Mountain Valley gets regulator's approval for US natural gas pipeline

RGC Resources

12/06/2024 13:22

June 12 (Reuters) - Mountain Valley can begin operating
its $7.85 billion Virginia natural gas pipeline after receiving
approval from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(FERC) according to a filing on Tuesday.
    The Mountain Valley project, the only big gas pipeline under
construction in the U.S. Northeast, has encountered numerous
regulatory and court fights that have stopped work several times
since construction began in 2018.
    "We find that Mountain Valley has adequately stabilized the
areas disturbed by construction and that restoration and
stabilization of the construction work area is proceeding
satisfactorily," FERC said in its filing.
    Mountain Valley asked federal regulators on Monday to
authorize its pipeline project from West Virginia to Virginia to
be in service by June 11.
    When Mountain Valley started construction, lead partner
Equitrans Midstream  ETRN.N  with a roughly 49% interest,
estimated the 2.0-billion cubic feet per day project would cost
about $3.5 billion and enter service by late 2018.
    "Final preparations are underway to begin commercial
operations," a spokesperson at Equitrans told Reuters in an
email.
    It was unclear when gas flows might begin.
    The 303-mile (488-km) project is owned by units of
Equitrans, NextEra Energy  NEE.N , Consolidated Edison  ED.N ,
AltaGas  ALA.TO  and RGC Resources  RGCO.O . Equitrans will
operate the pipeline.
    Top U.S. natural gas producer EQT Corp  EQT.N  in March
agreed to buy Equitrans in an all-stock deal, which is expected
to close in the fourth quarter and bring back a business that
EQT spun off in 2018. 

 (Reporting by Harshit Verma in Bengaluru;Editing by Elaine
Hardcastle)
 ((Harshit.Verma@thomsonreuters.com;))