was released as a single in January 1977 and went to #22 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart. Personnel on the record were: Brad Delp (lead, backing vocals), Tom Scholz (guitar, organ, Clavinet, bass), Barry Goudreau (guitar), Fran Sheehan (bass), and Sib Hashian (drums).
The album, Boston, was recorded in Tom Scholz‘s basement studio at his home in Watertown, MA; Capitol Studios in Hollywood; and Record Plant in Los Angeles from October 1975 to April 1976. Produced by Tom Scholz and John Boylan, it was released in August 1976 and went to #3 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. It has been certified 17X Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Three singles were released from the LP.
Boston (originally named Mother’s Milk) is an American rock band formed in Boston in 1975 by songwriter, musician and mastermind Tom Scholz. With Brad Delp on vocals, Scholz recorded most of Boston’s debut album in his basement home studio. Scholz began writing songs in the 1970s while finishing his master’s degree in engineering at MIT. He worked for a while at Polaroid Corp. as a senior product design engineer before securing a record deal for Boston. Later, he developed his Rockman brand, which helped change the direction of recording electric guitar in home studios in the 1980s. Boston has released six studio albums, a live album, two compilation albums, and 16 singles, and sold more than 75 million records worldwide. Twenty-two members have passed through the band since its inception, with founder Scholz in all renditions of the group. Original vocalist Brad Delp died by suicide in March 2007 in Atkinson, NH, at 55. Original drummer Sib Hashian died at 67 in March 2017 while performing on a cruise ship in the Bahamas. Although the group hasn't officially broken up, it hasn’t performed live since 2017. August 2026 marked the 50th anniversary of the release of Boston’s debut album.
"About the Song" -- written by Mickey McMahan , RBN Director of Musicology
