April 2014, Vol. 69 No. 4
Newsline
North America Needs $30B Annually For Energy Infrastructure
The United States and Canada will require annual average midstream natural gas, crude oil and natural gas liquids midstream infrastructure investment of nearly $30 billion per year, or $641 billion total over the 22-year period from 2014 to 2035, a new study finds.
The report, North American Midstream Infrastructure Through 2035: Capitalizing on Our Energy Abundance, conducted by ICF International on behalf of the INGAA Foundation, updates a 2011 infrastructure report to reflect dynamic changes in the natural gas, NGL and crude oil industry in recent years. America’s Natural Gas Alliance was a co-sponsor of the report.
About $14.2 billion per year, or $313.1 billion total, midstream natural gas investment will be needed from 2014 to 2035 to accommodate new gas supplies, particularly from the prolific shale plays, and growing demand for gas in power generation, industrial applications and exports, the study finds. Natural gas midstream infrastructure includes mainlines, laterals, processing, storage, compression and gathering lines.
Meanwhile, some $2.5 billion per year, or $56 billion total, of investment will be needed for NGL infrastructure (transmission pipelines, pumping, fractionation and NGL export facilities), while $12.4 billion per year, or $271.8 billion total, of investment will be needed for crude oil infrastructure (gathering pipeline, lease equipment, mainline pipeline and pumping, storage laterals and storage tanks).
This total midstream investment will create more than 432,000 jobs, add approximately $885 billion to U.S. and Canadian economies, and bring in over $300 billion in federal, state/provincial and local taxes.
“This report shows a vibrant natural gas market in the future, and it also demonstrates the need for additional midstream infrastructure to support natural gas fulfilling its potential as a foundation fuel for our energy economy,” said INGAA Foundation President Don Santa. “The good news is that the natural gas industry has a proven track record of financing and constructing this level of infrastructure.”
Santa noted that because of the linkage between natural gas, crude oil and NGLs, it has become necessary to view energy pipelines in holistic terms. “While the Foundation has done its flagship natural gas infrastructure reports for over 20 years, the last two reports have broken new ground by recognizing the importance of including NGL and crude oil infrastructure to provide a broader prospective on how prices and production of the three commodities can impact the market and infrastructure development.”
The study finds that new infrastructure will be required to move natural gas, NGLs and crude oil from regions where production is expected to grow and to areas where demand is expected to increase. Not all areas will require significant new pipeline infrastructure, but most areas will require new investment to connect new supplies to markets.
Go to the INGAA.org website for the executive summary and additional report details.
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