Rising demand for natural gas in the United States and a supportive administration are prompting U.S. natural gas producers and pipeline giants to begin to actively consider proposing new pipelines to bring more gas supply from America’s top gas-producing region, Appalachia, to consumers.
“We are actively evaluating opportunities to expand infrastructure,” Amy Rogers, a spokeswoman for one of the top U.S. natural gas producers, EQT, told Reuters.
“Enhancing pipeline capacity is essential to unlocking Appalachian supply,” Rogers added.
EQT’s chief executive officer, Toby Rice, said in West Virginia as early as in March that more natural gas pipelines are coming in the Appalachia region, to meet growing demand from data centers and coal retirements.
“So we’ve got to get serious about this, and these data center opportunities in our state are they’re the reasons for us to get started and start building back and capturing some of the lost time that we had,” Rice said at a meeting attended by West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey, as carried by West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
Other producers and pipeline giants, including Williams Cos and DT Midstream, have also proposed new or expanded pipeline capacity in the Appalachia region and in the Northeast.
Last year, the Appalachia region remained the nation’s top-producing region, accounting for 31%, or 35.6 Bcf/d, of marketed natural gas production in the United States, EIA data showed. However, production growth in the Appalachia has been slowing in recent years because of limited pipeline takeaway capacity to transport natural gas to demand markets, the administration noted. Appalachian production rose slightly by only 0.1%, or 0.50 million cubic feet per day, in 2024.
Yet, the United States last year added the most pipeline takeaway capacity from natural gas-producing regions since 2021. This year, more gas pipelines could be announced or revived, with the support of the Trump Administration, in what could be a shot in the arm for U.S. natural gas producers and a step toward reducing energy costs for consumers, especially in the Northeast.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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