Dominion Energy Cove Point LNG LP has filed a request for authorization from FERC to introduce hazardous fluids at its liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility on the Chesapeake Bay in Lusby, MD.

In a filing Monday, Dominion asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for permission by Aug. 30 to introduce feed gas to the facility’s pre-treatment and liquefaction areas [CP13-113]. The company also asked for permission to proceed with setting up equipment for ship loading, including LNG loading pumps and return-gas blowers.

Earlier this month, Dominion said the project was 95% complete. The facility, which would source gas from the Marcellus Shale, would be bidirectional, offering import and export capability, with capacity to handle 750 MMcf/d.

“The liquefaction facility has been integrated with the existing terminal consistently throughout the development of the Cove Point Liquefaction Project,” Dominion told FERC. “This integration includes environmental policy and procedures, quality, safety, plant arrangements and engineering, and ranges from details such as tie-ins to overall issues such as hazard analysis. Operations procedures and logic have been developed to integrate the processes and procedures of the liquefaction facility with those of the existing terminal.”

Dominion said several facets of the project have been fully integrated, including plant protection systems and control systems, utilities and power, and LNG send-out and storage. “Cove Point is currently training its operations team with a plant operations simulator which integrates the controls of the existing terminal and the new liquefaction facility,” the company said.

Although the filing did not identify a source for the feed gas, the project’s marketed capacity is fully subscribed under 20-year service agreements. Sumitomo Corp.’s U.S. affiliate Pacific Summit Energy LLC and GAIL (India) Ltd.’s U.S. affiliate GAIL Global (USA) LNG LLC each have contracted for half of the marketed capacity. Sumitomo has agreements to serve Tokyo Gas Co. and Kansai Electric Power Co. Inc.

Cove Point would be the first LNG export facility on the U.S. East Coast and only the second in the Lower 48 states behind Cheniere Energy Partners’ Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Louisiana.