Dominion and Piedmont will pipe gas to Duke and AGL
The US-based midstream companies and utilities Dominion, Duke Energy (Duke), Piedmont Natural Gas (Piedmont), and AGL Resources (AGL) formed the joint venture Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC (Atlantic Coast) to design, build and operate a 800 kilometers gas pipeline along the US East Coast.
This Atlantic Coast project was formally called Southeast Reliability Project as it should connect shale gas fields in the north to the southeast States of America.
To absorb the glut generated by the shale gas production in the famous Marcellus and Utica basins in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio, the midstream companies are exploring new routes to export this gas into new markets.
With the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project, Dominion and its partners are looking for States where the local energy price is high enough to justify such investment.
Starting from the Harrison County in West Virginia, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project will run southeast to Chesapeake in Virginia and will continue south to the Robeson County in North Carolina.
Led by Dominion, the joint venture Atlantic Coast Pipeline has working interests shared according to:
– Dominion 45% is the operator
– Duke Energy 40%
– Piedmont 10%
– AGL 5%
All together, Dominion, Duke, Piedmont and AGL will invest $5 billion capital expenditure in the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project.
Dominion to built and operate Atlantic Coast Pipeline
With the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project the midstream companies Dominion and Piedmont will secure natural gas supply to the utilities Duke and AGL in competitive conditions compared with the current situation in Virginia and North Carolina as these States stand a bit away from the main energy routes in USA.
According to the terms sealed in the joint venture, Dominion will act as the operator to design, build and operate the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
In counter part the partners committed to purchase the gas exported through the Atlantic Coast Pipeline on the next 20 years.
In addition to provide competitive energy to favor the local economical development in Virginia and North Carolina, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project will enable to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions in converting coal-fired power plants into gas.
Dominion has planned three gas compression stations at:
– Harrison County in West Virginia
– Buckingham County in Virginia
– Virginia and North Carolina border
Dominion is already working on the definition of the optimized route with the minimum environmental footprint.
Dominion should submit its application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on mid-2015.
Crossing three States, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project will in addition require approval from the local Authorities and citizens.
In this context, Dominion and its partners Duke Energy, Piedmont and AGL Resources are expecting to start work by the end of 2016.
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