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Cove Point Flunks Initial FERC Inspection to Receive Test LNG Cargo
FERC staff has sent Dominion Cove Point LNG LP back to the drawing board after its liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Calvert County, MD came up short during an initial agency inspection in late May.
The Commission staff carried out the inspection in response to Cove Point LNG’s request for permission to receive a single test cargo of LNG at its facility in July of this year, and to postpone the deadline for completing construction of a fifth LNG storage tank until Oct. 1, 2004. The fifth tank, which would boost the facility’s storage capacity to 7.8 Bcf, initially was to targeted for in-service on Sept. 1 of this year.
“The inspection found that a number of construction areas needed to be completed prior to the facility being ready for the receipt of the test cargo and cooldown of equipment,” said J. Mark Robinson, director of FERC’s Office of Energy Projects, in a letter to the company Monday [CP01-76}
“For example, several major work areas, including instrumentation and electrical systems, offshore platform rehabilitation, and expansion joint replacement, were found to require significant efforts before the facility will be ready to receive an LNG cargo,” he noted. In addition, Cove Point LNG must comply with federal standards for providing “air gaps” in newly installed cable trays.
Cove Point LNG was ordered to inform FERC by “no later than June 25” when the equipment and systems necessary to receive an LNG shipment would be ready for re-inspection by the agency. In addition, the facility must provide the agency with a complete list of the equipment and systems needed to carry out a test LNG cargo and complete all of the cooldown procedures and system checks, he said.
The Commission gave the green light to reactivate and expand the Cove Point LNG import terminal in late 2001 (see Daily GPI, Oct. 12, 2001). At that time, the facility was owned by Williams, which sold it to Dominion Resources in 2002. It currently has LNG storage capacity of approximately 5 Bcf and a liquefaction capacity of 15 MMcf/d. The import terminal has a send-out capacity of 1 Bcf/d.
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