Williams’ Transco seeks to revive stalled Northeast projects

The Williams Companies’ Transco pipeline filed with the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to resuscitate its Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project to supply 400,000 dekatherms/day to New York City.

The company also is seeking to revive the 650 MMcfd Constitution pipeline to transport Marcellus shale gas to New York markets, a company spokesman said in an email.

Transco scrapped the project in May 2020, despite previous FERC approval, because it was unable to secure state water permits (OGJ Online, Feb. 24, 2020).

Northeast supply constraints 

“The NESE and Constitution projects are essential to address persistent natural gas supply constraints in the Northeast, constraints that have led to higher energy costs for consumers and increased reliance on higher-emission fuels like fuel oil,” the spokesman said.

In its May 29 application, Transco asked FERC to reissue its May 2019 approval of the NESE, saying the “purpose, scope and impacts of the project have not changed.” Williams shelved the project May 2020 over its inability to obtain state water permits as well as state and activist opposition (OGJ Online, May 19, 2020). The FERC certificate subsequently expired.

Reissuance of the certificate would allow Transco to again move forward with the proposed NESE pipeline from Transco’s Compressor Station 195 in York County, Pa., to its offshore Rockaway Transfer Point, an existing interconnection between the Lower New York Bay Lateral and the Rockaway Delivery Lateral in New York State waters.

The company requested authority to construct and operate the same facilities authorized in the previous order, as amended. It noted that FERC found “sufficiently demonstrated need,” based on the two precedent agreements subscribing to the full project capacity.

“This project is critical to meeting the growing energy demands of our customers, provides numerous reliability benefits, and complements several major on-system reinforcement projects we are making to our gas system,” Transco said in the filing.

The company has begun working through state permitting matters with environmental regulators in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York for both projects, the spokesman said.

In its filing, Transco cited US President Trump’s declaration of a national energy emergency for prompting it to revisit the projects. Trump has stated interest in reviving Constitution and has singled out the Northeast as a region particularly impacted by lack of natural gas supply.

The moves come on the heels of Transco’s advancement of another stalled project in the region, the Regional Energy Access Expansion (REA), as outlined in January (OGJ Online, Jan. 27, 2025).

The REA project is designed to increase natural gas transportation capacity by up to 829,000 dekatherms/day to serve about 4.4 million customers in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, annually.