Houston-based Kinder Morgan has announced plans to build a major new gas pipeline from West Texas’ prolific Permian Basin shale field to the US Gulf Coast.
The 42-inch-wide Gulf Coast Express pipeline would transport 1.7 billion cubic feet of gas from the Waha Hub near West Texas’ oil-rich Permian Basin – which has seen a continued rise in activity despite the period of low oil prices - to Agua Dulce in Nueces County, west of Corpus Christi.
“We clearly see that there’s a very big market for natural gas,” Kinder Morgan spokeswoman Melissa Ruiz said. “As far as fossil fuels go, it’s clean, efficient and abundant. It’s a great source for power generation when they’re replacing coal units. We think that natural gas is a very strong fuel of choice in the future.”
The project’s open season for bids started last week and goes through April 20. Ruiz said the company plans to break ground in the first half of 2018, pending signed commitments from shippers, and would be online by mid-2019. She would not comment how much the pipeline would cost.
The pipeline will facilitate the growing exports from South Texas, including to Mexico, as well as growing demand from petrochemical plants on the coast. The pipeline will also allow supply to Cheniere Energy’s LNG project north of Corpus Christi that, when completed, could take in 3.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily.
Kinder Morgan operates about 70,000 miles of natural gas pipelines throughout North America.