Four major U.S. energy companies – Dominion (NYSE:D), Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), Piedmont Natural Gas (NYSE: PNY) and AGL Resources (NYSE: GAS) – have announced the formation of a joint venture to build and own the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The $4.5 billion to $5 billion, 550-mile natural gas pipeline would run from Harrison County, W. Va., southeast through Virginia with an extension to Chesapeake, Va., and then south through central North Carolina to Robeson County.

The partnership, called Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC, will own the pipeline initially proposed by Dominion as the Southeast Reliability Project. It is designed in part to meet the needs identified in requests for proposals last April by Duke Energy and Piedmont, and in June by Virginia Power Services Energy. It would deliver natural gas supplies to growing markets for additional customers in Virginia and North Carolina. The pipeline would provide a new route for direct access to the burgeoning production in the Marcellus and Utica shale basins of West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Dominion is to build and operate the Atlantic Coast Pipeline on behalf of the venture.

The joint venture ownership stakes are: Dominion, 45%; Duke Energy, 40%; Piedmont, 10%; and AGL Resources, 5%. Subsidiaries and affiliates of all four joint venture partners plan to be customers of the pipeline under 20-year contracts, pending regulatory approvals. PSNC Energy also plans to be a customer of the pipeline under a 20-year contract, pending regulatory approvals.

Dominion has begun surveying to determine the best route, one that meets operational and reliability needs while minimizing the impact on the environment as well as historical and cultural resources. The company plans to make a pre-filing request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) this fall on behalf of Atlantic Coast Pipeline. It expects to file its FERC application in the summer of 2015, receive the FERC Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity in the summer of 2016, and begin construction shortly thereafter.

The extensive FERC review process solicits input from numerous local, state and federal entities, and private citizens. Public safety, air quality, water resources, geology, soils, wildlife and vegetation, threatened and endangered species, land and visual resources, cultural and historic resources, noise, cumulative impacts and reasonable alternatives are fully examined.

The main pipeline would have a 42-inch diameter in West Virginia and Virginia, reducing to 36 inches in diameter in North Carolina.