More natural gas is flowing to a key export terminal along the Texas coast following the in-service earlier this month of WhiteWater Midstream LLC’s Agua Dulce-Corpus Christi (ADCC) pipeline.
The 43-mile, 42-inch diameter intrastate ADCC pipeline began ramping up last week, delivering incremental volumes to Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Corpus Christi LNG facility. The pipeline is designed to transport 1.7 Bcf/d from Whistler Pipeline LLC’s Agua Dulce Waha header in South Texas.
Whistler has the ability to transport up to 2.5 Bcf/d over 450 miles from the Waha header in the Permian Basin to Agua Dulce, providing access to LNG and Mexico export markets.
A 50-mile, 36-inch diameter lateral provides connectivity to the Permian’s Midland sub-basin.
Whistler is a joint venture between WhiteWater, MPLX LP and Enbridge Inc.
Through subsidiary Cheniere ADCC Investments LLC, Houston-based Cheniere acquired a 30% equity interest in ADCC for the WhiteWater expansion. That decision followed a revision to the company’s long-term capital allocation plan to invest in organic LNG export growth.
Cheniere sanctioned the third stage of the Corpus Christi export project in June 2022. Two months later, it pre-filed for Corpus Christi trains eight and nine with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. ADCC was designed to serve the third development stage.
As an intrastate pipeline feeding directly into Corpus Christi LNG, flows from ADCC are not federally regulated.
That creates an additional problem for tracking domestic LNG gas demand, according to NGI’s Dan Spangler, director of analytics.
“It seems like we won't be able to see any flows on Whistler, ADCC or deliveries to the terminal,” Spangler said. While some reporting may be required because of deliveries to LNG terminals, “daily flows seem unlikely.”
[In the Eye of the Storm: North American LNG project developers continue to grapple with the Biden administration's pause on non-FTA permits. Has the pause given impetus to other projects? How are Mexico LNG projects advancing? Tune in to hear from LNG industry analyst Sergio Chapa in the latest episode of NGI's Hub & Flow.]
Spangler said Cheniere would use the extra capacity primarily for the additional trains coming online at Corpus Christi. He noted it also would give them flexibility in the short term.
“If the Corpus Christi pipe was restricted for maintenance, then they could pull from ADCC to make up the difference,” Spangler said.
Agua Dulce prices averaged $1.620/MMBtu on Monday, down 8.0 cents from Friday, according to NGI’s Daily Cash Market Prices. Prices at the South Texas delivery hub spanned between $1.350 and $1.960 since ADCC commenced operations.
