Equitrans boosts cost estimate for Mountain Valley natgas pipe

April 30 (Reuters) - Equitrans Midstream Corp said on Tuesday it expects to complete the construction and final commissioning activities on its Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline by the end of May at an estimated cost of $7.85 billion.

That is higher than the $7.57 billion to $7.63 billion cost estimate the company gave in February.

Equitrans is the lead partner and operator of the pipeline, the only major one under construction in the U.S. Northeast.

It has encountered numerous regulatory and court fights that have stopped work several times since construction began in 2018.

Equitrans also reported a first-quarter profit that narrowly missed estimates and said volumes and revenue were hit by gross production curtailments announced last month by EQT Corp , which is set to buy the company.

Several U.S. natgas producers curbed their output and spending on drilling activity as an oversupplied market has brought the prices of the commodity down to multi-decade lows. (Reporting by Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)