April 30 (Reuters) - EQM Midstream Partners LP EQM.N said Tuesday it was "unlikely" to complete the long-delayed $4.6 billion Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline from West Virginia to Virginia during 2019 due to ongoing legal and regulatory challenges.
EQM, however, said in its first-quarter earnings report that the joint venture building the project "continues to target a full in-service date for the fourth quarter 2019."
EQM Chief Executive Thomas Karam told analysts on a call that the project was about 80 percent complete and the company remained confident it would get the pipeline built.
When EQM started construction in February 2018, it estimated Mountain Valley would cost about $3.5 billion and be completed by the end of 2018. 303-mile (488-km) pipeline is designed to deliver 2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas.
One billion cubic feet is enough gas to supply about 5 million U.S. homes for a day.
EQM said it is working through the project's remaining challenges, including securing a Nationwide 12 Permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for stream and waterbody crossings, which it expects sometime this summer. at Height Capital Markets in Washington, however, said they do not expect Mountain Valley to receive a new Nationwide Permit 12 until the fourth quarter of 2019, which likely will delay the project's completion until mid-2020.
In addition to Mountain Valley, environmental legal challenges have also slowed construction of Dominion Energy Inc's D.N $7.0 billion to $7.5 billion Atlantic Coast gas pipe from West Virginia to North Carolina. Valley and Atlantic Coast are the biggest pipelines under construction to connect growing output in the Marcellus and Utica shale basins in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio with customers in other parts of the United States. Valley is owned by units of EQM, NextEra Energy Inc (NYSE:NEE) NEE.N , Consolidated Edison Inc (NYSE:ED) ED.N , AltaGas Ltd ALA.TO and RGC Resources Inc RGCO.O . EQM will fund about $2.2 billion of the project and operate the pipe.
Equitrans Midstream Corp ETRN.N of Pittsburgh owns the general partner and a majority interest in EQM.
EQM is also developing the $555-million Hammerhead project between Pennsylvania and West Virginia, which will feed up to 1.6 bcfd of gas into Mountain Valley and other pipes when it enters service in the fourth quarter of 2019.
EQM has a contract to transport 1.2 bcfd on Hammerhead from EQT Corp (NYSE:EQT) EQT.N , the nation's biggest gas producer and the former parent of EQM and Equitrans.
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ EQM expects to complete WV-VA Mountain Valley natgas pipe Q4 2019
FACTBOX-U.S. new natural gas pipeline projects
UPDATE 1-Dominion confident it will complete W. Va.-N.C. Atlantic Coast natgas pipe
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