Ingleside Energy Center LLC and San Patricio Pipeline LLC Thursday asked FERC for an extension until April 30, 2011 to complete construction on a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Texas and its associated pipeline.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) certificated the projects in July 2005 and gave the companies three years to place them in service from the date of the final order (see Daily GPI, July 22, 2005).

“[A]s the Commission is aware, the various segments of the LNG industry are developing at different rates,” the companies told FERC. “In this regard, the Ingleside project, with its distinctly beneficial attributes, continues to be well positioned to respond to market needs. In recognition of the challenges the industry has faced, the Commission lately has been providing applicants with four to five years from the date of final orders to place their facilities in service.”

Ingleside and San Patricio noted that they are asking for “a short time more than three years from the date of this request.”

Two years ago a consultant who predicted a “shakeout” of LNG projects noted the Ingleside project as one likely to move forward (see Daily GPI, March 23, 2006). As originally envisioned, the project, to be sited in San Patricio and Nueces counties, TX, would include a new marine terminal basin connected to the La Quinta Channel with one protected berth to unload about 140 ships per year (two to three per week). It would include two 160,000 cubic meter storage tanks, LNG vaporization equipment capable of vaporizing 1 Bcf/d of LNG, and 26 miles of 26-inch diameter pipeline with nine interconnections with nine existing interstate and intrastate pipelines north of Sinton, TX.

Last January FERC granted the substitution of full-containment LNG storage tanks for the previously proposed double-containment design authorized in its 2005 order.

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