The company said it would file applications with the United States Coast Guard/Maritime Administration (MARAD) and the California State Lands Commission to construct and operate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification facility.

The applications will seek to obtain a deepwater port license for the right to operate the floating, storage, and regasification unit (FSRU) in U.S. coastal waters and a land lease from the California State Lands Commission for the right to construct an undersea pipeline to the shore to deliver the natural gas into the local utility system.

If approved, the proposed $US550 million terminal could be operational in 2008 and will lie 21.5 miles from Oxnard off the Ventura County coast.

Under the name Cabrillo Port the terminal would be a permanently moored FSRU with LNG being stored in traditional storage tanks, regasified, and transported via undersea pipeline into a local pipeline system.

The FSRU design features three LNG storage tanks capable of storing the equivalent of 6 billion cubic feet of natural gas and will contain eight vaporizers to enable the conversion of up to 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.

Anticipated average send-out will be approximately 800 million cubic feet per day, or almost 15% of what Californian daily gas consumption.