When U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright in early March 2025 approved a liquid natural gas (LNG) export permit extension for Golden Pass LNG Terminal LLC (Golden Pass) in Sabine Pass, Texas, it was the third LNG-related approval since President Donald Trump took office, marking, the DOE said, “yet another step toward meeting President Trump’s and Secretary Wright’s commitment to unleash American energy dominance and restore regular order to liquefied natural gas (LNG) export reviews.”
The move reinforced a fact that’s often taken for granted: Energy dominance comes as naturally to Texas as boots, barbecue and a well-worn Stetson.
Take LNG alone. September 2024 analysis of LNG in Texas by the state comptroller’s office found the following facts:
- Exports of Texas LNG were valued at $9.1 billion in 2023, accounting for 27.3% of the value of LNG exports nationwide. The state’s two operational LNG liquefaction export terminals are Corpus Christi LNG and Freeport LNG Development, both of which had three trains operating.
- Four LNG terminals actively under construction have a combined investment of at least $49 billion.
- The increase in export facilities in Texas has resulted in a 273% increase in LNG exports since 2019, when only four trains were operational. In 2023, the state exported more than 1.3 billion cubic feet (Bcf), accounting for 31% of U.S. LNG exports.
Baker Hughes opened its new 1,300-employee headquarters in Houston’s Energy Corridor in October 2023.
Photo courtesy of Baker Hughes
Over a decade of tracking major corporate facility investment projects in the oil & gas extraction, processing and pipeline sectors, Site Selection magazine’s Conway Projects Database has documented more than 350 projects in North America since 2015.
An astounding 220 of them (62%) are in Texas, with more than one-quarter in Harris County alone (Greater Houston).
Add in the chemicals sector and the numbers expand like a chemical reaction: 175 over the past decade and nearly 40 investments of at least $1 million, 20 new jobs or 20,000 new sq. ft. of space since January 2023.
When it comes to traditional energy resources, Texas natural gas supply and infrastructure continues to lead the pack.
Map courtesy of EIA
Among the top projects in this sector are a number of semiconductor-related investments driven by that industry’s pronounced and expanding footprint in the state, including South Korea’s fast-growing Soulbrain investing $575 million in Taylor to serve the needs of Samsung’s $17 billion fab investment there.
The project is but one part of what the Semiconductor Industry Association in March 2025 characterized as over $540 billion in semiconductor supply chain investments in the United States since March 2020.
Structures Build on Infrastructure
Since as recently as January 2023, the projects continue to come, no surprise, from some of the biggest names in this global industry: ExxonMobil, Baker Hughes, Schlumberger, Weatherford International, Occidental, Mitsui. And they’re not only in Greater Houston.
In March 2024, Liberty Energy broke ground for a new $50 million facility in Leeco Industrial Park in Odessa, aided by a $2.5 million grant under a five-year agreement with the Odessa Development Corporation. The project adds another 500 full-time positions to a site that already employs 1,000 people.
The 105-year-old ExxonMobil Baytown Complex spans 3,400 acres and employs around 7,000 people. The company plans to build a plant at Baytown that would produce up to 1 billion cubic feet per day of hydrogen.
Photo courtesy of ExxonMobil
“We are in the business of bettering human lives, and there is no better place to make that happen than in Odessa, Texas, the heart of the Permian Basin,” said Chris Wright, Liberty CEO. “In partnership with our customers, Liberty is dedicated to producing affordable, reliable and secure energy that enables the modern world.”
Moreover, the corporate projects are backed by infrastructure that is in parallel growth mode. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s most recent update of its Natural Gas Pipeline Projects tracker, 54% of the 6.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of new takeaway capacity coming online via five new pipeline projects completed in 2024 is attributable to two Texas pipelines: Whitewater Midstream’s Matterhorn Express Pipeline can deliver up to 2.5 Bcf/d of natural gas from the Permian Basin to the Katy, Texas, area, while Pecan Pipeline Company’s Verde Pipeline can move up to 1.0 Bcf/d of producer EOG Resources’ natural gas production from Webb County, Texas, in the Eagle Ford producing region to the Agua Dulce hub in southern Texas.
Meanwhile, the new ADCC Pipeline operated by Whitewater Midstream can move approximately 1.7 Bcf/d of natural gas to the Corpus Christi Stage 3 LNG project, co-located with the existing Corpus Christi LNG terminal.
