The war-related loss of LNG export capacity in Qatar suggests that existing and planned LNG export terminals along the U.S. Gulf Coast will be running flat-out over the next few years, and that the Texas/Louisiana region will need even more natural gas storage capacity than previously figured.
“Location, location, location” doesn’t just apply to residential and commercial real estate. It also holds true for natural gas storage, which is in high-and-rising demand along the Texas/Louisiana border, where a slew of new LNG export capacity is coming online — new gas-fired power plants, too.
New and expanded natural gas storage facilities near the Texas/Louisiana border are coming online and being planned, mostly in response to the ongoing buildout of LNG export capacity along the Gulf Coast and new gas pipelines to those terminals.
New LNG export capacity near the Texas/Louisiana border, rising natural gas production in the Haynesville (and the West Haynesville), and new pipelines transporting that gas south to the Gulf Coast have spurred a lot of interest in gas storage — and storage developers are responding.
Keeping up with all the natural-gas-related infrastructure under development along the Gulf Coast is a full-time job. New gas pipelines out of the Permian and the Haynesville. New LNG export terminals from Brownsville, TX, to Plaquemines Parish, LA. And don’t forget new gas storage capacity — that slice of the midstream sector is in the midst of its biggest boom in decades. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll finish our review of the latest round of Gulf Coast storage projects.
A tsunami of natural gas storage projects has been building along the Gulf Coast, most of them aimed at meeting the growing demand for flexible, responsive storage capacity near new LNG export terminals and gas-fired power plants. And the magnitude of that wave keeps growing. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll begin a new mini-series in which we update the storage projects we discussed in a number of posts last year and describe the additional projects that have come to light since then.
Taking a nine- or 10-figure energy infrastructure project from concept to fruition is never easy. Siting dilemmas, permitting woes, commitment-wary customers, financing snags, legal challenges — there are seemingly endless hurdles. And that’s in normal times. Add in market volatility and fast-changing governmental policies and a developer’s job becomes darn-near impossible. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss midstream companies’ uphill battle in advancing infrastructure projects in 2025, focusing on a recently announced greenfield natural gas storage project along the Texas Gulf Coast.
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.
