U.S. Approves Williams' Atlantic Sunrise Natgas Pipe for Service

U.S. federal energy regulators on Thursday approved a request by Williams Cos Inc's Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co (Transco) unit to put the Atlantic Sunrise natural gas pipeline from Pennsylvania to South Carolina into service.

The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) said in a filing approving the startup of the nearly $3 billion project that Transco has "adequately stabilized the areas disturbed by construction and that restoration is proceeding satisfactorily."

Atlantic Sunrise is one of several pipelines designed to connect growing output in the Marcellus and Utica shale basins in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio with customers in other parts of the United States and Canada.

The 1.7 billion-cubic-feet-per-day Atlantic Sunrise project includes about 198 miles (319 km) of new pipe located mostly in Pennsylvania and modifications to existing infrastructure in other states.

One billion cubic feet is enough gas to power about 5 million U.S. homes for a day.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp has secured about 1 bcfd of transport capacity on Atlantic Sunrise.

Reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York