What will it take to keep up with shale gas boom? $170 billion

Gas output will expand by 24 Bcf, or 32%, through 2025 from last year, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates. To support that growth, the country’s gas industry needs to spend $170 billion over the next seven years on pipelines, compressor stations, export terminals and other related infrastructure, said Meg Gentle, CEO of gas exporter Tellurian Inc.

“One threat to the U.S. being able to export LNG and expand its export capability is the overall commitment to invest in infrastructure to move natural gas,” Gentle said in an interview at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance Future of Energy Summit in New York Tuesday.

It’s a warning that for parts of the country the pipeline woes aren’t over yet. Appalachian producers have been grappling for the better part of the shale boom of the past decade with limited pipeline access. Spot prices there slumped to record lows last year and have started to rebound as new capacity starts up.

Permian problem

Now the Permian basin, know for its oil-rich layers of rock, is facing the threat of having to slow down the output of crude because drillers lack capacity to handle all the the gas that’s flowing as a mere byproduct.

For companies building multibillion-dollar plants to chill gas into liquid and ship it abroad, the abundance of cheap gas from the Permian in West Texas is an advantage. Developments there “will happen” because it’s an environment supportive to energy infrastructure, she said. That may not happen fast enough for Appalachia.

Producers are getting increasingly concerned about worsening pipeline constraints, Drillinginfo co-founder Allen Gilmer said during a panel at the BNEF summit. Its harder for the industry to get its hands around this because these limits aren’t being driven by operating or engineering issues but more by “social change and cultural conditions,” he said.