Construction Delayed For NESE Natural Gas Pipeline Under Raritan Bay

SAYREVILLE, NJ — What's the latest with the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline, the natural gas pipeline that will be built underground in Sayreville and run for 23 miles under Raritan Bay?

Williams, the natural gas behemoth that is building the pipeline, previously said it expected to start digging in the third quarter of 2026, or July, August and September of this year.

But no work has started on NESE yet, said Clean Ocean Advocacy, a Jersey Shore environmental advocacy group that is fighting NESE, and just filed a lawsuit this week to stop its construction.

As of press time, no court-ordered injunction has been issued against the pipeline.

So what's the reason for the delay?

A spokeswoman for Williams, Cherice Corley, declined to answer directly. But she did say:

"Construction activities for the NESE project will proceed in accordance with applicable permits and project planning. Williams' Northeast Supply Enhancement project has been thoroughly reviewed by state and federal regulators .... We remain confident in the approvals issued for the project."

Dredging of the Raritan Bay seabed will be a big part of the work, as Williams has to bury the pipeline under the sea floor.

In May, the state of New Jersey granted Williams a key final approval the company needed to build NESE.

The NESE pipeline is an extension of the Transco pipeline, which runs from the Gulf of Mexico to New York state and already runs for miles under New Jersey. Transco/NESE will carry natural gas fracked from the Marcellus Shale in the Appalachia region of Pennsylvania through New Jersey to its final destination in Queens, where it will provide electricity and home heating for 2.3 million New York City homes.

NESE is meant to supply natural gas to the New York City/Long Island market only. Right now, none of that natural gas will go to the New Jersey market.

However, that could always change. New Jersey could always tap into a natural gas pipeline that already runs right underneath the state.

(Williams is the same natural gas company that plans to build the Constitution pipeline, which will carry natural gas mined in Central Pennsylvania into western New York state, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

"The Marcellus Shale is one of the most abundant and affordable natural gas sources in the country," said Williams. "While electricity prices in New England soar 55 percent higher than in Pennsylvania, Constitution aims to level the playing field, bringing cost-effective energy to homes and businesses that need it most.")

Here's how NESE will be constructed: 3.4 miles of pipeline will be built under the ground in Old Bridge/Sayreville, and the pipeline will then enter Raritan Bay in Cliffwood Beach. It will run under Raritan Bay and Lower New York Bay and terminate in Rockaway, Queens.

In total, the NESE pipeline will run for 23.4 miles, the bulk of it under the Raritan Bay seabed.

Williams already has all the other permits it needs from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to build NESE.

This week, Clean Ocean Action (COA) sued the NJ DEP for approving NESE.

COA — which calls it "Messy NESE" — said the pipline will re-suspend more than 1 million tons of toxic sediment into Raritan Bay. They also say fish and marine life, including whales and cute dolphins, will be harmed by NESE's construction, and recreational boating, fishing and commercial shipping in and out of the Port of New York/New Jersey will be severely disrupted.

Clean Ocean Action is the same group that is against wind farm development off the Jersey Shore, which was strongly pushed by former Gov. Phil Murphy, who gave the wind industry millions in tax breaks to build wind farms.

COA is also against oil/natural gas drilling off the Jersey Shore.

“Over the past 40+ years, New Jersey has loathed offshore fossil fuel development because we love the Jersey Shore," said Clean Ocean Action director and founder Cindy Zipf. “In 2018, the NJ Stop Offshore Oil and Gas Act passed with 99 percent bipartisan support by the state legislature, banning fossil fuel infrastructure development in state waters. NESE is not just awful — it’s unlawful.”

As part of NESE, Williams also plans to build a new natural gas compressor station in Franklin Township (Somerset County). Compressor stations are needed to relieve pressure on natural gas lines, or else there could be explosions.

Before it starts digging under Raritan Bay for NESE, Williams has to notify the U.S. Coast Guard, plus local marine traffic and fishermen about where and when construction work will take place in the Ambrose Channel, the main shipping channel into New York City.

Natural gas is a cheap, efficient power source to heat and power millions of homes. Once NESE is built, it will increase the natural gas supply to the New York City area by 13 percent. Once it's up and running, NESE is projected to lower electricity bills by up to $6 billion over 15 years, said Williams.

Williams has tried for years to build NESE.

New York and New Jersey, led by Democrat governors, successfully stopped the project multiple times.

But when President Donald Trump was re-elected for his second term, he opened the door for more fossil fuel development, one of the biggest issues he campaigned on.

Once Trump came back into office, Williams revived and expedited the NESE application. In May 2025, Trump and New York Governor Kathy Hochul reportedly cut a deal to allow fossil fuel projects to move forward in exchange for Trump allowing one specific offshore wind farm to be built off New Jersey — Empire Wind, the wind farm currently under construction 19 miles off Long Branch.

Like NESE, Empire Wind will provide wind energy to New York state only; none of it will go to New Jersey homes.

This spring, Hochul, who was once opposed to NESE, approved key permits that gave it the greenlight, similar to approvals granted under New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill's administration.

Shortly after that, the Trump White House lifted its stop-work order on Empire Wind. However, construction on Empire Wind is currently delayed anew, because the U.S. Dept. of Defense, under Secretary Pete Hegseth, abruptly stopped doing safety reviews of wind farms, which the state of NJ is suing the DOD for.

According to Clean Ocean Action, there is also speculation that the NESE pipeline will be a “bootstrap” for a future export project to ship U.S. natural gas to more lucrative markets overseas, such as to Europe.

A total of 15 towns along Raritan Bay, from Matawan to Sea Bright, passed resolutions opposing the NESE pipeline.

Prior Patch reporting on the NESE pipline: Raritan Bay Natural Gas Pipeline One Step Closer To Starting Construction (May 2026)

100+ Protest 23-Mile-Long Natural Gas Pipeline Under Raritan Bay (Sept. 2025)

Plans Revived For Natural Gas Pipeline That Will Run Under Raritan Bay (Sept. 2025)