Columbia Pipeline Group Inc. (CPGX) said Friday that subsidiary Columbia Gas Transmission LLC has placed its East Side Expansion project into service, which adds another 312 MMcf/d of natural gas capacity to one of the company’s core assets.

Announced in 2012, the expansion project received its FERC certificate of public convenience and necessity to construct the pipeline in December and began work on the expansion in the spring (see Daily GPI, Dec. 18, 2014; Oct. 29, 2012). It involved the installation of 18 miles of new pipeline in Chester County, PA, and Gloucester, NJ, in addition to modifications and upgrades to compressor station facilities in Pennsylvania. The expansion would help carry more Marcellus Shale gas to the East Coast and mid-Atlantic regions.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a favorable environmental assessment in August for the expansion (see Daily GPI, Aug. 29). It is one of the first projects to enter service since the company split from NiSource Inc. earlier this year into a separate publicly traded company.

CPG now owns nearly all of NiSource’s natural gas transmission, midstream and storage assets. It plans to invest more than $10 billion over the next five years on liquefied natural gas, midstream and interstate pipeline expansion and newbuild projects, primarily in the Appalachian Basin where the company’s footprint is already extensive (see Daily GPI, May 14). Anchoring those plans is its core asset in the Columbia Gas Transmission system (TCO), which extends 12,000 miles through 10 states.

“East Side is an important piece of our project backlog, which is designed to meet the needs of both producers and end-use markets over the next several years,” said CPGX President Glen Kettering about the company’s growth plans.