SEATTLE (Oil Monster): The head of the biggest US natural gas company has warned Congress it needs to cut project approval times to better compete with Russian gas exports and win the artificial intelligence race against China.
The comments by EQT chief executive Toby Rice add to growing concerns that America’s byzantine permitting process is driving up costs and project times for building infrastructure such as wells, pipelines and power plants — preventing the US from delivering the energy it needs to compete with its adversaries.
“Congress [needs] to step up and act,” said Rice in an interview with the Financial Times.
“The threat of not getting infrastructure built has only gotten larger — not only from bad actors getting rich by selling energy that could be replaced with American energy — it’s also the threat of China winning the AI race.”
Oil and gas companies have long bemoaned the pace of project approvals under US local, state and federal governments.
Of particular concern, Rice noted, is judicial review, which allows individuals and groups to legally challenge permit decisions for up to six years after an agency makes a decision. Previous attempts at permitting reform have suggested reducing that time window.
“We need to make sure we have judicial reform,” he said. “That would be incredibly impactful.”
Rice also blamed the fast-tracking of renewable sources, such as wind and solar, for driving up energy costs.
“When we spent the last 10 years ripping out coal, shutting down nuclear and making it more challenging to get natural gas infrastructure built, nobody should be questioning why prices are up and grid reliability is a major concern.
“[Congress should] get away from picking winners and losers,” he said.
President Donald Trump has made “unleashing American energy dominance” a priority for his second stint in the White House. In January, Trump lifted a Joe Biden-era ban on new liquefied natural gas export terminals along the US coastline and directed the Maritime Administration to expedite permits.
These actions come as the US races to meet growing domestic and global power demand caused by the data centres used to build and develop Ai. The International Energy Agency predicts that electricity demand from data centres worldwide is set to double to 945TWh by 2030.
On Tuesday EQT signed an agreement in principle to provide gas to a 4.4GW plant that will power the Homer City Energy Campus, a 3,200 acre data centre in Pennsylvania.
Markets such as Europe have also been working to wean themselves off Russian gas since the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as well as turning to American imports to avoid tariffs.
On Wednesday one of Europe’s largest energy companies, ENI, signed a 20-year agreement to buy 2mn metric tonnes of LNG from Venture Global.
Trump’s flagship “big, beautiful bill” contained provisions capping the length of permit reviews, while the Department of Energy recently rolled back some environmental rules that it said were slowing down approvals.
Trump is believed to have revived the Constitution Pipeline, a 124-mile project that was cancelled five years ago after pressure from environmental activists, in exchange for lifting a stop work order on Equinor’s Empire Wind.
However, federal attempts at reform may still brush up against state-level restrictions.
“States that have been opposed to pipeline development, such as New York and California, can still use state level regulations to block projects,” said Eugene Kim, a research director on Wood Mackenzie’s Americas gas research team. “Despite all the Trump administration-led reform, we still need a lot more.”
The sector has also been hit by weak natural gas prices since the surge caused by Russia’s invasion in 2022.
While acknowledging that “prices are always going to be an issue and one of the bigger factors on our activity levels”, EQT says it has cut its unlevered cost structure from $3 to $2 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) by increasing rig efficiency and the acquisition of Equitrans Midstream. Rice predicts that prices will reach $4 per MMBtu in 2026.
“Just for perspective, $4 natural gas is the equivalent of $24 oil, so we’re still providing an amazingly affordable energy solution,” he said. “This will catalyse a lot of demand and growth prospects.”
Courtesy: www.ft.com
