American Oil and Gas Reporter - March 2023 - 42

SpecialReport: Natural Gas Infrastructure
the project's activity with the land acquisition
activity for more than 10 large diameter
pipeline projects in Texas that have
been completed, we can estimate how far
along Matterhorn is in that process and
what the in service date may look like.
As shown in Figure 1, Matterhorn began
serious efforts to acquire land rights
in November 2022. Based on similar
projects, the pipeline could be in service
by the middle of 2024, which is a bit
earlier than its announced date of the
third quarter of 2024.
We have yet to see similar land acquisition
activity for Energy Transfer's Warrior
project, but that is not surprising. On its
most recent earnings call, Energy Transfer
noted that the timing for that project may
need to await additional supply coming
on line over the next few years.
Also, even before they acquire land,
pipelines often must file lawsuits to obtain
access to land for environmental studies
and route planning. According to Texas
court records, Warrior began filing access
suits in September 2022. Assuming Warrior
succeeds at getting shippers to underwrite
FIGURE 2
Projected Timeline for Matterhorn to Enter Service
2.5
Matterhorn
Expected
2.0
its project, it may be in a very good
position to move forward quickly.
A Positive Sign
Alongside the four expansions to mainline
capacity out of the Permian, there
are three projects moving forward that
are designed to make existing pipelines
more attractive to producers: Transcontinental
Pipeline's (Transco) Texas to
Louisiana Energy Pathway, Double E
Pipeline's Red Hills Lateral and Whistler
Pipeline's ADCC extension.
Transco's Texas to Louisiana Energy
Pathway project will provide 364,400
dekatherms a day of firm capacity to its
only shipper to allow for transportation
to market of its natural gas supplies from
western and southern Texas. The project
involves converting some interruptible
capacity to firm and increasing the system's
overall capacity in Transco's first, second
and third zones.
According to Transco's application,
the shipper's gas volumes are produced
at a relatively uniform rate, are sold to its
customers accordingly, and require reliable,
consistent access to markets. The shipper's
access to markets from its production
basins has been constrained by limited
pipeline infrastructure and the low scheduling
priority and potential intermittency
or unavailability of interruptible transportation.
Transco has requested that the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
issue a final order approving the project
by the first quarter of 2024 so it can be in
service by the first quarter of 2025.
Last year, we would have considered
that request to be at risk, primarily because
under former Chairman Glick, FERC
staff apparently had been directed to prepare
a full environmental impact statement
for all pipeline expansion projects. Based
on that requirement, FERC staff released
an environmental review schedule that
projected the EIS would not be issued
until Nov. 30, 2023. However, Chairman
Glick's renomination was never brought
to the floor of the Senate. Thus, when
the new Congress convened on Jan. 3,
his term at FERC ended.
At Arbo, we remain cautiously optimistic
that Chairman Glick's replacement,
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
December
2021
April
2022
August
2022
42 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER
December
2022
April
2023
August
2023
December
2023
April 2024
Potential
In-Service Data
Cumulative Easements Per Mile
American Oil and Gas Reporter - March 2023

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