Cheniere Energy Inc.’s chairman said Monday that if FERC expedites permitting for a proposed facility it wants to build, Louisiana could have a Sabine Pass liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal up and running by late 2007 or early 2008.

And though she is prodding federal officials to move quickly, newly elected Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco doesn’t want to stop with just one more LNG terminal — she said Monday she hopes to make the state a hub for LNG activity across the United States.

“We are on the verge of developing new industry…a new kind of economy that is built by LNG,” said Blanco. “Louisiana wants to be on the ground floor.”

Charif Souki, who joined Blanco in a news conference at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, affirmed that his company is moving as quickly as it can to build a proposed terminal in southwest Louisiana. The terminal would be a tolling facility located on 570 acres of land in Cameron Parish (see Daily GPI, Feb. 18). Cheniere also would construct a 16-mile, 42-inch pipeline, designed to transport 2.6 Bcf/d, which would interconnect with several interstate and intrastate pipes, Souki said.

“This is an industry that needs to happen,” Souki said. “It is essential to ensure the U.S. can take care of itself and its natural gas needs. We either have to find gas or destroy demand. And within a decade, we’ll be importing around a third of our gas, some from Canada, and from LNG. It is critical to develop an LNG industry to bring gas prices back to normal.”

LNG imports likely would bring U.S. gas prices down, Souki said. He believes that gas prices will be “stretched for the time being,” but he believes they “are not sustainable in the present level. We need price affordability for business. If gas prices are expensive, there will be an alternative…coal, nuclear. The U.S. will continue to grow, but gas will not be sustainable for industry to use [gas] at $6/Mcf.”

Blanco has written the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to request the expedited permitting for Cheniere, and she noted that there is a “unified front” in bringing additional LNG facilities to the state. Lake Charles, LA already is home to the largest U.S. receiving terminal, which is owned by BG Group.

FERC held a “successful” scoping meeting with Sabine Pass stakeholders in March, and Blanco said “a very loud chorus of support was the message FERC took home to Washington, DC.”

Louisiana State University’s Center for Energy Studies recently released “Economic Opportunities for LNG Development in Louisiana” concluded that development of a LNG infrastructure in the state could increase gas export volumes through the existing state pipeline system by more than 237% and provide $398 million in annual gas expenditure savings.

“The country’s lack of access to wider supplies of natural gas and its threat to our economy has been underscored repeatedly by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan in speeches and testimony before Congress,” Blanco said.

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