Analyst: End of an Era for Large Greenfield Gas Pipes?

Joseph

Markman

HartEnergy.com

High costs, regulatory hurdles and environmentalist opponents have made it difficult to construct major natural gas pipelines out of Appalachia.

A gas pipeline under construction in Pennsylvania. (Source: George Sheldon/Shutterstock.com)

Will the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Appalachia be among the last of the large greenfield projects? Colette Breshears, senior research manager and head of North American infrastructure at Wood Mackenzie, thinks so.

“Mountain Valley Pipeline is having a very tough time of it,” Breshears said at the recent Midstream PA conference. “Tougher than [Energy Transfer LP’s] Rover had.”

Despite the project’s travails, Wood Mackenzie expects Mountain Valley to be completed. Such has not been the case for many major projects, like the Atlantic Coast Pipeline that was canceled last year. Which almost begs the question: why would a pipeline company put up with the aggravation of pursuing major projects like this? Simple answer: the gas production