Leading US shale-gas producer and emerging LNG player EQT Corp. cuts production because of low prices
EQT Corp., the leading US natural gas producer in the Appalachian shale basins and an emerging LNG player, has made a “strategic decision” to curtail approximately 1 billion cubic feet per day of gross production beginning immediately.
US Supreme Court rules that $6Bln Mountain Valley Pipeline for natural gas flows must be completed
The US Supreme Court has removed all obstacles to completing the long-delayed $6-billion Mountain Valley Pipeline to send natural gas from West Virginia to the state of Virginia and onwards to consumers further South and being developed by energy company Equitrans Midstream.
The Court granted Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC's request to lift legal blockages imposed by a lower court that had halted construction of a final short section of the 303-mile (488km) natural gas pipeline.
That final section to be completed is a 3.5-mile (5.6km) corridor through the federally owned Jefferson National Forest.
The gas pipeline being developed by Canonsburg, Pennsylvania-based Equitrans has been delayed by numerous court decisions since construction began in 2018.
Investors
Equitrans is the lead partner building the pipeline with several other companies including NextEra Energy, Consolidated Edison, AltaGas and RGC Resources.
The Court’s ruling was in response to a request from Equitrans to overturn an appeals court orders in early July 2023 to stop building in the Jefferson National Forest while that court considered legal complaints from environmental groups against the project.
Legal challenges to the pipeline continued even after West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin and other politicians wrote to encourage a positive decision on the Mountain Valle Pipeline into the Debt Ceiling Bill in Congress.
“The Supreme Court has spoken and this decision to let construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline move forward again is the correct one,” Manchin said in a statement issued by his office.
“I am relieved that the highest court in the land has upheld the law Congress passed and the President signed,” added Manchin.
Final stage
Equitrans had argued that if it did not resume construction soon, it would have been unable to complete before winter weather arrives in November and halts work until the Spring.
The pipeline is designed to transport natural gas from the prolific Marcellus and Utica Shale Basins to the growing demand markets of the mid-Atlantic and southeast regions of the US where LNG export projects are expanding.
The 42-inch diameter pipeline that will link an existing transmission and storage system in Wetzel County, West Virginia, to the Transco Station 165 in Virginia.
The pipeline has capacity of 2 billion cubic feet per day and is fully subscribed under long-term contracts with a diverse group of shippers.
Largest US natural gas producer EQT posts strong earnings and pursues LNG advocacy amid acquisitions
EQT, a natural gas company few have heard of outside of America and which is the nation’s biggest gas producer and runs the “Unleash US LNG” advocacy campaign, reported strong fourth-quarter and annual earnings.
