Equitrans expects to complete Mountain Valley gas pipeline next year

American pipeline company Equitrans Midstream (ETRN) has said that its $5.4bn Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline is expected to be complete by early next year.

The natural gas pipeline system spans across 303 miles from West Virginia to southern Virginia.

It is designed to deliver 2 billion cubic feet per day from the Marcellus and Utica shale formations in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to the Mid-Atlantic and south-east consumers.

Like several oil and gas pipelines in the US, Mountain Valley was also delayed due to regulatory and legal hurdles with environmental and local groups, Reuters reported.

Environmental groups had problems with federal permits issued by the Trump administration for the pipeline.

Equitrans is awaiting approvals soon from the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for the project.

These approvals will enable the company to finish building the last 8% of the natural gas pipeline project.

Construction activities on the pipeline began in early 2018. As of August 2019, the project work of Mountain Valley was almost 90% complete.

Mountain Valley is owned by units of Equitrans, NextEra Energy, Consolidated Edison, AltaGas, and RGC Resources.

In a press statement, Equitrans Midstream stated: “In order to adapt the construction plan for potential complex judicial decisions and regulatory changes, total project costs may potentially increase by approximately 5%.

“ETRN expects that it may be required to fund approximately $175m related to the potential increase in project costs.”

In June this year, the Supreme Court of the US reversed a lower court decision regarding the US Forest Service’s authority to grant a ‘right-of-way’ to cross the Appalachian Trail.