Odds are there’s never been a busier, more frantic time for natural-gas-related infrastructure development in Texas and Louisiana than right now. Construction is underway or imminent at no fewer than seven Gulf Coast LNG export terminals with a combined capacity of 16 Bcf/d. Big-tech firms and midstreamers are touting the potential for several Bcf/d more in gas-fired power demand for data centers in the two states. And developers are advancing a slew of inter- and intrastate pipeline projects aimed at bringing Permian, Haynesville and other gas to where it will be needed. It’s admittedly hard to keep track of it all, but in today’s RBN blog, we take a snapshot of where things stand today and highlight the highlights.
Texas and Louisiana already are crisscrossed by tens of thousands of miles of gas pipelines large, medium and small. But those extraordinary networks aren’t enough for what will be needed over the next five years. The Shale Revolution, the world’s push toward lower-carbon sources of energy and Russia’s war on Ukraine, among other things, have combined to make fast-rising U.S. LNG exports a global necessity. As we track in RBN’s weekly LNG Voyager report, feedgas flows to Gulf Coast LNG export terminals have recently topped 15 Bcf/d, and those volumes will roughly double over the next six to seven years as expansions at existing facilities and new terminals are brought online.
And that’s not all. As we’ve discussed in a number of blogs, most recently in I Know Places, the Lone Star and Bayou states also have become hotbeds for the development of large-scale data centers. Each of these will require at least several hundred megawatts of around-the-clock power, with new gas-fired power plants being the most logical (and quickest) way to meet that need. For example, Meta Platforms (parent of Facebook and Instagram) is planning a $10 billion complex in Richland Parish, LA, that will be powered in large part by three new Entergy Louisiana gas-fired power plants totaling more than 2,200 MW. (That’s up to 330 MMcf/d of gas demand.) Several proposed data-center projects in Texas could be much bigger, with much higher demand for power (and gas).
The incremental gas demand from new LNG export capacity and new data centers in Texas and Louisiana will be met primarily from rising gas production in the Permian and an expected resurgence in the Haynesville, with likely assists from other shale plays (especially the Eagle Ford). But there’s a catch: Existing pipelines from these plays to new and emerging gas-demand centers are or will be essentially maxed out. New pipeline capacity will be needed, and will be coming in spades.
Figure 1. Timeline for LNG Export Projects and Key Gas Pipelines. Source: RBN Arrow Model
Figure 1 above (from the RBN Arrow Model) helps sort things out. The downward-facing arrows (orange for Texas and purple for Louisiana) show the names and capacities of the major pipeline projects that have already reached a final investment decision (FID) and are slated to begin commercial operation over the next few years. The letters within the arrows identify the pipeline “corridors” along which the specific pipelines run. The upward-facing arrows, in turn, show the planned LNG export projects and their capacities, green arrows for Texas and blue for Louisiana. Again, the letters identify the export corridors.
As we explained in our All Shook Up blog series this spring, we developed the RBN Arrow Model to provide a clearer, deeper understanding of how the Texas/Louisiana gas market will evolve as new infrastructure comes online. The model includes more than two dozen pipeline corridors (plus a half-dozen LNG export corridors), the most relevant of which (for today’s discussion) are included in Figure 2 below.
Figure 2. Pipeline and LNG Export Corridors and Key Projects. Source: RBN Arrow Model
With all that as background, let’s run through a few of the key LNG and pipeline projects, focusing on the ones that have advanced to FID and/or construction over the past few months. We’ll start with the LNG export projects, noting up front that the news on a few of these also includes updates on new pipeline projects to feed them:
- Louisiana LNG. The stunner this spring was Woodside LNG’s late-April announcement that it has taken FID on the $17.5 billion, 16.5 million tons per annum (MMtpa; 2.2-Bcf/d) Louisiana LNG project just south of Lake Charles (red diamond, Corridor AK in Figure 2) despite having only 1 MMtpa under contract. The first of the project’s three 5.5-MMtpa (0.7-Bcf/d) liquefaction trains is scheduled to come online in 2029, with the two other trains to follow in 2030-31. Woodside LNG also committed to build the 3.4-Bcf/d Line 200 pipeline (dashed yellow line, Corridor AF) from the Gillis, LA, hub to the planned LNG terminal. (Line 200 may serve other customers too.)
