A citizens group has asked FERC to reject two LNG receiving terminal sites in Maine proposed by Oklahoma-based Quoddy Bay LLC and Downeast LNG for Maine, saying the planned facilities demonstrate “fatally-deficient” siting.

The group, Save Passamaquoddy Bay 3-Nation Alliance, is an affiliation of U.S., Passamaquoddy, and Canadian citizens who oppose siting LNG industrial facilities in “unspoiled” Passamaquoddy Bay. Its petition to FERC cited standards of an international group of liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and tanker operators, saying the two projects did not conform with the standards.

The proposed Quoddy Bay terminal at Split Rock, ME, and the Downeast LNG terminal at Mill Cove, ME, do not meet the Society of International Gas Terminal and Tanker Operators’ (SIGTTO) LNG best practices, “and cannot be made to do so without severe environmental consequences,” said the Save Passamaquoddy Bay group in letters filed with FERC on Wednesday [PF06-11, PF06-13].

“Due to the inability for the [projects] to conform to industry best practices standards,” the group urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to deny Quoddy Bay’s and Downeast’s proposals.

The filing made by Save Passamaquoddy Bay webmaster Robert Godfrey said some of the SIGTTO standards violated by both LNG projects include: jetty and ship dockage within the shipping channel; lack of protection for docked LNG carriers from wave effects from other ship traffic; chance of LNG carriers being struck by other heavily-laden ships; long, narrow, winding, hazard-laden “inland” waterway; LNG vessels too close to civilian populations; lack of protection from future port changes that could endanger the LNG port; and, odds greater than zero for a large LNG release.

Neither LNG terminal project has filed a proposal at FERC yet, but they are in the early pre-filing phase to address environmental and other landowner concerns. If approved, the proposed $500 million Quoddy Bay terminal, to be sited at Split Rock on the Pleasant Point Reservation of the Passamaquoddy Indian tribe, would supply up to 2 Bcf/d of natural gas to the New England region. The project would have storage capacity of 10 Bcf and regasification capacity of 2 Bcf/d, and would include a 40-mile gas pipeline that would connect with the onshore storage and regas facility with Maritimes & Northeast’s mainline. Quoddy Bay is seeking to start construction in 2007 and begin operation in 2010.

The proposed $400 million Downeast LNG terminal would be built on an 80-acre site on the south side of Mill Cove, where the St. Croix River meets Passamaquoddy Bay. The project’s financial backers are Kestrel Energy Partners LLC, an oil and gas private equity investment firm based in New York, and Dean Girdis, president and founders of Downeast.

If approved by FERC, the Downeast project will consist of a single LNG storage tank (160,000 cubic meters), processing equipment (500 MMcf/d of peak sendout), a new pier and several small support buildings. Once built, the facility would receive one ship a week on average, carrying about 125,000 to 138,000 cubic meters of LNG, or about 2.6-2.8 Bcf of gas.

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