A proposed 550-mile natural gas pipeline that would end in Robeson County could  bring hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity to eastern North Carolina, Gov. Pat McCrory said Tuesday in a news release.

Duke Energy and Piedmont Natural Gas selected energy company Dominion to build and operate the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which has an estimated cost of between $4.5 and $5 billion, the companies announced Tuesday. Pending regulatory approval, the pipeline is expected to begin delivering natural gas to customers in late 2018.

The announcement comes at a time when officials are looking for more ways to attract businesses to the Cape Fear region. One of the reasons Brunswick County lost a potential project recently was because of concerns about the lack of natural gas capacity in the future, said Jim Bradshaw, executive director of the Brunswick County Economic Development Commission. 

"We have large industrial projects looking in the region. Having additional volume of natural gas will be a major advantage for us because when you’re in copmetition with other states and other communities, the more advantages you have, the more chances you have of landing a larger industry," Bradshaw said.

The pipeline is expected to create 52 permanent jobs and 738 jobs each year in North Carolina during the construction phase, which would have an economic impact of $680 million, the governor’s office release stated.

While the proposed pipeline’s route from West Virginia through North Carolina does not take it through New Hanover, Brunswick or Pender counties, McCrory said all counties should feel the economic effects. In addition to job creation and growth, “this new interstate natural gas pipeline will provide our entire state with new access to abundant, clean, reliable and competitively priced supplies of natural gas,” Mccrory said in the news release.

Currently, the state is served for the most part by one major interstate natural gas pipeline that traverses the state’s western and central regions, transporting natural gas largely from the Gulf Coast region, a Duke Energy news release said.

“Duke Energy increasingly relies on natural gas to generate electricity after closing half of its 14 coal-fired power plants in North Carolina during the past three years,” the release stated.

The company has opened five natural gas-fired power plants in the state since 2011 to replace coal plants, the Duke Energy release stated. Natural gas-fired plants release fewer air emissions than coal-fired plants. Locally, in November, the $600-million L.V. Sutton Combined Cycle Plant on U.S. 421 replaced a coal plant that Duke Energy retired after 59 years of service.

Duke Energy will be one of four owners of the pipeline, with a 40 percent share, along with Dominion (45 percent); AGL Resources, an Atlanta-based energy services holding company (5 percent); and Piedmont Natural Gas (10 percent).

“In conjunction with its investment in the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, Piedmont Natural Gas plans to make additional utility capital investments in its natural gas delivery system of approximately $190 million in order to redeliver Atlantic Coast Pipeline gas supplies to local North Carolina markets the company serves,” a Piedmont Natural Gas news release stated.

The project will require Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval, which Dominion is hoping to get by the summer of 2016, according to the the Duke Energy release. The release also stated that its main customers, which will purchase gas through 20-year contracts, are Duke Energy Carolinas, Duke Energy Progress, Virginia Power Services Energy, Virginia Natural Gas and PSNC Energy.

The pipeline would enter the state in Northampton County and travel southwest through parts of Halifax, Nash, Wilson, Johnston, Sampson and Cumberland counties before ending at Piedmont Natural Gas transmission facilities in Robeson County.