Mountain Valley gas pipeline on schedule for third-quarter 2022 startup

Equitrans Midstream Corp. still expects its 2-bcfd, 303-mile Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline (MVP) to enter service third-quarter 2022. The company initially announced this in-service timing earlier this year (OGJ Online, May 5, 2021).

Equitrans began work on MVP in February 2018 and planned to put it in service late that year.  In February 2021, MVP began a permitting process with the US Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) related to its remaining waterbody and wetland crossings. In August, FERC issued an environmental assessment for the pipeline’s certificate amendment application, which requests a change to utilize boring methodology for about 120 water crossings. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and Virginia Department of Environmental Quality continue to work to complete their respective Section 401 reviews, addressing the ACE permitting process for roughly 300 water crossings, by Nov. 29, 2021, and Dec. 31, 2021, respectively.

Expected permitting timelines for both FERC and ACE remain in line with Equitrans’ expectations and the company continues to target a full in-service date of summer 2022 at a total project cost of about $6.2 billion. Equitrans initially expected the project to cost $3.5 billion.

MVP plans to begin construction of its 900-MMcfd Southgate extension during 2022 and place the project in-service during second-quarter 2023. The 75-mile pipeline is designed to receive gas from MVP in Virginia for transport to new delivery points in Rockingham and Alamance Counties, NC, backed by a 300-MMcfd firm capacity commitment from Dominion Energy North Carolina.