Although the suitor, ChevronTexaco, isn’t saying anything, the reported object of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) siting interest, Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base in north San Diego County, is saying “no,” loud and clear.

A news report in Tuesday’s Los Angeles Times said the global oil/gas company has approached the Marines about locating a LNG receiving terminal either on- or offshore of the base, which has the only remaining undeveloped strip of Southern California coastline, stretching about 17 miles.

The Times‘ report also said that Australian global resources giant BHP Billiton has expressed interest in the Marine base as a back-up to its proposed offshore LNG receiving terminal off the coast of Ventura County northwest of Los Angeles. A BHP Billiton official indicated, however, his firm wasn’t interested in Camp Pendleton, and ChevronTexaco’s spokesperson in San Ramon, CA, said the company wouldn’t comment other than to say that the base had not contacted the company.

In a letter to state officials, the commander at Camp Pendleton said he was “unequivocally opposed” to development of an LNG terminal on or near the base, citing the ongoing amphibious training, use of a nearby island for bombing exercises and the proximity of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Plant just northwest of the base in the far corner of San Diego County.

The news report cited the speculation about Camp Pendleton as evidence of the “keen interest” LNG developers have in the Southern California coast and as a potential rallying point for environmentalists, led by the Sierra Club’s coastal programs director.

At a Pacific Coast LNG conference earlier in the year in Long Beach, CA, ChevronTexaco’s Michael Christensen, a global multi-facilities project manager, emphasized the company’s preference for a so-called “gravity-based structure” (GBS) offshore LNG receiving terminal off the Coronado Islands, located about 13 kilometers west of Tijuana in North Baja California, Mexico.

Christensen explained at the time that the company had completed an exhaustive search of both on- and offshore sites along the West Coast of North America before concluding that an offshore site and the one off North Baja were ChevronTexaco’s first preference.

ChevronTexaco calls its proposed Terminal GNL Mar Adentro de Baja California an “innovative answer to the region’s energy needs,” and it is focused first on supplying Mexico with added natural gas, citing Mexican government estimates of 9% to 11% annual growth in natural gas demand in Mexico over the next eight years.

However, ChevronTexaco spokespeople have confirmed that the company thinks that more than one West Coast LNG receiving terminal ultimately will be needed to satisfy the gas demand on both sides of the border.

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