Mountain Valley has received approval from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to begin operating its $7.85billion Virginia natural gas pipeline, according to a Tuesday filing.

Since construction began in 2018, the Mountain Valley Project, the only large gas pipeline in the Northeast of the United States, has been hampered by numerous court and regulatory battles.

In its filing, FERC stated that "We found that Mountain Valley had adequately stabilized the disturbed areas and that restoration and stability of the construction work is proceeding satisfactorily."

Mountain Valley requested federal regulators to approve its pipeline project between West Virginia and Virginia by June 11,

Equitrans Midstream, the project's lead partner with an approximate 49% stake, estimated that the 2,0 billion cubic feet per day, $3.5 billion, project would be completed by late 2018 and cost approximately $3.5 Billion.

A spokesperson for Equitrans said in an email to Reuters that "final preparations are being made" before commercial operations begin.

When the gas would start flowing was not clear.

Equitrans, NextEra Energy and RGC Resources are the owners of the 303-mile (488 km) pipeline project. Equitrans will be operating the pipeline.

The top U.S. natural-gas producer EQT Corp agreed in March to purchase Equitrans as part of an all-stock transaction. This deal is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter, and will bring back a company that EQT had spun off in 2018. Reporting by Harshit verma, Bengaluru. Editing by Elaine Hardcastle