Clearfork Midstream LLC said Tuesday it culminated a series of expansions across its Holly System in North Louisiana, boosting its gathering and processing (G&P) volumes there above 1.0 Bcf/d as the company responds to strong demand from natural gas producers in the Haynesville Shale.
“These significant system upgrades extend” Clearfork “into new areas throughout the Haynesville core,” said CEO Kipper Overstreet.
Fort Worth, TX-based Clearfork said it significantly expanded its North Louisiana gathering footprint to the east and west, and it is building a new gathering pipe further west into Panola County, Texas.
The recently completed eastside 14-mile, 24-inch diameter pipeline grows Clearfork’s system to east Red River Parish and serves customers targeting the Haynesville. On the west side, the company said its new 8-mile, 16-inch diameter pipeline gathers gas from the Spring Ridge area of Caddo Parish. It will connect to a new in-construction 12-mile, 10-inch diameter gathering lateral that will extend Clearfork’s gathering capacity across southwestern Caddo Parish, Louisiana, into Panola County, Texas.
The expansions build on assets formerly owned by Azure Midstream Energy LLC.
Additionally, EnCap Flatrock Midstream-backed Clearfork said it completed construction on an additional 400 MMcfd of treating capacity and more than 10,000 horsepower of compression in North Louisiana at its Holly 3 and Holly 6 facilities. With these projects in service, Clearfork’s Holly System now has capacity to gather and treat approximately 1.25 Bcf/d of natural gas.
That brings the total gathering and treating capacity of Clearfork’s combined Holly and Shelby Systems in the Haynesville and Shelby Trough to approximately 1.65 Bcf/d, the company said.
The expansion comes at a time when U.S. production has held around or above 100 Bcf/d through most of 2023 – near record levels. With a spate of new LNG export facilities slated to open next year – and more to follow in ensuing years – the Energy Information Administration (EIA) has said in multiple forecasts this year that it expects production, including in the Haynesville, to prove similarly strong in coming years to meet robust demand for liquefied natural gas.
Europe is in the midst of weaning itself off Russian gas in protest of the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, and countries across the continent are calling for U.S. exports to fill the void. Asian countries, too, are rapidly growing and need more gas to both displace coal and meet mounting overall energy needs as economies there develop.
As such, even with natural gas futures prices hovering below $3.00/MMBtu this summer – far from the $9.00 level of a year earlier – Clearfork expects robust activity on its system for the foreseeable future.
“Fundamentally, the world is short natural gas,” Overstreet told NGI in an interview earlier this year. “That is our biggest driver. We are still very bullish.”
