Permian Processing and Pipeline Problems Probably Will Persist

SUGAR LAND--February 7, 2020--Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Oil & Gas infrastructure developers working in the Permian Basin are dancing as fast as they can to keep up with growing production of natural gas from that region. It's not nearly fast enough.

Last year's completion of the Gulf Coast Pipeline, which can transport up to 2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of gas from West Texas to the Gulf Coast, helped alleviate some of the imbalance between gas production and gas infrastructure capacity, Shane Mullins, Industrial Info's vice president of product development for energy markets, told an audience of about 1,500 late last month at Industrial Info's 2020 Industrial Market Outlook briefing in Houston, Texas. But that pipeline cannot singlehandedly bring into balance the Permian's production gains and takeaway capacity, he continued, and no new gas pipeline is scheduled to begin operating in 2020.