FERC approves new natural gas pipeline projects to increase U.S. exports

Our recently updated Natural Gas Pipeline Project Tracker tracks recently approved and completed natural gas pipeline projects. In the first quarter of 2022, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved three projects intended to increase U.S. natural gas exports via pipeline and as liquefied natural gas (LNG). Our tracker also lists pipelines that were completed last quarter.

FERC approved two projects that connect to LNG terminals in Louisiana. The Evangeline Pass Expansion Project is a 1.1 billion cubic feet (Bcf/d) project owned by Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company. The project includes 13.1 miles of new pipeline and two new compressor stations that will deliver natural gas to the proposed Plaquemines LNG Project in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. The Alberta Xpress Project is a 0.17 Bcf/d project owned by TC Energy that will use existing capacity on the Great Lakes Gas Transmission (GLGT) system and the ANR pipeline and will add a new compressor station in Evangeline Parish, Louisiana. The project expands capacity from the GLGT receipt point at the Minnesota-Manitoba border to delivery points in the U.S. Midwest and U.S. Gulf Coast, increasing the available capacity for LNG export facilities in the region. This project also improves the domestic natural gas infrastructure in those areas.

The third project FERC approved expands capacity by 0.5 Bcf/d to transport U.S. natural gas via pipeline to the Energia Costa Azul LNG Export Project in Baja California, Mexico. TC Energy’s North Baja Xpress Project modifies existing facilities and compressor stations along its 86-mile North Baja Pipeline.

Two notable projects were completed in Florida and North Dakota this past quarter. The Putnam Expansion Project is a 0.17 Bcf/d expansion project on the Florida Gas Transmission pipeline that facilitates natural gas deliveries to a Seminole Generation Cooperative natural gas-fired power plant in Putnam County, Florida. The North Bakken Expansion Project is a 62-mile extension of the Williston Basin Interstate (WBI) pipeline system. The project provides 0.25 Bcf/d of additional takeaway capacity for natural gas produced in the core production area of the Bakken region in North Dakota and connects to the Northern Border Pipeline.

We estimate that over 0.43 Bcf/d of new natural gas pipeline capacity was completed in the first quarter of 2022. In 2021, we estimate that the United States added 7.44 Bcf/d of new pipeline capacity, the lowest amount added to interstate transmission since 2016.

Principal contributor: Stephen York