The long-delayed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), designed to move copious amounts of natural gas from Appalachia to the Southeast, gained a long-sought authorization on Tuesday from federal regulators.
“Final preparations are underway to begin commercial operations,” Equitrans Midstream Corp. spokesperson Natalie Cox said. Equitrans operates MVP. Also sponsoring MVP are NextEra Capital Holdings Inc., Con Edison Transmission Inc., WGL Midstream MVP LLC and RGC Midstream LLC.
The 303-mile, 2 million Dth/d conduit has overcome years of delays, voluminous lawsuits and continuous construction issues to secure the green light from FERC. MVP had resumed construction last summer after Congress intervened to rescue the project from regulatory limbo.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Terry L. Turpin, who directs the Office of Energy Projects, confirmed authorization in a letter to Equitrans’ Matthew Eggerding, deputy general counsel of Environmental & Regulatory Affairs.
Turpin said the authorization “is granted on the basis of Mountain Valley’s recent construction status reports and supplemental filings, our regular compliance monitoring reporting, a staff inspection the week of May 13-17, and our communications with the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration,” aka PHMSA (No. CP16-10-000, CP19- 477-000 and CP21-57-000).
Initially proposed in 2015, the estimated $7.8 billion conduit weaves through 11 counties in West Virginia and six in Virginia. It includes three compressor stations in West Virginia.
Last fall, Equitrans entered into a consent agreement with PHMSA to address safety concerns. Among those concerns, PHMSA identified potential issues resulting from pipe coating being exposed to the elements during the project’s construction delays.
“We find that Mountain Valley has adequately stabilized the areas disturbed by construction and that restoration and stabilization of the construction work area is proceeding satisfactorily,” Turpin noted. MVP still is required to continue to “comply with all applicable remaining terms and conditions” of the order.
According to Turpin, PHMSA’s Alan Mayberry, associate administrator for Pipeline Safety, discussed the project during a telephone call on Tuesday.
“Mayberry indicated that PHMSA had received and reviewed all of the information required prior to start-up,” Turpin said. “Accordingly, PHMSA had no objections if Commission staff were to authorize in-service for the Mountain Valley Pipeline project.”
EQT Corp., the nation’s largest natural gas producer, in March announced plans to recombine with Equitrans. MVP is poised to play an integral part in EQT’s plans to meet growing gas demand in the Southeast.
