Dominion Energy delayed initial startup of its Atlantic Coast Pipeline by another year on Friday and boosted the expected cost by up to $500 million as the natural gas project remains mired in legal challenges. The 1.5 Bcf/d pipeline is among several pieces of new infrastructure that are intended to boost takeaway capacity from the US Northeast gas producing region. But, most of the projects have faced strong opposition from environmental groups, especially ACP. Recent federal appeals court rulings created the latest snag, and construction is currently halted along most of the route. In November, prior to those rulings, Dominion said it hoped key segments would be ready to start up by late 2019 — when the entire project was previously supposed to be finished — in time for the peak winter season and that the rest would be finished in mid-2020. Now, the company said partial in-service is expected in late 2020 and full in-service in early 2021. Dominion expects the project cost to be between $7 billion and $7.5 billion, excluding financing costs. The previous estimate was $6.5 billion-$7 billion. “Our customers critically need this project to heat homes and electrify businesses,” CEO Thomas Farrell said during a conference call with analysts to discuss fourth quarter financial results.
展开▼
