An EQT Midstream Partners LP subsidiary has filed an application with FERC seeking approval to construct its Ohio Valley Connector project, which would extend the Equitrans transmission system from northwestern West Virginia to Clarington, OH.

Equitrans LP is asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to grant it a certificate by July 2015 so that construction can begin next summer for an in-service date of June 2016. The 50-mile Connector would provide tie-ins with Rockies Express Pipeline LLC (REX), Texas Eastern Transmission LP (TETCO) and existing Equitrans Mainline and Sunrise transmission system facilities to deliver Appalachian gas to growing Gulf Coast and Midcontinent markets, according to the company’s application (see Shale Daily, Oct. 29).

“The Ohio Valley Connector project offers substantial benefit to producers in the central Appalachian Basin so that they may move their gas into the interstate pipeline grid,” the application said. “Equitrans’ existing natural gas pipeline system in the central Appalachian region overlies areas of production in northern West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania, putting it in a unique position to accommodate the increased gas production in an efficient, cost-effective manner that minimizes duplication of facilities and environmental impacts.”

The OVC would provide up to an additional 850,000 Dth/d of additional firm transportation to producers in the region, Equitrans said. It wants to construct 35.3 miles of 30-inch diameter greenfield pipeline, two compressor stations with a combined 40,000 hp and a 14-mile, 24-inch diameter loop off its existing mainline system.

The company made its pre-filing review request with FERC for the OVC in June 2014, which it said would cost more than $415 million to construct. Connector is one of dozens of new-builds, system expansions and pipeline reversals proposed for the Appalachian Basin (see Shale Daily, Oct. 15).