Williams Cos. announced it will commence an open season from Aug. 26 to Sept. 23 for Transco Pipeline’s Diamond East project. The project is designed to provide natural gas transport capacity to markets in the northeastern U.S.

The project’s design allows for up to 1 billion cubic feet per day of new natural gas transportation capacity from receipt points along its Leidy Line in Lycoming and Luzerne counties, Pa., to its Market Pool at Station 210 in Mercer County, N.J. From there, it can provide supply diversity to northeast states including Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.

The capacity expansion will consist of additional compression and selected pipeline loop segments along the current Transco Pipeline corridor. It is expected that the expansion will add about 50 miles of pipeline looping and horsepower additions, and that capital investment will be between $500 million and $800 million, depending on customer participation and volume commitments. The expected completion date is in mid-2018.