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US Mountain Valley passes test after fixing leak in WV-VA natgas pipe

U.S. natural gas pipeline endeavor Mountain Valley Pipeline stated on Friday it repaired a segment of pipeline that stopped working a water test earlier in the month and will continue to prepare the longdelayed West VirginiaVirginia pipe for service.

The endeavor was on track to finish the $7.85 billion project by the end of May, U.S. energy company Equitrans Midstream , the lead partner in the Mountain Valley venture, stated in late April.

Mountain Valley continues to expect to complete building and construction and last commissioning activities on or about May 31, 2024, an Equitrans representative said.

Mountain Valley made its latest comments about the pipe repair in a filing with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Friday.

Mountain Valley stated that since April 30, it had effectively completed hydrostatic screening for 269 miles of the project's 303-mile path.

Hydrostatic testing includes making use of water to pressure test the pipe for a defined period, exposing all pipeline elements to a pressure that exceeds the maximum permitted running pressure to make sure all parts will run securely prior to the intro of gas into the pipeline, Mountain Valley said in the FERC filing.

Mountain Valley said it alerted federal and state firms on May 1 of a hydrostatic testing failure at milepost 245.95.

Since then, the company stated it has effectively carried out hydrostatic screening on additional sectors, consisting of the repaired section where the disturbance occurred, without occurrence.

Mountain Valley is the only big gas pipeline under building in the U.S. Northeast. It has encountered numerous regulatory and court fights that have actually stopped work several times since building began in 2018.

The pipe, which is essential to unlocking gas materials from Appalachia, the country's greatest shale gas-producing region, needed an expense from the U.S. Congress that was signed into law by the president and assistance from the Supreme Court before it might reboot building.

Environmentalists have actually said that the job would hurt soil and water quality in the forest, increase making use of natural gas, a leading fossil fuel and greenhouse gas emitter, and stymie efforts to attend to climate modification hazards.

When Mountain Valley started building in February 2018, Equitrans estimated the 2.0-billion cubic feet each day project would cost about $3.5 billion and go into service by late 2018.

The 303-mile (488-kilometre) Mountain Valley job is owned by units of Equitrans, the lead partner building the pipeline with a roughly 49% interest, NextEra Energy, Consolidated Edison, AltaGas and RGC Resources . Equitrans will operate the pipeline.