Columbia Pipeline Group plans to invest a total of $1.75 billion in infrastructure for transport of up to 1.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of gas from the Marcellus and Utica areas to markets served by its Columbia Gas Transmission and Columbia Gulf Transmission pipeline systems.

The new investments include two major projects. The first is the construction by Columbia Transmission of a new gas pipeline in Ohio and West Virginia to support gas supply development in western Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia and eastern Ohio. The proposed pipeline is known as Columbia Transmission’s Leach XPress project. It would increase the transportation capacity of the system by 1.5 Bcf/d and move regional gas supplies to various markets, including its interconnect with Columbia Gulf in Leach, Ky. The project is supported by long-term firm commitments from Range Resources—Appalachia LLC, Noble Energy Inc., Kaiser Marketing Appalachian LLC and American Energy Utica LLC.

The second project is supported by the same shippers and involves the addition of compression to Columbia Gulf’s existing pipeline facilities to provide additional transportation capacity of more than 1 Bcf/d. The project, called Columbia Gulf’s Rayne XPress project, will provide additional capacity for efficient transport of Appalachian production to markets via Columbia Gulf, which spans from the U.S. Gulf Coast to Appalachia.

Columbia Pipeline Group expects construction of both projects to begin in fall 2016, with an expected in-service date during the second half of 2017.