EQT Corp. and NextEra US Gas Assets LLC, an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of NextEra Energy Inc., have formed a joint venture, Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC, to build and own the 330-mile Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline. The joint venture also launched a binding open season for shipment on the 2-bcfd system.
Mountain Valley will connect the existing Equitrans transmission system in Wetzel County, W.Va., to Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co.’s (Transco) Zone 5 compressor station 165 in Pittsylvania County, Va., carrying gas from the Marcellus and Utica shales to consumers in the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic coast regions of US. Including EQT, the joint venture has already received firm capacity commitments for 1.5 bcfd and expects the pipeline to enter service fourth-quarter 2018.
EQT will operate the pipeline and own a majority interest in the joint venture. The binding open season ends Sept. 29.
MarkWest Energy Partners LP earlier this year announced plans to increase capacity at its Mobley gas processing complex in Wetzel County to handle production from EQT (OGJ Online, May 7, 2014). MarkWest will build the 200-MMcfd Mobley V cryogenic plant, bringing total capacity at the site to 920 MMcfd by second-quarter 2015.
Contact Christopher E. Smith at [email protected].