Every day, more than 7.5 Bcf of natural gas flows through the Agua Dulce Hub region in South Texas — 1.7 times the volume five years ago. And the hub’s growth is just beginning. By 2030, flows may well top 11.5 Bcf/d as gas production ramps up in the Permian and the Eagle Ford, pipeline exports to Mexico increase, and new LNG export capacity comes online along the South Texas coast. In today’s RBN blog, we begin a detailed look at the Agua Dulce Hub — its origins, its development during the Shale Era, its major players and its potential to become a major gas trading hub.
The transformation of natural gas markets in Texas, Mexico and, in many ways, the world at large over the past several years has been made possible by the Shale Revolution, which unlocked extraordinary amounts of previously trapped crude oil, gas and NGLs in the Permian, the Eagle Ford and other U.S. shale plays. The revolution’s technological breakthroughs spurred the development of a slew of new infrastructure — for the gas sector alone, we’ve seen (among other things) new gas gathering systems, gas processing plants, pipelines, power generation facilities, and LNG export terminals.
A substantial portion of the incremental gas flows out of the Permian and the Eagle Ford have been directed to and through the Agua Dulce Hub, an increasingly complex and busy gas pipeline crossroads in Nueces County, TX, about 30 miles west of Corpus Christi. The expansion of the hub (more pipelines and higher flows) is tied largely to growing gas demand from industrials, power generators and LNG exporters in South Texas and south of the border in Mexico.
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