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.
Just a few years ago, natural gas storage capacity along the Gulf Coast was widely available at low cost, but that has all changed. A storage-capacity shortfall is looming as new LNG export facilities come online, and the competition among storage developers is heating up. There will be winners and losers.
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.
British Columbia is a new hot spot for LNG export development. The first phase of LNG Canada is up and running; Phase 2 is nearing FID. Two smaller LNG export projects are under construction; and a 12-MMtpa (~1.6 Bcf/d) proposal may be sanctioned soon.
LNG Canada didn’t load its first cargo until June 2025, more than nine years after Sabine Pass LNG was up and running in Louisiana. But while the U.S. Gulf Coast had a big head start, Canada is finally firing on all cylinders, with plans to more than triple its LNG export capacity by the early 2030s.
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.
Efforts to develop a new LNG export terminal along the Delaware River near Philadelphia appeared to be going nowhere. But now it seems that Penn America Energy’s moribund plan for such a project has gained new life with a new company name and a new site — in Eddystone Borough, PA.
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.
Shell’s plan to acquire Western Canadian E&P ARC Resources Ltd. affirms the global energy giant’s new strategic focus, enhances the prospects for Phase 2 of LNG Canada, and supports the view that the Montney Shale may be replacing the Permian as the epicenter of oil and gas M&A.
