The volumes of Permian natural gas flowing into the Katy area west of Houston will be increasing sharply, as will gas demand from LNG export terminals near the Texas/Louisiana border. Three new pipelines are being developed to move gas from between Katy and the state line, but will they be enough?
A natural gas pipeline deal that gives privately held Esentia Energy a complete, start-to-finish link between the Permian Basin and Mexico’s Pacific Coast is highlighting a heretofore under-the-radar LNG project being planned at the end of that now-1,400-mile pipeline system.
E&Ps active in the San Juan Basin’s Mancos Shale think it has real potential, but acknowledge that regional natural gas prices would have to be higher to justify the investment. What Mancos producers need, they say, is better access to premium markets like Arizona and northwestern Mexico. A new pipeline might help.
A small cadre of E&Ps active in the San Juan Basin’s Mancos Shale is anticipating breakout growth in natural gas production there if and when gas prices rise, and a well-known midstreamer is planning what could eventually be a high-capacity gas pipeline to the burgeoning Arizona market.
Massive volumes of natural gas are already converging on the Katy Hub and much more will be soon. A planned bidirectional header system is designed to help ease the flow of gas through that key aggregation and distribution point for gas bound for industrial, power-generation, and LNG export load.
Efforts to move more natural gas into gas-starved New England are picking up steam. Enbridge said Project Beacon’s open season was better than expected, while DT Midstream is moving ahead with one Millennium Pipeline expansion and considering a much larger one.
The Haynesville is the nation’s #3 natural gas producer, and close to most of the U.S.’s LNG export capacity. That makes gas pipelines from the Haynesville to the Gulf Coast critically important — and valuable — assets, a reality Williams Cos. just affirmed with its plan to buy Momentum Midstream.
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.
