Rising demand for natural gas in the U.S. Northeast and regions to its south and west is spurring the development of gas pipeline projects that collectively will enable Marcellus/Utica E&Ps to ratchet up their production into the 2030s. In today’s RBN blog, we continue our review of these projects.
The Marcellus/Utica still has vast amounts of natural gas to supply the ongoing surge in demand from power generators and LNG exporters. But there’s a catch: A significant step-up in Appalachian production can only occur if new pipeline infrastructure is built to transport that gas to where it’s needed.
Natural gas demand is building fast along the Gulf Coast. New LNG export terminals, data centers and power generation — and new pipelines to deliver the incremental gas. That’s all baked in. What’s still far from certain is where all the gas will come from, and how intense the battle for gas supply will become.
We’ve blogged about rising demand for natural gas in the southeastern U.S. and the pipeline projects being planned there. But there’s more to the story — a bigger picture — namely, that gas consumers in the region increasingly find themselves competing for supply with LNG exporters.
Appalachia is churning out just over one-third of Lower 48 natural gas production and has the potential to produce considerably more. The big question is whether output will finally break out.
After a decade of regulatory and legal challenges, Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) finally came into service in the middle of last year. The 2-Bcf/d pipeline — soon to be expanded to 2.5 Bcf/d via additional compression — was designed to ease natural gas takeaway constraints out of the Marcellus/Utica and help production there break past its current plateau near 36 Bcf/d, but bottlenecks on the massive Transco Pipeline have complicated matters. In today’s RBN blog, we look at efforts to unleash more Appalachian gas in the domestic market, focusing on the Southside Reliability Enhancement Project (SREP), which has enabled more gas to reach North Carolina.
The Marcellus/Utica has massive natural gas reserves, but daily, weekly and annual production in the three-state shale play is limited by three key factors: in-region demand, takeaway capacity and gas prices. In recent years, the basin’s output has been rangebound between 34 and 36 Bcf/d and Appalachian producers see only modest gains in 2025. But a handful of pipeline projects and rising gas demand from power generators suggest the Marcellus/Utica may finally be on the verge of a production breakout. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss the leading E&Ps’ production forecasts for 2025 and the prospects for considerably higher output by the end of this decade.
Rising demand for natural gas storage in the Gulf Coast region has spurred growing interest and investment. A number of midstream companies have been making moves, either by expanding their existing storage facilities in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama or entering the space with acquisitions or plans for greenfield projects. As a result, more than 150 Bcf of new gas storage space is in various stages of development. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss highlights from our new Drill Down Report on Gulf Coast gas storage.
Many of the natural gas storage projects under development along the Gulf Coast involve the expansion of existing salt-cavern complexes and, with that, the sharing of at least some already-built infrastructure. That typically saves money, and the lower capital costs can help make a project a “go.” But at least a few well-sited projects competing for commitments are greenfield in nature and require not just the buildout of storage capacity itself but also the development of compression, freshwater wells, saltwater disposal wells, electricity supply, header pipelines and pipeline interconnections. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss two of the largest greenfield projects in the works: the Black Bayou Energy Hub in southwestern Louisiana and the Freeport Energy Storage Hub (FRESH).
As a group, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama have more than 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas storage capacity, most of it along — or within easy reach of — the Gulf Coast, with its long-and-growing list of LNG export terminals as well as gas-consuming industries and gas-fired power plants. That’s a good thing, but still more gas storage will be needed to help ensure there is sufficient gas in hand to meet the region’s rising — and increasingly volatile — requirements. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll continue our review of Gulf Coast storage projects with a look at plans by Trinity Gas Storage and Caliche Storage.
