Equitrans to complete WV-VA Mountain Valley natgas pipe in 2023

June 27 (Reuters) - The joint venture building the Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline from West Virginia to Virginia said on Monday it still expects to complete the project in the second half of 2023 even though it asked regulators for four more years to complete the long-delayed project.

Mountain Valley - the only big gas pipe under construction in Appalachia - is one of several U.S. pipeline projects delayed by regulatory and legal fights with environmental and local groups that found problems with federal permits issued during President Donald Trump's administration.

Mountain Valley on Friday asked the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the extension from October 2022 to October 2026 due to ongoing litigation and court remand proceedings related to several permits and authorizations.

In May, Equitrans Midstream (ETRN), the lead partner building the project, said it expected the pipe to enter service in the second half of 2023 at a cost of around $6.6 billion.

When Mountain Valley construction started in February 2018, Equitrans estimated the 303-mile (488-km), 2-billion-cubic-feet-per-day (bcfd) project would cost about $3.5 billion and enter service by late 2018.

Equitrans said the pipeline was "nearly 94%complete."

Several agencies need to reissue permits, including FERC, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Biological Opinion), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (Right-of-Way across Jefferson National Forest).

Many of those permits were vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit - some more than once.

Last week, analysts at ClearView Partners said they expect federal agencies to finish their reviews by the end of 2022 with construction completion in early 2023.

Equitrans has a 47.8% ownership interest in Mountain Valley and will operate the pipeline.

Mountain Valley is owned by units of Equitrans, NextEra Energy, Consolidated Edison (ED), AltaGas (ATGFF) and RGC Resources (RGCO).

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)