(The Center Square) – Two new, high-volume pipelines now entering service in north Louisiana’s Haynesville Shale Region will supply natural gas to rapidly growing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export facilities on the Gulf Coast, further expanding the markets accessible to producers in the northern part of the state.
As global LNG demand continues to drive economic growth on the Louisiana Gulf Coast, midstream companies like Momentum Midstream and Williams Companies are racing to build pipelines that will transport natural gas from the Haynesville production region in the northern part of the state to expanding markets in the south.
Both Momentum’s NG3 Pipeline and William’s Louisiana Energy Gateway (LEG) Pipeline went into service in recent weeks, and each is expected to ramp up to full operating capacity of 1.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day (Bcf/d) by the end of the year.
DT Midstream is currently expanding its LEAP Pipeline, which should add another 300 million cubic feet per day of takeaway capacity Haynesville Region gas producers by the middle of 2026. The DT Midstream expansion along with the new pipelines is expected to provide a combined 3.9 Bcf/d of additional takeaway capacity to Haynesville Basin gas producers during the next 10 months.
Greg Upton, executive director and associate professor of Research at Louisiana State University’s Center for Energy Studies, said the new pipelines are another milestone in the development of the Haynesville Basin. “You go back to before 2015 – we were essentially exporting 0% of U.S. gas – and since then we’ve seen a truly remarkable increase in LNG exports,” Upton said.
“Now the U.S. exports about 12% of the gas it produces, and the growth in LNG exports over the last 10 years has been an important driver in the in growth in the Haynesville Shale. The new pipelines are needed to connect the gas produced in the Haynesville Shale to the export facilities,” said Upton.
Hayneville gas production reached about 14.7 Bcf/d in 2023 but then dropped to 11.0 Bcf/d in early 2025 before hitting an all-time high 15 Bcf/d in July. In its most recent forecast, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates Haynesville region natural gas production will average 15.6 Bcf/d in 2026.
The gas shipped on the new pipelines from the Haynesville region to the Gulf Coast will also supply LNG terminals located in the Port Arthur, Texas, area, just a few miles west of the Louisiana border. The Golden Pass LNG terminal now under construction in Port Arthur is expected to begin commercial service near the start of 2026, and by the end of the year it will need gas supplies totaling about 2.55 Bcf/d from both the Permian and Haynesville basins.
The Corpus Christi LNG Stage 3 expansion is expected to boost production by 0.9 Bcf/d using gas supplied primarily produced in the Permian Shale Region. Also in Texas, Midstream company Energy Transfer is currently building the first phase of the Hugh Brinson Pipeline, which should be capable of moving 1.5 Bcf/d of natural gas from the Permian Region to the Port Arthur area by the end of 2026.
