Construction has been completed on Excelerate Energy’s Northeast Gateway deepwater liquefied natural gas (LNG) port off the coast of Massachusetts and the company is awaiting its final operating permits from the U.S. Coast Guard, a spokesman said Monday.

Excelerate Energy expects to “realistically” have all of its operating permits by mid-January, said Edward Scott, vice president of development. He declined to say when LNG shipments would be off-loaded at the facility, explaining that the Houston-based company was in the “middle of fairly sensitive negotiations” with respect to LNG cargo.

The Northeast Gateway facility, located 18 miles east of Boston, was completed in December, becoming the first new LNG terminal built on the East Coast in three decades.

With peak deliveries of up to 800 MMcf/d, Northeast Gateway will be able to deliver about 500 MMcf/d into the New England market during normal operations, or approximately 20% of that market’s current annual consumption. The deepwater port will be operated by Skaugen Offshore and will accommodate Excelerate’s proprietary Energy Bridge Regasification Vessel fleet.

In early December Algonquin Gas Transmission LLC got the green light to begin operating a 16-mile pipeline lateral connecting the company’s New England-area natural gas system to the Northeast Gateway LNG port (see Daily GPI, Dec. 7, 2007). Vaporized gas will flow from the terminal through Algonquin’s HubLine pipe facilities in Massachusetts Bay to the Northeast gas market. The pipe facilities have the capacity to deliver up to 800,000 Dth/d of incremental supply.

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