WASHINGTON -- North America’s extensive natural gas pipeline network has made rapid development of the unconventional shale plays possible, a panel of pipeline industry leaders told the North American Gas Forum on Tuesday, Sept.30.

That does not mean the system perfectly matches gas production and demand. Major changes and additions will be needed as the shale plays continue to grow in importance. The lightly served northeastern U.S. is a particular question mark, the panelists agreed.

Joan Dreskin, general counsel for the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) chaired the presentation. Other panelists were Rory Miller, senior vice president, Atlantic and Gulf, for Williams Cos. Inc.; and Bill Yardley, president, U.S. transmission, for Spectra Energy Corp.

“Pipelines make it possible,” Dreskin said of the shale boom as she opened the discussion. “We have a robust, integrated grid that is the best in the world that creates a national commodity market.” But growing gas output from regions with little midstream infrastructure has “made us replumb our system, north to south and east to west,” she added.

“We will see a tremendous amount of building in the next 20 years,” Dreskin predicted, quoting results for the recent INGAA Foundation study that forecasted the gas pipeline business will need to invest some $313 billion through 2035 to keep up with demand. That translates into 338,815 miles of new pipeline, or some 15,400 new miles of pipe annually. In comparison, Dreskin said the industry added 10,500 miles of new line in the decade from 2004 through 2014.

Miller reviewed Williams’ system that covers much of the U.S. and reaches into Canada and out into the Gulf of Mexico. The Marcellus and Utica plays have been a particular challenge for the Tulsa, Okla.-based firm, he said. Miller noted Marcellus gas production increased by 1,400% in two years from essentially zero. He projected the gas production from the play will increase another 2,400% by 2017.

Williams moves some 3.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) out of the Marcellus now, “and it would be over 3 ½ billion if we had any more capacity,” Miller said.

Unfortunately, the existing pipeline network linking the Marcellus to the major gas markets in New York and New England is limited, and that caused price spikes during the bitter 2013-2014 winter. He said gas producers feeding into Williams’ Leidy system in Pennsylvania continued to receive only $3 to $4 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) for their production during the cold-weather spikes when citygate prices at New York briefly touched $120.70/Mcf.

“And the pipeline made the same, we have a [flat] postage-stamp rate. Infrastructure constraints create gas price volatility,” he added. Williams is investing in $3.3 billion in new capacity. “We’re looking for what is not working,” Miller said.

However, confusing and overlapping regulatory procedures have greatly increased the time and cost of new infrastructure. He cited an addition to the Constitution Pipeline that cost $4.8 million per mile to build, compared with the undersea Keathley Canyon Connector—considered a high-tech, state-of-the-art, at-sea system—at $1.7 million per mile.

The difference was primarily due to figuring out and responding to conflicting regulatory requirements. “Constitution has dozens of overlapping regulations while Keathley has one: the federal government,” he said.

The new Rockaway Beach pipeline on Long Island “literally took an act of Congress” since it crosses National Park Service land. Miller said President Obama’s required letter approving the project has been framed and posted on a wall in Williams’ offices.

Yardley agreed with his panelists’ assessments of the continent’s gas pipeline system, adding, “It’s like playing the Super Bowl every day.” Houston-based Spectra, with an extensive pipeline network in Canada and the U.S., is similar in scope—and challenges—to Williams’ system, Yardley said. He added Spectra expects to invest $35 billion in new infrastructure by 2020.

He said the Northeast’s gas supply troubles are due to the region’s late entrance into the pipeline grid. Northeast pipelines were built to serve a comparatively light consumer load in a region with light demand from industry and power firms. Yet now, the New England states are moving aggressively to replace coal-fired and nuclear power plants with gas and renewables. He said in just a few years regional power producers have moved from 15% gas-fired capacity to 50% “and they have no firm capacity” with pipelines to fire those plants, Yardley added.

Spectra is working with Northeast Utilities, the region’s largest power generator, on the Access Northeast project to add new gas pipeline capacity to serve primarily the growing power-generation market. The new line could enter service in 2018 and that new base load for power plants will help ease the occasional spurts in consumer demand that create price spikes in cold weather.

But the problem is regulation, Yardley cautioned. He said pipeline operators must have clear signals from regulators. “We can deal with what we know,” he added.

Miller commented on Yardley’s assessment during a question-and-answer session, saying, “There’s a lot of finger-pointing going on. It’s a regional problem. Something’s broken.” A particular help would come if the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission would set firm deadlines for comments from state and local regulators, he added.