MORGANTOWN – The Hope Gas Morgantown Connector pipeline is bringing natural gas to Morgantown and boosting the area’s energy economy.
“The Morgantown Connector provides a variety of benefits to Hope’s customers and our business. Everything we do is to provide long-term benefits to our customers and communities,” Hope Gas told The Dominion Post.
Hope first sought state Public Service Commission permission for the project in September 2023. The pipeline was planned to run a total 30 miles from Wadestown in western Monongalia County eastward to the edge of Morgantown and then northwest to a site near Osage, at an estimated cost of $177,437,169.
“The project is needed for Hope to maintain reliable natural gas service to its existing customers in the Morgantown area, and is not being undertaken to specifically serve a new customer or new customer project,” it said at the time.
The PSC granted permission in January 2024. Hope encountered opposition from landowners along the proposed right of way. Those disagreements were settled in various ways and in May 2025, Hope provided a tour of some project sites to see them in various stages of development.
The Morgantown Connector is capable of handling 200,000 decatherms per day. A decatherm is a unit of heat energy equivalent to 1 million British Thermal Units of heat energy, according to various gas information sources.
Hope said, “This is enough to meet the current load requirements of Morgantown area homes, businesses and industry, and support future growth and economic development in the area. We have interconnect gas capacity to deliver 100% of the current requirements of Morgantown and areas beyond. We also can expand services when needed to meet economic development.”
And just as important, Hope said, the pipeline provides a redundant source of natural gas to serve customers in the area to avoid service disruptions.
“During the winter of 2024-2025, prior to the completion of the Morgantown Connector, there was a service issue from one of our providers that was impacting the delivery of natural gas,” Hope said. “At the time, there was only one pipeline feeding gas into the area. Therefore, any issues had the potential of creating a large scale service disruption in Morgantown.
“With the Morgantown Connector,” Hope said, “we have more capabilities and redundancy. We can fully back up service in the event of an issue instead of being fully dependent on a single pipeline.”
And, with a new arrangement with Northeast Natural Energy, Hope Gas said, “The Morgantown Connector also provides our customers with more access to local production.”
Northeast – with offices in Charleston and Morgantown – announced the arrangement in March.
“There are areas of the country that do not have access to the natural resources we are blessed with here in West Virginia,” said Mike John, Northeast’s president and CEO, “and more that do not have the infrastructure in place that provides access to the energy needed to meet current demand, let alone the projected increase in demand that is being forecasted.”
“We are fortunate to be in a position where we have access to the energy our communities need,” John said. “It takes teams of people working together to deliver this valuable resource – companies that produce the natural gas, companies that build the natural gas pipeline infrastructure, and companies that deliver the natural gas to the end users. With more projects like Hope’s Morgantown Connector pipeline, our industry can play an integral role in attracting future development to West Virginia and delivering energy to our neighbors who do not share our abundant resources.”
Since bringing the Morgantown Connector online, Hope Gas said, 90% of the easement/right of way has been fully reclaimed. And it is continuing to work on minor repairs to the remaining 10%.
Hope Gas is responsible for the ongoing maintenance of the right of ways such as mowing and cleaning the land, it said. “We are committed to the highest standards to ensure the right of ways remain visually appealing for our communities and beneficial for local wildlife.”