- Corpus Christi Midscale Trains 8 and 9. In mid-June, Cheniere Energy gave the final go-ahead on Corpus Christi Midscale trains 8 and 9, which the company said will add 2.9 MMtpa (0.4 Bcf/d) of capacity at its Corpus Christi LNG export complex (medium-blue diamond, Corridor J). Cheniere also said it will be undertaking a debottlenecking project that will increase the capacity of the Stage 3 portion of the complex (of which trains 8 and 9 are part) by another 2 MMtpa (0.26 Bcf/d). The company has not said when the projects will be completed.
- CP2 Phase 1. On July 29, Venture Global reached FID on Phase 1 of the company’s CP2 LNG export terminal in Cameron Parish, LA (aqua diamond, Corridor AK). Phase 1 will consist of 26 small liquefaction trains (13 blocks) with a combined capacity of 14.4 MMtpa (1.91 Bcf/d), with the first trains expected to start coming online in 2027. Venture Global also took FID on the 85-mile CP Express pipeline (dashed aqua line), which will run from Jasper County, TX, to the CP2 site.
Several other LNG projects haven’t pulled the FID trigger yet but may be close to doing so. For example, NextDecade Corp., developer of the now-three-train, 16.2-MMtpa (2.2-Bcf/d) Rio Grande LNG project in Brownsville, TX, (slated to come online in 2027-28; magenta diamond, Corridor K) is expected to take FID on trains 4 and 5 (12 Mtpa; 1.6 Bcf/d) as soon as September. (Plans for Rio Grande trains 6 through 8 are also in the pipeline, so to speak.) Kimmeridge and Mubadala Energy, the developers of Commonwealth LNG (yellow diamond, Corridor X) in Cameron Parish, LA, recently contracted with Technip Energies to provide engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for their 9.5-MMtpa (1.3-Bcf/d) project and said they anticipate taking FID by Q4 2025 and starting up their LNG export terminal in 2029.
Other LNG projects are in the works, too, albeit at somewhat earlier stages. The developers of the proposed three-train, 4-MMtpa (0.5 Bcf/d) Gulfstream LNG project (dark-red diamond, Corridor AL — corridor not shown on map) in Plaquemines Parish, LA, recently filed for FERC approval; they hope to have that in hand by the end of next year and have the LNG export facility up and running in 2030. And Venture Global is planning a 24.8-MMtpa (3.3-Bcf/d) expansion of its Plaquemines LNG (light-pink diamond, Corridor AL — corridor not shown), also in Plaquemines Parish.
The new LNG export capacity coming online over the next few years will require vast amounts of natural gas, primarily from three close-by production areas — the Permian, Eagle Ford and Haynesville — but also from areas farther away. As shown in the upper part of the Figure 1 timeline, the largest of the gas pipeline projects under development include Williams Cos.’s 1.8-Bcf/d Louisiana Energy Gateway (LEG; dashed magenta line) and New Generation Gas Gathering’s 2.2-Bcf/d Momentum NG3 pipeline (dashed dark-green line), both of which will run from the Haynesville to Gillis (Corridor AF) and come online later this year. They’ll be followed in late 2026 by Energy Transfer’s 1.5-Bcf/d Hugh Brinson Pipeline from the Permian to the Dallas area (dashed light-blue line, Corridor C), the WhiteWater Midstream/MPLX/Enbridge joint venture’s (JV) 2.5-Bcf/d Blackcomb Pipeline from the Permian to the Agua Dulce hub in South Texas (dashed medium-red line, Corridor E), and the same JV’s 2.25-Bcf/d Rio Bravo Pipeline from Agua Dulce to Brownsville (dashed yellow line, Corridor L).
