Transco

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. 

Marcellus/Utica natural gas production grew by leaps and bounds in the 2010s, but the pace of growth has slowed dramatically in recent years, mostly due to takeaway constraints. Finally, the prospects for renewed growth are improving. New pipeline capacity out of Appalachia is coming online — especially to the booming Southeast, and maybe the Gulf Coast too. New LNG export capacity is about to be commercialized. And a lot of new gas-fired generating capacity — much of it tied to planned data centers — is under development within (or very near) the Marcellus/Utica region. In today’s RBN blog, we examine the three big gas-demand drivers behind the shale play’s impending renewal. 

Marcellus/Utica natural gas production grew by leaps and bounds in the 2010s, but the pace of growth has slowed dramatically in recent years, mostly due to takeaway constraints. Finally, the prospects for renewed growth are improving. New pipeline capacity out of Appalachia is coming online — especially to the booming Southeast, and maybe the Gulf Coast too. New LNG export capacity is about to be commercialized. And a lot of new gas-fired generating capacity — much of it tied to planned data centers — is under development within (or very near) the Marcellus/Utica region. In today’s RBN blog, we examine the three big gas-demand drivers behind the shale play’s impending renewal. 

The Marcellus/Utica region is by far the most prolific natural gas production area in the U.S., accounting for about one-third of the nation’s daily output. The shale play experienced phenomenal growth in the 2010s, its gas production rising from less than 2 Bcf/d to more than 33 Bcf/d over that decade. But the pace of growth has slowed dramatically in recent years, mostly due to takeaway constraints. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss how a combination of new pipeline projects, in-basin data center development and incremental Gulf Coast LNG demand might breathe new life into the Marcellus/Utica. 

Utilities in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, all anticipating rapid growth in electricity demand through the 2030s, have ambitious plans for renewables but are acknowledging that solar and offshore wind will need to be backed up by a lot more natural gas-fired generation. Fortunately, the new Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and planned expansions to it and the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) system are providing utilities in the three-state region with enhanced access to Marcellus/Utica-sourced natural gas, albeit at premium prices to gas users closer to that production. In today’s RBN blog, we continue our look at rising demand for electricity and gas in Virginia and the Carolinas with a review of what the largest utilities there are planning. 

The Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and planned expansions to it and the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) system are providing utilities, data centers and others in Virginia and the Carolinas with enhanced access to Marcellus/Utica-sourced natural gas — and man, will they need it! Plans for new generating capacity between Washington, DC and the South Carolina/Georgia state line are proliferating, and the increasing ability to move large volumes of gas south on MVP and Transco will give producers in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio an important incremental outlet for their gas well into the 2030s. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll discuss the boom in power demand in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina and the very timely expansion of gas-pipeline access to three states. 

When it comes to midstream development in the Northeast, Appalachian natural gas producers have learned by now not to hold their breath. The region is notorious for its staunch environmental opposition to hydrocarbon infrastructure and its propensity for sending gas pipeline projects to the trash pile. Against all odds, however, midstream development in the region has thawed in recent months, in large part spurred by the unlikely advancement of Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), the long-embattled project to move up to 2 Bcf/d from the Appalachia gas supply basin to the Transco Corridor, which runs north-south along the Eastern Seaboard. In today’s RBN blog, we take a look at historical flows on Williams’s Transco Pipeline and what they can tell us about how MVP and Transco’s own planned expansions might reshape gas flows along the corridor. 

Appalachian natural gas producers got good news earlier this month: Williams announced it was moving forward with the Southeast Supply Enhancement project, a large-scale expansion of southbound capacity out of the Northeast on its Transco Pipeline system. Not only that, but it super-sized the project to 1.4 Bcf/d of capacity — nearly double the 800 MMcf/d it had offered in an open season held this summer. The project is one of several brownfield expansions planned to provide additional supply access in Transco’s premium Zone 5 market area, which runs through Virginia and North Carolina — and the first large-scale takeaway expansion to be announced in the area since the long-delayed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) was cleared for completion following years of regulatory and legal hurdles. In today’s RBN blog, we provide the latest on the Transco Corridor expansions.

It took an “Act of Congress” and a decision from the highest court in the land — handed down by the Chief Justice no less — but it’s looking more and more like Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) will be completed as early as by the end of this year, opening up 2 Bcf/d of new takeaway capacity for the increasingly pipeline-constrained Appalachian gas supply basin. That’s shifted the industry’s gaze to bottlenecks downstream of where the bulk of the volumes flowing on the new pipeline will land — on the doorstep of Williams’s Transco Pipeline in southern Virginia. A number of midstream expansions have been announced to capture the influx of natural gas supply from MVP and shuttle it to downstream markets in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions, and indications are that more will be announced and greenlighted in the coming months. These projects will be key to both enabling gas production growth in the Appalachia basin as well as meeting growing gas demand in the premium markets lying on the other side of the constraints. In today’s RBN blog, we delve into the details and timing of the announced expansion projects vying to increase market access to MVP supply.

With the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project clearing some major legal hurdles in recent weeks and construction resuming, it’s become increasingly likely that Appalachian gas producers will soon have 2 Bcf/d of new takeaway capacity, potentially as early as late 2023. However, the degree to which the pipeline will translate into higher production from the supply basin and improved supply access for the gas-thirsty, premium markets in the Southeast will largely depend on the availability of transportation capacity downstream of MVP. As such, the race is on to expand pipeline capacity from the pipe’s termination point at Williams’s Transco Pipeline Station 165 in southern Virginia, not only to deal with the impending influx of supply from MVP but also to move that gas to growing demand centers in Virginia and the Carolinas. MVP’s lead developer, Equitrans Midstream, is hoping to build an extension to the mainline — the MVP Southgate project — while Transco has designs of its own for capturing downstream customers. In today’s RBN blog, we provide an update on MVP and the various expansion projects in the works to move newly available supply to market.