U.S. pipeline company Equitrans Midstream Corp. said on Nov. 2 the venture building the $6.2 billion Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline from West Virginia to Virginia still expects the project to enter service in the summer of 2022.

Mountain Valley is one of several U.S. pipelines delayed by regulatory and legal fights with environmental and local groups that found problems with federal permits issued during President Donald Trump's administration.

When Mountain Valley construction started in February 2018, Equitrans estimated the 303-mile (488-km), 2.0 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) project would cost about $3.5 billion and enter service by late 2018.

Equitrans said in its third-quarter earnings release that it expects environmental regulators in West Virginia and Virginia to complete their water quality reviews by Nov. 29 and Dec. 31, respectively, allowing the project to stick with its targeted summer 2022 start date.

Those so called Section 401 water quality certifications cover about 300 water crossings.

Equitrans, which has a roughly 47.8% ownership interest in Mountain Valley and will operate the pipe, said it has funded about $2.4 billion of the project as of Sept. 30.

Based on Mountain Valleys' targeted in-service date, Equitrans said it expects to start construction of the 75-mile (121-km) Mountain Valley Southgate extension from Virginia to North Carolina in 2022, which will allow that project to enter service in the spring of 2023.

Southgate will cost about $450 million to $500 million and is backed by a 0.3 Bcf/d commitment from Dominion Energy Inc.'s North Carolina unit.

Equitrans, which owns 47.2% of Southgate and will operate the pipe, said it could be expanded to provide up to 0.9 Bcf/d of gas.

The Mountain Valley venture is owned by units of Equitrans, NextEra Energy Inc., Consolidated Edison Inc., AltaGas Ltd. and RGC Resources Inc.

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