The first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) is expected to arrive at the GDF Suez Neptune LNG deepwater port offshore Gloucester, MA, some time in August, a company spokesperson confirmed. Carol Churchill told NGI the port’s south buoy has been successfully tested and is operational. “The LNG deliveries that were made during the testing process actually resulted in gas entering the pipeline system and being delivered to New England customers,” she noted. “We continue to work on the north buoy. The GDF SUEZ Cape Ann, the second of two shuttle and regasification vessels, is expected to arrive in August. We still need to test that vessel as well as the north buoy. The GDF SUEZ Neptune made its first delivery to the Neptune port during the testing process in March.”

Precedent agreements are in place to expand the Transco pipeline and provide 225,000 Dth/d of incremental firm natural gas transportation capacity over the next three years for growing markets in the Southeast, according to Williams Partners LP. The Mid-South Expansion project would provide service on Transco to the city of LaGrange, GA, Progress Energy Carolinas Inc. and Southern Company Services Inc. As designed the expansion, estimated to cost $214 million, would be developed in two phases, with 95,000 Dth/d placed into service in the fall of 2012 and 130,000 Dth/d in service the following summer. An application to approve construction is scheduled to be filed this fall with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Once all approvals are in place, around 23 miles of new pipeline would be built, as well as a new compressor facility in Dallas County, AL, and upgrades to existing compressor facilities in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

Cadeville Gas Storage LLC, a subsidiary of Cardinal Gas Storage Partners LLC, is holding a nonbinding open season through June 30 for capacity at a planned gas storage facility in Ouachita Parish, LA, approximately 10 miles southwest of Monroe. Storage services are scheduled to begin in 2012. The three- to four-turn facility is being designed to provide a peak deliverability of 420 MMcf/d and a peak injection of 420 MMcf/d. The open season is offering 11.5 Bcf of firm capacity. Forms and information are available at www.cadevillegasstorage.com.

The Pennsylvania Environmental Protection Agency has approved construction of a $35 million plant in Washington County, PA, to treat wastewater from nearby Marcellus Shale gas drilling operations. Somerset Regional Water Resources LLC’s treatment process involves combining and treating together wastewater from drilling operations and acid mine drainage. The facility will treat up to 1.5 million gallons of wastewater from drilling and shale hydraulic fracturing operations daily, and is designed to meet wastewater standards recently approved by the state’s Environmental Quality Board (see NGI, May 24), the developer told the Daily American newspaper. Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin in the next three to six months and could take up to a year to complete.

The climate change agenda will impact global business performance and strategy “significantly” over the next few years, according to a survey of executives by Ernst & Young LLP. Three hundred global corporate executives from 16 countries and 18 industry sectors, whose companies have at least $1 billion in annual revenue, participated in the survey this spring. The survey was conducted by Verdantix, an independent analyst research organization focused on sustainable business. Seventy percent of those surveyed plan to increase spending on climate change initiatives between 2010 and 2012. Nearly half plan to spend between 0.5% to more than 5% of their revenue on climate change initiatives. For a $1 billion company, this represents an anticipated spend of $5-50 million annually, the consultant noted.

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