[thackney]

As an aside, natural gas providers have a history of working together. Consider their shared use of pipelines.

I suspect you don't understand how gas transmission lines work. They are like a train or trucking company. Rarely is the line owner an owner of the gas. They are a transport company, hauling other companies gas, usually a long term contract.

[kitchen]

I suspect you don't understand how gas transmission lines work.

And you would be wrong. Pipelines are not at all like any other transportation segment. They're more akin to power transmission systems. They move only a single commodity.

Trucking (or rail) transport every other commodity, from coal to canned peaches. As an example of how fractured rail transportation is, it is not out of the question that every car on a 100 unit train would have a different owner.