US energy group Dominion Energy expects to resume construction works on the 1.5 bcf/d (15.5 bcm/year) Atlantic Coast gas pipeline project in North Carolina (United States) in the third quarter of 2019.
The Atlantic Coast gas pipeline project is developed by a joint venture of Dominion Atlantic Coast Pipeline (Dominion Resources, 48%), Duke Energy ACP (40%), Piedmont NACP Company (a subsidiary of Duke Energy, 7%) and Maple Enterprise Holdings (an affiliate of Southern Company, 5%). The project would deliver fracked gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to North Carolina and Virginia.
The US$7-7.5bn gas transmission project has been on hold since late 2018 and still has to resolve two major legal cases before being completed. In late 2018, the Fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a federal permit allowing the project to pass through a major hiking trail and two national forests. Dominion Energy will present oral arguments in May 2019 and expects a positive decision to restart partial construction. The company is also appealing the decision to the US Supreme Court but this option would delay the project completion until 2021 and raise the pipeline costs by an additional US$250m to US$7.75bn.