Lindsay Schneider

It has been a volatile spring and summer for global natural gas markets as the war in Iran has dragged on, seemingly causing prices to jump — or falter — with every headline. Today, we discuss Europe’s gas storage woes and the potential ramifications as its time runs out to refill inventories.

Natural gas prices in the Permian spent the first half of the year in the red. Then, in mid-June, Kinder Morgan flipped a switch and now Waha prices are back above zero. The “switch” was a compression expansion on Gulf Coast Express, which added a desperately needed 570 MMcf/d of takeaway capacity.

Three new U.S. LNG projects have reached a positive final investment decision this year: Venture Global’s CP2 Phase 2, Caturus’s Commonwealth LNG, and now, most recently, Delfin Midstream’s Delfin LNG, which will be the U.S.’s first floating LNG project. 

The U.S. is at the tail end of an incredible wave of LNG expansion that has so far seen nine new projects across seven terminals reach a final investment decision in a little over a year. Today, we take a closer look at the Commonwealth LNG project and what comes next for U.S. LNG development.

This year will be a tale of two halves for the Permian. Natural gas production and pricing figure to remain fairly stable until the back half of this year, when more than 5 Bcf/d of new pipeline capacity comes online, giving the basin room to grow for the first time in a long time.