Suez Energy North America said this week that its subsidiary, Neptune LNG, had received its deepwater port licence, one of the final federal steps needed before construction of the port can begin. The other proposed project, Excelerate's Northeast Gateway Energy Bridge, was approved in February and is expected to become operational in December.
The Neptune faculty now only requires a dredging permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, a permit for water usage during operation from the federal Environmental Protection Agency and two approvals from the state on coastal zone management.
“We anticipate all the additional permits by the middle of 2007,” a Suez spokesperson told the Gloucester Daily Times newspaper. The company aims to commission the terminal by the beginning of 2010.
A pipeline to connect the two LNG terminals to Massachusett’s existing underground Hubline pipe has also won approval, in this case from Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Both terminals will use specially designed LNG ships equipped to store, transport, and regasify LNG. The ships will transfer the gas to the pipeline via purpose-built unloading buoys.
Both terminals will use two separate buoys, which Suez said would ensure that gas could be delivered in a continuous flow by having a brief overlap between arriving and departing LNG carriers.
Neptune is waiting for two ships to be constructed to open its terminal, but Excelerate is already operating a similar terminal in the Gulf of Mexico.
Meanwhile, Australia's Woodside Petroleum is seeking approval to place two delivery buoys more than 20 miles (32km) offshore from Los Angeles International Airport with dual undersea pipelines to deliver the natural gas to shore.
The proposal would process an annual average of 400 million cubic feet a day (MMcfd) of natural gas. Subject to market demand, subsequent phases of the project could increase the annual average capacity to 800MMcfd and 1.2 billion cubic feet per day.
OceanWay is facing opposition from US lobby groups. However, Woodside will take heart from the fact that the two look-alike Massachusetts projects were also controversial but seem set to go ahead regardless.
