The rapid buildout of Permian gas processing plants and other NGL-related infrastructure in Texas and southeastern New Mexico isn’t just continuing, it’s accelerating. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss the latest project announcements and why gas and NGL production in the Permian are still rising.
The U.S. propane market typically follows predictable trends. With much of domestic demand occurring in the colder months, storage builds in the summer and is withdrawn in the winter. But since mid-April, storage levels have increased by only 1.2 MMbbl. Today, we explore what is going on and why.
The U.S. midstream sector experienced a massive infrastructure buildout in the 2010s, followed by a sharp pullback after 2020, and then a new era of financial discipline and deleveraging. Now, AI-propelled power load growth and a wave of LNG export expansion are pushing midstream capex higher again.
Exactly the same product. Exactly the same day. In storage very nearby. Yet their prices diverged by 17 cents per gallon — a spread equivalent to $7 per barrel. That’s a very substantial difference for prices that typically are almost indistinguishable, differing by an average of only 0.3% in recent years. The disparity roiled the financial underpinnings of exports for over a month and busted numerous inventory hedges. Is this some rare commodity? Hardly. It’s Mont Belvieu propane, the Rock of Gibraltar benchmark propane price in the U.S., and to a great extent around the world. But during October there was a crack in that rock a mile wide.
Exactly the same product. Exactly the same day. In storage very nearby. Yet their prices diverged by 17 cents per gallon — a spread equivalent to $7 per barrel. That’s a very substantial difference for prices that typically are almost indistinguishable, differing by an average of only 0.3% in recent years. The disparity roiled the financial underpinnings of exports for over a month and busted numerous inventory hedges. Is this some rare commodity? Hardly. It’s Mont Belvieu propane, the Rock of Gibraltar benchmark propane price in the U.S., and to a great extent around the world. But during October there was a crack in that rock a mile wide.
Ongoing M&A activity in the upstream portion of the oil and gas industry has garnered a lot of attention, most recently regarding ExxonMobil’s planned $64.5 billion acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources. But there’s also been a lot of consolidation in the midstream space as the companies that gather, process, transport, store and export hydrocarbons seek to gain the scale, scope and synergies they think they will need to succeed in an increasingly competitive industry. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss highlights from our newly released Drill Down report on the major midstream deals of 2022 and 2023 to date.
Rising natural gas liquids production in the Niobrara is increasingly straining existing pipeline capacity out of the region and has spurred midstreamers to propose various combinations of new pipelines, expansions to existing pipelines and pipeline conversions in order to ease constraints. One of the latest entrants is a joint venture of Williams and Targa Resources that would expand Rockies producers’ ability to move mixed NGLs to the Mont Belvieu, TX, hub for fractionation and marketing/export. Williams plans to build a 188-mile pipeline — Bluestem — that would extend from its Rockies-to-Conway, KS, Overland Pass Pipeline to Kingfisher County, OK. For its part, Targa will build a 110-mile extension of its new Grand Prix NGL pipeline from southern Oklahoma north into Kingfisher to connect with Bluestem. As part of the deal, Williams has also contracted substantial volumes on Grand Prix as well as at Targa’s fractionation facility at Mont Belvieu. Today, we discuss Williams and Targa’s plan.
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.
Mexico has become an important market for U.S. natural gas exports, and it is now opening up as a market for U.S.-sourced crude oil exchanges. There’s also potential for more exports of liquefied petroleum gas, particularly now that national oil company Pemex’s monopoly as LPG-import middleman is about to end and Mexico is planning to deregulate retail LPG prices. Today we continue our analysis of Mexico’s LPG market with a look at how the vast majority of U.S. propane and butane is transported to Mexican consumers.
While uncertainties remain about the future of U.S. hydrocarbon production in a time of low oil prices, natural gas producers in the Permian Basin and the Eagle Ford have made it clear they will continue to need more gas processing capacity. After all, the oil price slide has led many producers to shift their focus to sweet spots in the best, liquids-rich shale plays that produce crude, associated gas and natural gas liquids. There are two ways to add gas processing capacity—build it or buy it—and, with demand for processing capacity in the Permian and Eagle Ford potentially still rising, Targa Resources is doing both. Today we continue our look at gas processing plants, NGL pipelines and fractionators in two key NGL production plays near Mont Belvieu, TX, the center of the NGL world.
