EagleClaw Midstream

The Permian has been a leader in domestic oil and gas production for decades but the Shale Revolution made it a global superstar. In the past few years, thousands of miles of new crude oil, associated gas, and produced-water gathering systems have been installed in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, as have dozens of new gas processing plants and a number of new takeaway pipelines for oil, gas, and NGLs. Lately, there has also been a lot of consolidation among Permian midstream companies, mostly with the aims of increasing scale, improving reliability, and directing more hydrocarbons through the combined companies’ gathering, processing, and takeaway assets. In today’s RBN blog, we continue our review of recent, major pipeline-company combinations in the Permian and the benefits participants expect to realize from them.

Permian gas marketers were likely breathing a sigh of relief earlier this month when news came that the developers behind the Whistler Pipeline had made a final investment decision (FID) to proceed with the new 2.0-Bcf/d link between the Permian and South Texas. The project provides a crucial link in the gas takeaway picture for the Permian and makes it less likely that gas pipeline capacity constraints in the future will result in the negative prices that are plaguing the present-day gas markets in West Texas. Combined with the two other Permian greenfield gas pipelines that have taken FID — Kinder Morgan’s Gulf Coast Express (GCX) and Permian Highway Pipeline (PHP) — there is now ~6 Bcf/d of incremental Permian supply pointed at the Texas Gulf Coast over the next two years. That’s great news for Permian producers, as well as demand centers along the coast, where tremendous growth in LNG exports is under way. Today, we detail the third natural gas pipeline being built from the Permian to the Texas Gulf Coast.

Permian natural gas markets felt a cold shiver this week, but not a meteorologically induced one of the types running through other regional markets. Gas marketers braced as prices for Permian natural gas skidded toward a new threshold: zero! That’s not basis, but absolute price, a long-anticipated possibility that became reality on Monday. The cause is very likely driven, in our view, by continued associated gas production growth poured into a region that won’t see new greenfield pipeline capacity for at least 10 months. What happens next isn’t clear, but expect Permian gas market participants to be a little excitable or jittery over the next few months. Today, we review this latest complication for Permian natural gas markets.

Constructing greenfield pipelines is never easy — just ask any midstream developer you know — but building them across the breadth of Texas comes with its own unique challenges. There’s distance, for starters, and today’s massive associated gas growth in the Permian Basin is occurring more than 400 miles from the closest demand along the Gulf Coast. That makes the pipelines relatively expensive at somewhere near $2 billion a copy. Integrating Permian supply with Gulf Coast demand also requires a big network of pipelines along the coast, as the demand is spread out from Louisiana to Mexico. Few midstream companies have such a network. Kinder Morgan does, one reason why, in our view, the Gulf Coast Express project was the first — and to-date the only — greenfield project from the Permian to proceed with a final investment decision. In the race to be the next Permian natural gas relief valve pipeline, the same hurdles will have to be overcome. On Friday, news came that a group of four companies is planning the Whistler Pipeline, and a closer look at the project reveals it may be capable of meeting the challenges needed to make it a serious player in the Permian pipeline race. Today, we look at the details of the latest Permian natural gas pipeline project.

There was a time when natural gas prices in the Permian Basin spent most of the summer bouncing within a few cents of the benchmark Henry Hub, as ample pipeline takeaway capacity and seasonally strong demand combined to keep a lid on price blowouts. Times have certainly changed, with ballooning local production overwhelming existing takeaway capacity and widening the price spread between Permian gas markets and Henry Hub. However, the erosion in Permian gas basis has been anything but orderly. The current market is defined by significant swings in gas basis, depending on factors such as pipeline maintenance and weather. So, while the trend in Permian gas basis is decidedly lower, the path to get there is looking like a gut-wrenching roller coaster ride. Today, we look at recent swings in Permian natural gas basis pricing.

Permian natural gas fundamentals were rocked with some major infrastructure news on Monday, when Kinder Morgan announced its plans to build the 2-Bcf/d Permian Highway Pipeline (PHP) from Waha to the Texas Gulf Coast. The announcement revealed that EagleClaw Midstream, a Blackstone Energy Partners portfolio company, has signed a letter of intent to become a 50% owner in the project and commit natural gas volumes to the pipeline. Adding firepower to the project, Apache Corp. is committing significant volumes to the pipeline too, with an option to take an ownership stake. While Kinder Morgan and EagleClaw Midstream stopped short of a final investment decision (FID), the destination flexibility that PHP’s tie-ins with other key pipes offer makes the project a major contender in the race to become the second new long-haul natural gas pipeline out of the Permian. Today, we discuss the latest infrastructure development in the Permian natural gas market.