What Does FERC Quorum Mean for Appalachian Basin?
From BTU Analytics:
While electricity rate cases will most likely be the bulk of the commission’s backlog, a few important Appalachian pipe projects are in there as well, notably Nexus and PennEast, both of which have missed their scheduled certificate approval dates (which were due in February and July, respectively) as a result of the lack of a FERC quorum. In February 2017 when there was a push by FERC to approve projects prior to losing its quorum, both Rover and Atlantic Sunrise received their approval, while NEXUS’ decision was left out. This was based on FERC’s methodology of addressing projects by their original application date. Now with FERC’s quorum restored, there is no reason to think it will be delayed much longer.
Atlantic Coast Pipeline and Mountain Valley are both scheduled to receive their certificate approval at the end of September. FERC should be in full swing of things by then, however any ramifications due to the backlog of approvals would put this timing at risk.
Nevertheless, even with an approval, the path forward for all the projects above will still be bumpy as they all face obstacles beyond a FERC approval. NEXUS is facing limited commercial support with only two-thirds of its capacity subscribed, leaving it the only major greenfield in the Northeast not fully subscribed. In addition, TransCanada Mainline’s recently discounted tariff rates will make the MichCon/Dawn market even more competitive, hurting shippers’ netbacks on NEXUS.You can read the whole article by clicking here.
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