Proposed pipeline route
A proposed pipeline through southeastern Pennsylvania that would deliver Marcellus Shale natural gas to major East Coast markets has been put on hold, apparently because of depressed natural gas prices.
The $1 billion north-south Commonwealth Pipeline is a venture of a subsidiary of Reading-based UGI; Inergy Midstream, a natural-gas storage company based in Kansas City; and Capitol Energy Ventures Corp., a Washington, D.C.-based natural gas utility and marketing company.
The trio announced the project in March, saying it would connect interstate east-west gas pipelines and bring the vast and lucrative Marcellus Shale and future Utica Shale gas to markets in central and southeastern Pennsylvania, as well as to Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington.
The original route for the 120-mile pipeline included parts of Lancaster County.
But revised routes moved the pipeline farther east of Lancaster County into Chester and Berks counties.
In June, a status update from the partners said a nonbinding search for customers had "confirmed a high market demand for the project and exceeded the sponsors' expectations."
Project partners said in September that they had secured customers to use the pipeline and predicted the pipeline would be in operation in 2015.
But now, "Commonwealth has suspended environmental work on the project for the time being," according to an email from David Hooker, vice president for business development for Inergy Midstream.
"We were ahead of the curve on field work and are slowing down field activities until we have more commercial support for the project," he said.
Lynda Farrell, a Chester County founder of the Pipeline Safety Coalition anti-pipeline group, said Hooker told her that there were no plans to begin building the project before 2015 at the earliest.
And a request for project approval to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission would not be made until 2013 at the earliest, she said.
When the project is back on line, the partners would consider using existing rights of way to lay the pipeline, Farrell said Hooker told her.
Pipeline rights of way for major gas lines are typically 300 feet wide.
Hooker did not return phone calls or emails from a reporter seeking additional comment.
While pleased at the shelving of the project, Farrell was quick to add, "The placement of this line is so fluid that I don't think anyone can let it go off their radar. I don't think it's a matter of if — I think it's a matter of when."
A glut in Marcellus Shale natural gas and corresponding falling prices have caused a major slowdown of new wells in Pennsylvania.
