Equitrans US Mountain Valley natgas pipe on track for end 2023 completion

RGC Resources

01/08/2023 16:40

Aug 1 (Reuters) - U.S. energy company Equitrans
Midstream  ETRN.N  on Tuesday said it still expects to complete
the Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline by the end of the year
despite being tangled in numerous court fights since
construction began in 2018.
    The U.S. Supreme Court last week on Thursday removed an
obstacle to completing the estimated $6.6 billion pipeline that
runs from West Virginia to Virginia, one of several projects
delayed by regulatory and legal fights with environmental and
local groups in recent years. 
    Mountain Valley is key to unlocking gas supplies from
Appalachia, the nation's biggest shale gas-producing basin in
Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.
    In a sign of just how difficult it has been to build
fossil-fuel infrastructure in the U.S. Northeast, where gas
output has slowed in recent years, Mountain Valley needed a bill
from the U.S. Congress that was signed into law by the president
and help from the Supreme Court before it could restart
construction.
    The need for so much government assistance to keep Mountain
Valley going "only magnifies the critical need for comprehensive
permitting reform" to improve the process of building new
infrastructure, Equitrans CEO Thomas Karam said in the company's
second quarter earnings release.
    When Mountain Valley started construction in February 2018,
Equitrans estimated the 2.0-billion cubic feet per day project
would cost about $3.5 billion and enter service by late 2018.
    After hitting an 18-month high on Monday, Equitrans stock
slid about 4% to $10.00 per share on Tuesday after the company's
earnings missed analysts' estimates.
    The 303-mile (488-kilometer) Mountain Valley project is
owned by units of Equitrans, the lead partner building the pipe
with a roughly 48.3% interest, NextEra Energy  NEE.N ,
Consolidated Edison  ED.N , AltaGas  ALA.TO  and RGC Resources
 RGCO.O .

 (Reporting by Scott DiSavino
Editing by Marguerita Choy)
 ((scott.disavino@thomsonreuters.com; +1 332 219 1922; Reuters
Messaging: scott.disavino.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))