Dominion Energy will head a joint venture to build and own a 550 mile natural gas pipeline along the Atlantic coast set to cost about $5 billion.
North Carolina-based companies Duke Energy and Piedmont Natural Gas along with Atlanta-based AGL Resources will also hold stakes in the pipeline.
Dominion will build and operate the 1.5 billion cubic feet per day pipeline.
Dominion holds a 45 percent stake, Duke Energy has a 40 stake, Piedmont has a 10 stake and AGL Resources holds a 5 percent stake.
The partnership will be called Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
Subsidiaries and affiliates of all four partners will be customers of the pipeline with 20 year contracts pending regulatory approval.
North-Carolina based PSNC Energy also plans to be a customer of the pipeline under a 20 year contract.
The pipeline will move Marcellus and Utica shale gas from Harrison County, West Virginia through Virginia with a lateral extension to Chesapeake, Virginia. The pipeline will then move the gas south through central North Carolina into Robeson County.
The pipeline will have a 42 inch outside diameter in West Virginia and Virginia and a 36 inch outside diameter in North Carolina.
The lateral extension to Chesapeake-Hampton Roads, Virginia will have a 20 inch diameter.
Dominion is planning three compressor stations for the pipeline, one at the West Virginia starting point, one in Buckingham County, Virginia and one near the Virginia-North Carolina border, Oil and Gas Journal said.
The project had been previously proposed by Dominion under the name Southeast Reliability Project.
Dominion has started surveying to determine pipeline routing.
The company is also planning to make a pre-filing request with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) this fall on behalf of the joint venture.
Dominion expects to file the pipeline’s FERC application in the summer of 2015.
Construction is expected to begin in the second half of 2016.
