MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Morgantown-based Hope Gas has been approved to acquire about 900 miles of gathering pipelines in northeastern West Virginia from the Equitrans Midstream Corporation.
President and CEO Morgan O’Brien said the wells supplying the system are at the end of their service life, and the 4,900 customers who depend on the system experience some problems during peak use periods. The wells are nearing the end of their service life, and they need more natural gas from their network to increase reliability.
“For the next few months we’re going to be working both with Equitrans and the local producers to bring more gas onto the system so next winter these folks can be warm and safe and depend on their natural gas service,” O’Brien said.
Hope Gas has plans to acquire Peoples Natural Gas and the Southern Public Service Company later this year. The Peoples Natural Gas Transaction is valued at about $37 million, and the utility serves about 125,000 customers. Southern Public Service Company is a smaller gas utility based in Milton, West Virginia.
“We’ve estimated that on an annual basis, it could be as many as 400 skilled labor jobs that will be put to work each year repalocating old pipe and expanding our footprint,” O’Brien said.
In Morgantown, Hope Gas, established in September of 2022, currently employs 100 at their 35,000-square-foot facility at the WVU Innovation Corporation on Chestnut Ridge Road and has plans for growth. O’Brien said soon they’ll open a call center and gas control operations in the Morgantown area that will employ another 100 residents.
“Within the first 12 months, Hope Gas will have created 200 good, family-sustaining jobs here in West Virginia,” O’Brien said. “In addition to the pipe replacement, we’re using contractors to help us with it.”
Similar to the acquisition of Equitrans Midstream Corporation, Hope Gas will begin an upgrade and maintenance program on the distribution system. O’Brien says as these new acquisitions are stabilized, they plan to make gas available to expand into new areas in order to encourage more natural gas customers and drilling.
“We want to work with those producers to see if there’s an ability to put more gas on those systems to support their businesses,” O’Brien said. “Because at the end of the day, the most reliable and most affordable natural gas is gas that’s drilled here in West Virginia.”