Subscribe to download Archive

NorthAmOil: PennEast Pipeline stops development

PennEast Pipeline said this week that it would stop developing its proposed pipeline from Pennsylvania to New Jersey.
The company said PennEast was being scrapped because it had not yet received all of its required permits, including a water quality certification in New Jersey. All further development on the project has been ceased, PennEast added in an email that was cited by Reuters.
The move comes just three months after the company won a victory in the US Supreme Court over the State of New Jersey, allowing it to use federal eminent domain rules to seize state-owned land for the project. PennEast subsequently said in August that it expected to complete the first phase of the $1.2bn gas pipeline in 2022, even though it was delaying acquiring rights of way for the project owing to legal and regulatory hurdles. The second phase, from Pennsylvania to New Jersey, was then to have been completed in 2023.
However, the regulatory and legal obstacles subsequently appear to have proved too high for the pipeline to move forward. This makes PennEast the latest in a series of gas pipelines, especially in the Appalachian region, to be scrapped because of legal and regulatory challenges.
The move comes as US gas prices have risen to seven-year highs on strong overseas demand for the country’s LNG. Industry groups have voiced concerns that the pipeline’s cancellation puts US energy affordability and reliability at further risk.