‘Ring Boys’ case moving forward

(The Center Square) - Federal regulators authorized initial construction Tuesday on a southwest Louisiana gas storage project and related infrastructure that developer Black Bayou Energy Hub LLC says represents a planned $1.6 billion investment.The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Oct. 20 limited notice to proceed, listed under docket CP24-494-000, authorizes Black Bayou Gas Storage LLC, a subsidiary of Black Bayou Energy Hub, to begin construction of certain facilities. The project, backed by global energy trader Mercuria, includes a 720-acre site in Cameron Parish about 7 miles east of the Louisiana-Texas border.In a Sept. 10, 2026, announcement, Louisiana Economic Development said the state offered the company $1 million for infrastructure improvements and workforce assistance. LED said the company is also expected to participate in the state’s High Impact Jobs and Industrial Tax Exemption programs. The announcement did not specify the value of those anticipated benefits.LED estimates the project will create 23 direct jobs and 35 indirect jobs across southwest Louisiana and Acadiana and support more than 1,000 temporary jobs at peak construction.“Receiving FERC certification is a key inflection point for the Black Bayou Energy Hub,” said Boris Bystrov, managing director of investments at Mercuria, in an Oct. 1, 2025, statement about the earlier certificate approval. “Strategic infrastructure projects like this are essential to our broader mission of enhancing market efficiency and supporting the energy transition. We are proud to back the development of this highly flexible and commercially significant asset in the heart of the U.S. Gulf Coast.”The construction authorization is separate from a capacity amendment that the company says FERC approved to increase the project’s working gas capacity from 34.7 billion to 44.4 billion cubic feet.Tuesday's approval allows the developer to begin work on aboveground buildings, well pads and the leaching plants required to carve storage space in the subterranean salt dome. The authorization also covers a high-capacity compressor station and 18 freshwater and saltwater disposal wells needed to create the underground caverns.The Black Bayou storage hub will connect directly to 10 major interstate natural gas pipelines, according to the developer’s federal regulatory filing. Those pipelines supply utilities across the eastern half of the country, industrial manufacturers and 10 liquefied natural gas export plants operating or under construction within a 25-mile radius.The company says current and planned LNG facilities within 25 miles represent more than 30 billion cubic feet per day of gas demand, while industrial projects with high energy needs and growing power generation at regional utilities also compete for supply.The Black Bayou hub's planned high deliverability rates would allow its operators to pull up to 1.6 billion cubic feet of gas per day off the interstate natural gas pipeline network for underground storage when supplies are plentiful. Alternatively, during extreme weather, the facility could rapidly deliver up to 2 billion cubic feet per day back into the regional market, which the developer says could help moderate price spikes.Lafayette-based Black Bayou Energy Hub expects to begin commercial storage of gas in two salt caverns in 2028 with construction on all four planned caverns extending through 2030.“More than $48 billion in LNG projects have been announced in Louisiana since 2024, and investment at that scale creates demand for the infrastructure and businesses needed to support it,” Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan B. Bourgeois said in the Sept. 10 announcement. “Black Bayou Energy Hub is a direct result of that momentum and an investment in sustaining it. This project strengthens the natural gas infrastructure that will serve major projects already underway while increasing Louisiana’s capacity to compete for what comes next.”