With Enron’s Bahamas LNG project on the rocks because of the bankruptcy and no sign yet of El Paso’s LNG plans for the island, AES took the lead spot last month in the race to build a liquefied natural gas import terminal in the Bahamas with a pipeline to Florida. The company filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the $440 million Ocean Express pipeline.

The 52-mile pipeline, 46 miles of which would be subsea facilities, would bring gas to Broward County, FL, from the proposed terminus of a 40-mile non-jurisdictional line at the Exclusive Economic Zone boundary between the United States and the Bahamas. AES said the pipeline would extend to interconnections with Florida Gas Transmission and Florida Power & Light’s distribution system near the Fort Lauderdale power plant. The 24-inch diameter pipeline is expected to transport 842,000 Dth/d of gas.

Following an open season in which two potential customers bid for capacity, affiliate AES LNG Marketing signed a contract for 800,000 Dth/d. Despite the apparent lack of interest in the capacity, a market study by Navigant Consulting that AES submitted as part of its application forecasts 2.39 Bcf/d of incremental demand growth in the area by 2010 and 4.54 Bcf/d of growth by 2020, mainly because of increases in gas-fired power generation.

AES said FGT and the proposed Gulfstream Natural Gas System, which currently is under construction, are inadequate to meet growing demand in the southeastern part of the state.

AES Ocean Express LLC requested that it receive a preliminary determination on the project by July and a final certificate by March 2003. If FERC can meet that aggressive schedule, the company said it could obtain financing and have the project in service by the summer of 2004. AES said construction of the LNG import terminal and vaporization facilities in Ocean Cay, Bahamas, is expected to take 24 to 28 months. If FERC can’t meet that schedule, however, and is unable to issue a certificate until March 2003, completion of the project would be delayed until March 2005.

©Copyright 2002 Intelligence Press Inc. Allrights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republishedor redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without priorwritten consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.