A tsunami of new pipeline capacity is due to come online in 2027. In the first half of the year, we’ll see the startup of Kinder Morgan’s 1.5-Bcf/d Trident Pipeline (dashed orange line, Corridor V); the WhiteWater/MPLX/Enbridge JV’s Traverse Pipeline (dashed purple line, Corridor I), recently upsized to 2.5 Bcf/d; and the WhiteWater-led Pelican Pipeline (dashed light-green line, Corridor AF), also recently boosted to 2.5 Bcf/d. In the second half of 2027, two pipelines directly feeding new LNG terminals will begin operating: Venture Global’s CP Express (noted just above in the bullet on CP2) and Sempra’s Port Arthur LA Connector (dashed dark-red line; Corridor AI). After that, the RBN Arrow Model suggests that another multi-Bcf/d pipeline will be needed no later than the early 2030s (and maybe earlier), probably along the Permian-to-Katy corridor (Corridor D; dashed red circle to far right in Figure 1).
Then, just like with LNG, there are a couple of big new pipeline projects that have been announced, including Energy Transfer’s Transwestern pipeline expansion to the Desert Southwest (dashed red line, Corridor A) and Tallgrass Energy’s pipeline project (dashed aqua line, Corridor B) to link the Permian with their continent-spanning Rockies Express (REX) and Ruby pipelines. While these don’t target the Gulf Coast, they do provide a meaningful amount of new capacity directed at growing demand centers.
The pipelines to and along the Gulf Coast are being developed largely in response to shippers’ and LNG exporters’ need for reliable, locked-in supply conduits for the many Bcf/d of gas they will require day in and day out once the LNG export terminals now being built and planned begin operation. Firm demand from planned gas-fired power plants (many of them to support new data centers) is only adding to that need for new pipeline capacity in Texas and Louisiana. But as we noted with a couple of the projects above, some are proceeding to the FID stage even prior to offtake capacity being fully secured. That’s a trend worth tracking because it represents a calculated risk that some, but not all, developers are willing to take to capture a share of this growing market.
Another trend, which is nothing new to our readers, is that pipelines from the Permian are needed to deal with the increasing volumes of associated gas being produced there as a byproduct of crude-oil-focused drilling. But that also may become an issue if crude-oil-directed drilling decreases as a result of lower oil prices. On the other hand, it’s also possible that Permian producers will deliberately shift to gassier parts of the shale play (like the Delaware Basin) as gas demand for LNG exports and power generation — and gas prices — pick up. That may well spur even more gas pipeline projects in the years ahead.
“Helter Skelter” was written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon-McCartney. It appears as the sixth song on side three of The Beatles’ ninth studio album, The Beatles, commonly referred to as “the White Album.” McCartney intended to write a song as heavy and loud as possible. He was inspired by The Who’s 1967 single, “I Can See for Miles.” He succeeded in producing a song that preceded heavy metal. The song has been covered by artists such as Motley Crue, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Aerosmith, and Oasis. Charles Manson felt the song held a message of impending apocalypse, when in fact it was written about a British fairgrounds attraction ride. Personnel on the record were: Paul McCartney (lead vocals, lead guitar), John Lennon (six-string bass), George Harrison (guitar, guitar slides), Ringo Starr (drums; “I’ve got blisters on my fingers” shout at the end).
The Beatles (White Album) was recorded at Abbey Road and Trident studios in London between May and October 1968. The double LP was produced by George Martin and released in November 1968. It went to #1 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart and has been certified 24X Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. No singles were released from the LP.
The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr would go on to change the direction of modern music and pop culture. They released 17 studio albums, five live albums, 52 compilation albums, 36 EPs and 63 singles and have sold more than 600 million records worldwide. They have won an Academy Award, seven Grammy Awards, 15 Ivor Novello Awards and a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award and are members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a group and individually. In 1965, Queen Elizabeth II appointed each member an MBE. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have been knighted. The Beatles were featured in four motion pictures and 10 documentaries. John Lennon was assassinated in 1980 and George Harrison died in 2001. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr continue to record and tour as solo artists. Paul McCartney will be on his Got Back Tour in the U.S. and Canada this fall and Ringo Starr will be on his Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band Tour in the U.S. in September.
