The cost of building the Mountain Valley Pipeline is now expected to reach $7.85 billion, more than double the estimate when the project was first proposed nearly eight years ago, Equitrans Midstream said Tuesday.

The long-delayed project is still on track for a June 1 opening, with the company awaiting approval from federal regulators to begin service, Equitrans Midstream President Diana M. Charletta said. The latest cost estimate is about $120,000 higher than forecast in February. Equitrans is the lead company in a consortium that is building the pipeline.

"We expect to complete construction and final commissioning activities on or about May 31," Charletta said as Equitrans announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2024.

The 303-mile project was originally expected to enter service in 2018 at a cost of $3.5 billion but was delayed by numerous legal challenges by environmental groups and a number of rulings from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that overturned permits issued by the Biden and Trump administrations.

Congress last year removed the project from under the Fourth Circuit Court's jurisdiction.

The project will convey natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale plays in West Virginia to southern Virginia. A planned 31-mile extension of the project into North Carolina is also being challenged by environmental groups, which have filed a lawsuit challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's decision to extend approvals needed for the Southgate project.

Last week, Mountain Valley requested FERC act by May 23 on its application to begin service on the project. The company said a timely FERC decision is needed to allow it to finalize in-service preparations and permit customers to complete scheduling and nomination work. Mountain Valley said that's particularly important for project customers whose long-term firm contracts for the line's capacity take effect on June 1.


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Reporting by Steve Cronin, scronin@Opisnet.com; Editing by Michael Kelly,

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-30-24 1524ET