| Dominion Transmission says they are planning to build a new billion-dollar pipeline project to channel natural gas through West Virginia to Pennsylvania and other Eastern markets.
Just where the pipeline will be built has not been announced.
Bob Fulton, a public relations spokesman for the company said the pipeline will connect some existing lines and add new ones, in an effort to meet the increasing demand for natural gas.
The big pipeline will join multi-billion dollar high-voltage electric projects being built from West Virginia coal-fired power plants to provide energy to the eastern grid.
Fulton "anticipates that the Northern Panhandle would be involved" as the gas is delivered to Pennsylvania. All of this "will depend on where the intersections lie for our customers."
Dominion Transmission is a part of Dominion Energy, based in Richmond, Virginia.
The new venture is called the Appalachian Gateway project.
Fulton said they anticipate delving into the Marcellus Shale formation, a formation that lies under almost all of West Virginia and parts of some other states.
Although scientists have known about this rich deposit for years, the ability to extract resources from it has only recently been developed, Fulton said.
According to Geology.com the organic rich carbonaceous shale could contain more than 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
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