Mountain Valley Pipeline, a U.S. natural-gas pipeline company, said it would begin preparing its $7.85 billion pipe that runs from West Virginia to Virginia after obtaining approval from the U.S. Energy regulator.

Since construction began in 2018, the Mountain Valley Project, the largest gas pipeline in the Northeast currently under construction, has been hampered by numerous court and regulatory battles.

A spokesperson for Equitrans Midstream (the lead partner of the Mountain Valley venture) told Reuters via email that "final preparations are under way to start commercial operations".

Equitrans' comments came after the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted Mountain Valley's request for the project to begin.

Equitrans was unable to say when the Mountain Valley pipeline, with a capacity of 2,0 billion cubic feet per a day (bcfd), would begin to receive gas.

A billion cubic feet of gas is enough to power about 5 million U.S. households for one day.

Separately,

Toby Rice, CEO of EQT, told Natural Gas Intelligence in Boston at the LDC Gas Forums Northeast Conference that EQT has started to bring some of the production of 1 bcfd back online after it curtailed in February as gas prices fell.

EQT is the largest gas producer in the country.

In March, Equitrans agreed to purchase Equitrans as an all-stock transaction. The deal is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter. This would mean that EQT could bring back its pipeline business, which it spun off in 2018.

Analysts expect that some of EQT’s increased output will be routed through Mountain Valley. However, they noted that downstream pipeline restrictions will likely prevent Mountain Valley reaching its full capacity for at least a few months.

Analysts at the energy consultancy firm EBW Analytics wrote in a report that "output gains will likely remain well below (Mountain Valley’s 2.0-bcfd nameplate capacity) during summer months, due to downstream pipeline restrictions."

Equitrans, the lead partner in Mountain Valley, which holds a 49% stake, estimated that the project would be completed by late 2018 and cost $3.5 billion.

Equitrans, NextEra Energy and RGC Resources are the owners of the 303-mile (488 km) pipeline project. Equitrans will be operating the pipeline. Reporting by Harshit verma from Bengaluru, and Scott DiSavino from New York. Editing by Elshardcastle and Rod Nickel.