FERC Thursday approved a request of Equitrans LP, a subsidiary of Pittsburgh-based EQT Corp., to place into service the remaining facilities of a new pipeline in Pennsylvania and West Virginia that will provide additional takeaway capacity for Marcellus Shale gas producers.

The remaining facilities of the Sunrise Pipeline that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission cleared for operation include “EQT’s H-302, H-306 and H-309 [lines]; the Logansport and Pickenpaw interconnects; and the Jefferson Compressor Station in Wetzel County, WV, and Greene County, PA,” the letter order said [CP11-68].

The $272 million Sunrise Pipeline extends approximately 45 miles from southwestern Pennsylvania into northern West Virginia, terminating in Wetzel County. The project included the construction of one compressor station (14,205 hp).

The pipeline expands Equitrans’ existing mainline transmission system to accommodate the rapid development of natural gas from both the liquids-rich and dry areas of the Marcellus Shale formation in the central Appalachian basin. Marcellus producers will be provided with 313,560 Dth/d of new capacity to transport gas to markets in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, according to Equitrans.

The Sunrise facilities will tie in with MarkWest Energy Partners’ 120 MMcf/d Mobley processing complex in West Virginia and the pipeline systems of Texas Eastern Transmission, Dominion Transmission and Equitrans’ mainline.

Last month, FERC approved Equitrans’ request to abandon by sale its Sunrise Pipeline facilities to the newly created affiliate Sunrise Pipeline LLC (see Shale Daily, June 14), which was formed by EQT [CP12-32]. In the order, the Commission approved Equitrans’ request to lease the Sunrise facilities and to terminate the lease agreement when it ends in 15 years and to permit Equitrans to “reacquire ownership…of the Sunrise facilities.”