Roughly 38% of additional natural gas pipeline capacity is slated to come online in the U.S. Northeast just in 2018, according to the Energy Information Administration.
By the end of this year, if all projects come online by their scheduled service dates, more than 23 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of takeaway capacity will be online out of the Northeast, up from an estimated 16.7 Bcf/d at the end of 2017 — and more than three times the takeaway capacity at the end of 2014.
Currently, the growth of natural gas production in the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia is constrained by the lack of available takeaway pipeline capacity to move it to new markets, Kallanish Energy reports.
“As new pipeline projects come online, they will create an outlet for increased production, providing natural gas to demand markets in the Midwest, the Southeast, eastern Canada, and the Gulf Coast,” according to EIA.
Associated with 4 major interstate lines
Of the projects scheduled to be in service by the end of 2018, most are associated with four major interstate pipelines: Columbia Pipeline Group (TCO), which includes both Columbia Gas and Columbia Gulf Transmission; Transcontinental Gas Pipeline (Transco); Rover Pipeline; and NEXUS Pipeline.
The Columbia Pipeline Group has two expansion projects intended to add 4.2 Bcf/d of takeaway capacity out of the Northeast: Leach Xpress and Mountaineer Xpress.
The Leach Xpress project, which entered service on Jan. 1, supplies 1.5 Bcf/d of capacity out of West Virginia and Ohio, and the Mountaineer Xpress project, slated to enter service in late 2018, will increase takeaway out of West Virginia by an additional 2.7 Bcf/d.
Directly to the Gulf
As much as 2 Bcf/d of the natural gas from these two pipelines can be sent directly to the Gulf Coast via expansion projects on TCO’s Columbia Gulf pipeline, and the remainder will enter the TCO pool in Boyd County, Ky.
Another TCO expansion project, the WB Xpress, will increase mainline capacity to both the east (500 million cubic feet per day, or MMcf/d) and west (800 MMcf/d) when it’s completed later this year.
Three projects associated with the Transcontinental Gas Pipeline (Transco) are intended to add more than 3 Bcf/d of capacity out of Pennsylvania and West Virginia: Atlantic Sunrise, Mountain Valley and the Equitrans Expansion.
Atlantic Sunrise, the first phase of which was completed in 2017, is a nearly $3 billion project that will provide 1.7 Bcf/d of bidirectional capacity on the Transco System.
The Mountain Valley Pipeline (2.0 Bcf/d), a new pipeline from West Virginia to the Transco system in southern Virginia, and the Equitrans Expansion Project (0.6 Bcf/d), which brings natural gas from northwest Pennsylvania to an interconnection with the Mountain Valley Pipeline, are also scheduled to come online in 2018.
Rover Phase 2 coming
The first phase of Rover Pipeline — which has had its share of regulatory compliance problems during construction — was completed in late 2017, and Phase 2 is expected to come online in mid-2018. Phase 2 includes 3.25 Bcf/d of new capacity into Midwestern markets and the Dawn hub in Ontario, Canada.
NEXUS Pipeline, which follows a similar route to Rover, will add 1.5 Bcf/d of new capacity. Natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shales will be delivered to this pipeline by the 950 MMcf/d Appalachian Lease project, also scheduled to come online in 2018.
