FERC on Wednesday approved the start of a pre-filing process on the first in a series of small-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) production facilities a consortium hopes to develop starting with a site in Florida.

The consortium, Eagle LNG Partners, said it received the green light from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission less than a week after filing its request just before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Eagle LNG is a creation of General Electric (GE) units, Clean Energy Fuels Corp. and Ferus Natural Gas Fuels (see Daily GPI, Oct. 31, 2013). Last year it selected a site in Jacksonville, FL, to develop a 300,000 gallon/d production facility to supply various modes of transportation, including heavy-duty trucking, rail and marine transport.

With substantial fuel and financial resources, the GE units — GE Ventures and GE Energy Financial Services — joined Clean Energy and Ferus in the Eagle venture, which is pursuing the growing LNG market for heavy-duty truck fleets as well as marine and rail transportation. It also would pursue oil and natural gas services applications, along with mining (see Daily GPI, Sept. 20, 2013).

Earlier this year, Ferus bought out Encana Corp.’s half-stake in the two companies’ joint venture LNG production facility in Elmworth, AB, which was set to start up last May (see Daily GPI, April 24).

The proposed Florida LNG facility is slated to serve both domestic and international markets, a spokesperson for Eagle LNG said. The site will receive and liquefy natural gas, temporarily store the produced LNG, and periodically load LNG onto ocean-going vessels for use in the marine fueling trade.

“The company is seeing increased demand for LNG to serve small-scale export markets while domestic demand for LNG continues to develop,” said the spokesperson, adding that the company will keep the FERC process transparent by posting its application and related filing on its website.

The pre-filing will involve other federal agencies, state and local agencies, stakeholders, community groups and FERC, the spokesperson said. Following the completion of the pre-filing process, Eagle LNG will make its formal application to FERC for final approval of the project.

Construction of the Jacksonville production facility on a 197-acre site along the St. Johns River is expected to start in the second quarter of 2015 and be completed in the fourth quarter.