STATUS:
Mountain Valley Pipeline
EQT Corporation’s Mountain Valley
Pipeline (MVP) is a project that will
allow the transport of natural gas from
West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio to
consumer markets in the Mid-Atlantic and
Southeast U.S., where the demand for clean-
burning natural gas is quickly growing for
residential, industrial and electric genera-
tion needs. According to Natalie Cox,
corporate director of communications for
EQT, research indicates there is more than
enough domestic demand to accommodate
the MVP’s full capacity. The proposed
pipeline would span approximately 303
miles, beginning in northwestern West
Virginia and running to southern Virginia.
The MVP is expected to provide up to 2
million dekatherms per day of transmis-
sion capacity and will be an extension
of the Equitrans transmission system in
Wetzel County, WV, to Transcontinental
Gas Pipeline Company’s Zone 5 compres-
sor station in Pittsylvania County, VA.
Pending FERC Approval
The MVP would be up to 42 inches
in diameter and would have three com-
pressor stations in Wetzel, Braxton and
Fayette counties. The project is estimat-
ed to cost up to $3.5 billion, and EQT
projects construction expenditures within
West Virginia to be up to $811 million.
According to an economic analysis con-
ducted by FTI Consulting, this spending
will generate $594 million in cumulative
gross regional product, up to 4,500 jobs
during peak construction and up to 9,400
jobs over the course of construction.
“The Marcellus and Utica shale regions
across Pennsylvania and West Virginia
continue to have an abundance of natural
gas reserves that have yet to be produced,”
says Cox. “At present, there is not enough
pipeline infrastructure to transport that
gas to market, which is why there is such a
critical need for pipeline project buildouts.”
The MVP is currently awaiting the Final
Environmental Impact Statement from the
FERC, which is expected to be issued in
June 2017. The MVP will be governed
by the Natural Gas Act, which requires
a Certificate of Convenience and Neces-
sity from the FERC before construction
can commence, but EQT is currently ex-
pecting a full in-service date of late 2018.
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