Double E Seeks U.S. Approval for Texas-New Mexico Natural Gas Pipeline

Double E Pipeline LLC has asked U.S. energy regulators for permission to start building its natural gas pipeline project in Texas and New Mexico, a filing made available on Tuesday shows.

According to its website, Double E is owned by units of Summit Midstream Partners LP, which has 70%, and Exxon Mobil Corp, which owns 30% of the company.

Double E wants to build a 135-mile (217-km) pipeline to transport about 1.35 billion cubic feet per day of gas from the Delaware Basin in the Permian Shale in New Mexico and Texas to the Waha hub in West Texas. One billion cubic feet is enough to supply about 5 million U.S. homes for a day.

Double E is one of several pipelines proposed to transport Permian gas and is expected to enter service in 2021.

The Permian is the biggest U.S. production area for crude oil and the second biggest for gas. Drillers there are mostly seeking oil, which comes out of the ground with a lot of associated gas.

Permian producers have burned record amounts of gas in recent years due to a lack of gas pipeline capacity. That lack of capacity caused gas prices at the Waha hub to turn negative several times in 2019 and 2020, which means some producers paid others to take their gas.

In addition to Double E, other gas pipes under construction or development in the Permian include WhiteWater Midstream and MPLX LP’s 1.8-bcfd Agua Blanca project, which is expected to enter service in early 2021, and WhiteWater, MPLX, West Texas Gas Inc and Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners’ 2.0-bcfd Whistler project, expected in the second half of 2021.

Kinder Morgan Inc’s 2.1-bcfd Permian Highway pipe, meanwhile, entered service on Jan. 1.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Alexander Smith)