Pipeline operator TC Energy Corp. has announced a US$1.5-billion expansion to a system that delivers natural gas into power hungry U.S. markets.
The Appalachia Supply Project would add 800 million cubic feet per day of capacity to TC’s Columbia Gas System, which covers 10 states across the eastern and Midwestern U.S., the company said Friday. It’s underpinned by a 20-year contract with an investment grade utility and expected to come into service in 2030.
“This project further extends our reach into this high-value, high-growth market,” TC chief executive Francois Poirier told analysts on a conference call.
Further expansions could bring the project’s total capacity to two billion cubic feet per day, “creating line of sight for capital-efficient growth projects relating to overall economic development, demand from data centres and as broader electrification continues to scale,” Poirier added.
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TC Energy sees gas demand in the region the Columbia Gas System covers growing to four billion cubic feet per day through 2035.
The company recently held “open seasons” to gauge customer interest in two other pipeline projects in the United States. Its Crossroads system expansion serving Illinois, Iowa, Indiana and South Dakota garnered bids amounting to 2.5 times what was initially offered. Another one in Ohio — a major data centre market — was three times oversubscribed.
“What’s important is not just the level of demand we’re seeing, but how we’re well-positioned to capture it,” Poirier said.
TC transports about 30 per cent of the natural gas bound for export in North America and is a major shipper to liquefied natural gas plants across the continent. In those facilities, gas is chilled into a liquid, enabling it to be shipped overseas in specialized tankers.
LNG Canada in Kitimat, B.C., owned by Shell and four Asian partners, is contemplating a second phase that would double the plant’s output. Under a recent agreement, LNG Canada is to take the lead on constructing an expansion to TC’s Coastal Gas Link pipeline, which serves that plant.
“In practice, what that means is that as the project execution lead, LNG Canada will manage some of the cost and schedule activities, and that puts limits on our capital commitments and overall liability for construction cost and schedule risk,” said Tina Faraca, TC’s executive vice-president and chief operating officer for natural gas pipelines.
“This is consistent with our strategic objectives to produce project execution at capital allocation risk within our tolerance.”
Earlier Friday, TC reported $899-million in net income attributable to common shareholders for its first quarter, down from $978-million a year earlier.
The profit amounted to 86 cents per share for the quarter ended March 31, down from 94 cents per share in the first quarter of 2025.
Comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to 99 cents per share, up from 95 cents per share a year earlier. Analysts were on average expecting earnings of 98 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
Revenue for the quarter totalled $3.86-billion, up from $3.62-billion in the same quarter last year.