Waves of North American Gas Infrastructure Needed for Supplies and LNG

Midstream companies in North America will spend $50 billion this year and next to keep up with surging volumes of natural gas from prime shale basins. Nevertheless, another round of investment is likely to be needed before the end of the decade as the next generation of LNG export terminals are built in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

From 2016 to 2021, U.S. LNG export nameplate capacity went from essentially zero to 10 Bcf/d. In another six years, that total will rise to 20 Bcf/d. 

Midstream companies have been busy building “a runway of new pipe through 2025,” says Ryan Smith, vice president of advisory services at East Daley. “But by 2028, there will be 18 Bcf/d of new LNG export demand—4.2 Bcf/d in Texas and 13.8 Bcf/d in Louisiana—and only about half that capacity of new pipe.”