Up Around the Bend, Part 3 - Midstream Constraints Loom for Northeast Gas Production

RBN Energy Blogcast

It’s no secret to anybody paying attention to U.S. natural gas markets that Appalachia has long been bedeviled by midstream constraints, often leading to deep gas price discounts. There have been brief respites when new capacity has come online, allowing more gas to flow out, but if you've been reading our blogs and natural gas reports lately, you know we've been sounding the alarm about the growing specter of constraints reemerging. Across the country, the boom in pipeline reversals, greenfield projects, and pipeline expansions that characterized much of the 2010s is pretty much over, with just a couple of approved expansions left, and it’s gotten much harder for projects offering additional capacity to gain traction, especially in the Northeast. In today’s RBN blog, we consider the big questions facing the region: how fast will Appalachian gas production grow, how much running room do producers have left, and what are the implications of midstream constraints for forecast supply growth?