Equitrans Midstream Corp. no longer expects its Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline joint venture to have necessary waterbody and wetland crossing approvals by third-quarter 2021, pushing the project’s planned in-service date to third-quarter 2022 from end-2021.
In March and April 2021, respectively, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection submitted requests to the US Army Corps of Engineers seeking to extend the 120-day review period to evaluate Mountain Valley’s Clean Water Act Section 401 water quality certification applications.
Equitrans earlier this year received Federal Energy Regulatory Commission affirmation that it could resume work on a 17-mile stretch of the pipeline near Jefferson National Forest in Virginia (OGJ Online, Mar. 26, 2021). The project is 92% complete.
The company estimates Mountain Valley’s cost at $6.2 billion.
Based on the adjustment to Mountain Valley’s targeted full in-service date and current expectations regarding timing of permit approvals for the project’s Southgate extension, Equitrans is targeting a 2022 start for Southgate construction to place the project in-service during second-quarter 2023. The 75-mile pipeline would move gas from Mountain Valley in Virginia to new delivery points in Rockingham and Alamance Counties, NC.
With a total project cost estimate of $450-500 million, Southgate is backed by a 300-MMcfd firm capacity commitment from Dominion Energy North Carolina. Southgate can be expanded to as much as 900 MMcfd, according to Equitrans.