TransCanada to place WB Xpress pipeline section into service

TransCanada’s Columbia Gas Transmission unit has received an approval from the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to place the eastern facilities of its WB XPress natural gas pipeline into service in West Virginia and Virginia.

WB XPress is designed to provide producers in the Marcellus and Utica shale basins in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio with market access in other parts of the US and Canada, Reuters reported.

The $900m, 1.3 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) WB XPress project is expected to improve the service and flexibility of natural gas delivery in Virginia and West Virginia.

The project involves the construction of three miles of new pipeline and two compressor stations, as well as the replacement of 26 miles of existing pipeline.

TransCanada placed the Western Build of the project into service last month.

It is estimated that one billion cubic feet of gas can be used to power five million US homes for a day.

The construction of new pipelines in the Marcellus and Utica region has enabled companies to increase shale production in the Appalachia area. The output is expected to increase to a record high of 30.4bcfd next month from 26.9bcfd during the same period last year.

Over the last ten years, the contribution of Appalachia region production to the country’s total dry gas output has increased from 3% to 37%.

In 2016, TransCanada acquired the Columbia Pipeline Group (CPG), which has a 12,000-mile pipeline network and 37 storage fields in four states.

Meanwhile, TransCanada is planning to complete its $3bn Mountaineer and $600m Gulf XPress projects by the end of the year.

Once completed, Mountaineer will enhance gas capacity in West Virginia by 2bcfd, while Gulf XPress will deliver 0.88bcfd of gas from Appalachia to the US South.

Earlier this month, the company suffered a setback as a US federal judge blocked the construction of the proposed $8bn Keystone XL oil pipeline.

The 1,200-mile, 830,000bbl/d pipeline project has been approved by the US Government and is designed to carry oil from Canada to the US.