Kinder Morgan withdraws NED pipeline application

OREANDA-NEWS. May 24, 2016. US midstream company Kinder Morgan today formally withdrew its application before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build the 1.3 Bcf/d (37mn m?/d) Northeast Energy Direct (NED) natural gas pipeline.

Kinder Morgan last month announced it was suspending work on the \\$3.3bn project because it had insufficient commitments from existing customers. The pipeline would have transported shale gas from northeast Pennsylvania into New York and New England, where natural gas prices typically spike each winter because of constrained pipeline capacity.

The withdrawal of the application removes the possibility that Kinder Morgan could easily restart work on the pipeline. A group of New Hampshire municipalities that opposed the project on 4 May asked the FERC to dismiss the pipeline application, citing the company's suspension of its work.

Major pipeline applications frequently take more than two years for FERC to process. Pipeline developers are required to submit information on routes, stream crossings and environmental issues in their applications, which go through public comment. Kinder Morgan first filed its federal application for the project in November 2015.

Kinder Morgan suspended work on the project on 20 April, but the company said it had contractual requirements to contact its existing customers before it could formally withdraw the pipeline application, as it did today.