FERC on Tuesday gave Texas Eastern Transmission LP (Tetco) the go-ahead to begin partial service on Access South and Adair Southwest projects, two pipeline reversals targeting Marcellus and Utica shale production.

Combined, the brownfield projects are designed to add 520,000 Dth/d of incremental north-to-south Appalachian takeaway capacity on Tetco’s system, which runs from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast.

This week’s service authorization would allow Tetco to add 416,000 Dth/d of the total designed capacity, it said in a request to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week [CP16-3]. Tetco expects to ramp up to 500,000 Dth/d on the expansions later this month.

The authorization excludes the proposed Athens-to Berne Loop, the Barton Compressor Station and the Owingsville impellers, which Tetco plans to bring online at some point later.

Adair Southwest and Access South are part of a trio of pipeline reversals that FERC approved late last year, including the Lebanon Extension that went into service in August.

Together, the projects comprise 16 miles of relay or pipeline looping on Tetco’s existing rights of way, additional compression at existing stations, converting three existing receipt meters to bidirectional flow and other modifications to existing facilities, according to information provided by Tetco parent company Enbridge Inc.

FERC’s authorization puts Adair Southwest and Access South on schedule to meet their target start dates, while the Lebanon Extension was ahead of schedule.

Following open seasons in 2014 and 2015, the systems secured binding precedent agreements for firm transportation service from Rice Energy Marketing LLC, Range Resources Appalachia LLC, Gulfport Energy Corp. and Hamilton, OH.

As the winter heating season approaches, Appalachian Basin producers should have more options to get their gas to market compared with last year. In addition to the Tetco reversals, Energy Transfer Partners LP’s Rover Pipeline has started up, and last summer related Panhandle and Trunkline backhaul projects were begun. Rover’s next phase is expected to be completed by the end of the year.