The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has conditionally endorsed the construction of two major US pipelines projects, namely the US$5bn Atlantic Coast gas pipeline and the US$3.5bn Mountain Valley greenfield natural gas pipeline projects. Once both commissioned, the two facilities are expected to increase the takeaway capacity of the Appalachian shale region (US East Coast) by 3.4 bcf/d (96 mcm/d or 35 bcm/y).
The 304-miles long (488 km) Mountain Valley Pipeline will run from northwestern West Virginia down to southern Virginia. It will be built and own by the project company Mountain Valley Pipeline, a joint venture (JV) between five companies: MVP Holdco (EQT Corporation), US Marcellus Gas Infrastructure (NextEra Energy Capital Holdings), Con Edison Gas Midstream, WGL Midstream and RGC Midstream. It will ship 1.9 bcf/d (19.6 bcm/y) of natural gas from Wetzel County (West Virginia) to Transcontinental Gas pipeline's compressor station in Pittsylvania County (Virginia).
The 604-miles long (972 km) Atlantic Coast pipeline will spread across West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina. It will be developed by a JV between 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%). It will have a takeaway capacity of 1.5 bcf/d (15.5 bcm/y) and the construction is scheduled to start later in 2017.