Permian gas starts flowing on Matterhorn pipeline in Texas

(WO) - Matterhorn Express Pipeline has begun transporting natural gas into Williams Cos.’s Transco pipeline, a long-awaited addition to midstream infrastructure serving the Permian basin.

Matterhorn is moving about 0.3 Bcf/d into Transco, an established pipeline that connects near Katy, Texas, traders said Tuesday. US natural gas futures settled down 0.9% in New York.

Matterhorn has a design capacity of 2.5 Bcf/d. It stretches about 580 miles (933 kilometers) to take gas from the Waha hub in West Texas to the Houston area, connecting Transco and other pipelines, ultimately serving domestic consumers including liquefied natural gas export plants on the Gulf Coast.

The Permian is the most prolific U.S. oil patch and natural gas output is a plentiful — and growing — byproduct of fracking there. But until now, a lack of pipeline capacity connecting it with the Gulf Coast and Southern California has meant prices at Waha have at times gone negative — in others words, producers have effectively been paying to get rid of the fuel.

The spread, or difference, between the Waha cash hub and Henry Hub tightened Tuesday, according to traders with knowledge of the pricing data, which is not public, as the added pipeline capacity eases pent up supply.

Whitewater Midstream, which developed Matterhorn through a joint venture with EnLink Midstream, Devon Energy and MPLX, didn’t respond to a request for comment.