A Texas utility company this week announced an agreement to pipe an additional 1.5 billion cubic feet of Permian Basin gas to the Port Arthur industrial corridor.
Entergy Texas, a regional utility, will partner with pipeline giant Kinder Morgan and Golden Pass LNG on the $1.7 billion, 216-mile Trident Intrastate Pipeline to meet surging power demand in Southeast Texas.
The project, and others like it, will introduce more carbon emissions into the atmosphere, even as Earth barrels past its warming targets. It opens doors to further increases in Permian Basin gas production, which is already at record highs but generally constrained by pipeline capacity, and enables further growth in Port Arthur’s industrial sector, one of the nation’s largest complexes of refineries and chemical plants.
“We believe our Trident Intrastate Pipeline project is critical to meeting rising power, industrial and LNG demand in Texas and are excited to work with Entergy Texas and Golden Pass LNG,” said Sital Mody, president of gas pipelines at Kinder Morgan, in a press release distributed Tuesday evening.
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The pipeline is expected to begin operations in early 2027, aligning with the start of major industrial projects in the area, according to the release. Natural gas is processed at large plants into plastics and chemicals, burnt in furnaces to power industrial processes or super-cooled and exported as LNG.
It will also fuel local power plants to meet surging electrical demands. Entergy Texas, which provides electricity to half a million customers in 12 counties, estimates that it must increase its energy supply 40 percent by 2028 to serve its growing customer base. That’s in line with statewide projections that see electrical demand across Texas doubling in six years, driven by data centers and other large industrial consumers.
“By securing a reliable and sustainable fuel supply, we are building the foundation for a stronger energy future,” said Entergy Texas CEO Eliecer Viamontes.
The Trident Intrastate Pipeline will meet pipelines from the Permian Basin at a transfer hub west of Houston, then carry the shale gas around Southeast Texas and to Port Arthur.
It’s one of several major gas pipeline projects in recent years that are paving the way for higher output from West Texas. The 580-mile Matterhorn Express pipeline began operating late last year, carrying 2.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day to the transfer hub west of Houston.
Production and combustion of natural gas produce carbon emissions that warm the global climate. The gas mixture contains primarily methane, a greenhouse gas 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term.
A 2024 study published in the journal Nature identified widespread leakage of methane from natural gas infrastructure, including wells, storage tanks, pipelines and compressor stations. Natural gas also produces carbon dioxide when burned.
American production of natural gas has surged since the revolution in hydraulic fracturing, doubling between 2005 and 2023. It has helped to reduce nationwide carbon emissions by replacing coal for power generation in many cases. But, where gas meets new demands rather than replacing old supplies, it adds additional carbon to the atmosphere, intensifying a global climate crisis.
The Trident Intrastate Pipeline is designed for an eventual expansion to 2.8 billion cubic feet of gas delivered per day.
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Dylan Baddour
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Dylan Baddour covers the energy sector and environmental justice in Texas. Born in Houston, he’s worked the business desk at the Houston Chronicle, covered the U.S.-Mexico border for international outlets and reported for several years from Colombia for media like The Washington Post, BBC News and The Atlantic. He also spent two years investigating armed groups in Latin America for the global security department at Facebook before returning to Texas journalism. Baddour holds bachelor’s degrees in journalism and Latin American studies from the University of Texas at Austin. He has lived in Argentina, Kazakhstan and Colombia and speaks fluent Spanish.
