Nebraska Feedlot Breaks Ground on Manure-to-Gas Plant Targeting 1.2 Million MMBtu a Year
The Adams Land & Cattle project in Broken Bow enters a US gas market shaped by expanding domestic output and China's tariff-driven redirection of American LNG.
Eight anaerobic digesters have broken ground at the Adams Land & Cattle feedlot in Broken Bow, Nebraska, in a project its developers are hoping will produce approximately 1.2 million MMBtu of natural gas a year, oilprice.com reported Saturday (2026-09-05). The gas would come from processing cattle manure and is being positioned partly as a shipping fuel.5
The volume is modest by US production standards, but the project's economics operate on different logic than conventional drilling. EIA data showed marketed natural gas production in the Lower 48 averaged 117.2 Bcf/d in the first quarter of 2026, 4% above the same period in 2025, and the agency forecasts a further 3% increase for the full year. At that scale, 1.2 million MMBtu barely registers. But the feedlot's waste stream is a cost the operator already carries; the digesters convert a liability into a revenue source.5,1
NYMEX Henry Hub front-month stood at $2.98/MMBtu at Friday's (2026-09-04) close. Sub-$3 gas squeezes conventional producers working higher-cost acreage. It imposes no similar burden on a project whose primary input is waste that would otherwise require disposal.1
The project's shipping fuel ambitions, if they materialize, would plug into an export market that expanded sharply in 2025. Global LNG trade reached a record 436.98 million tonnes last year, up 6.3% from 2024, according to the International Gas Union. The United States was the largest single driver, adding 22.3 million tonnes year-on-year — well ahead of Qatar's 4.3 million tonne gain and Malaysia's 1.1 million tonne increase.3
American LNG exports are growing, but they face a specific obstacle in Asia. Sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg on Monday (2026-07-27) that Chinese buyers who received what was described as the first US LNG cargo delivered to China in over a year planned to resell it on a third market rather than import it. The reason was the 25% tariff Beijing applies to US LNG. The gas was offloaded into bonded storage specifically to avoid triggering that levy.4
That maneuver does not indicate a Chinese supply crisis. Official customs data released in the week of July 20 (2026) showed Chinese LNG imports rose 8.3% year-on-year to 5.68 million tonnes in June alone. China is importing more gas; it is sourcing it from suppliers outside the United States. Russia has partly filled the space, with Beijing steadily increasing purchases of Russian energy since Moscow's conflict with Ukraine began in 2022.4,2
For the Nebraska biogas project, these geopolitical currents are distant context. Its likely route to market is as certified renewable natural gas, a designation that commands a significant premium over conventional pipeline gas and targets industrial buyers and blending programs rather than LNG export terminals.5
The risk is straightforward. EIA forecasts the Permian region to produce 29.2 Bcf/d in 2026 — 6% above 2025 — with pipeline constraints easing enough to support 10% growth in 2027. The Haynesville shale, which feeds LNG export capacity, is forecast to grow 6% this year and 8% next. That supply trajectory keeps the Henry Hub curve under pressure. If the renewable gas certification premium narrows — through regulatory shifts in credit programs or rising competing supply from similar agricultural digesters — the Broken Bow project's margin compresses with it.1,5