Despite some new-found attention in the financial news media, San Jose, CA-based Calpine Corp. is still only studying the feasibility of a California coastal liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in the far northern end of the state.

It isn’t ready to break ground in a sparsely populated former deep-water timber port at Humboldt Bay, according to Calpine’s spokespeople. An LNG project hasn’t been ruled out or in, one spokesperson said.

As one of the top 10 power plant developers in the nation with a huge appetite for natural gas, Calpine is looking at LNG as one of several long-term sources for additional supplies to keep its own inventory at about one-quarter of its power plants’ fuel needs.

As Dow Jones Newswires report quoted Kent Robertson, of Calpine, the company is looking at LNG “from a customer’s point of view,” and anticipating if it were involved in a terminal development, the power-building/operating firm would do it with partners. Separately, Robertson told NGI/Power Market Today Thursday that he was unsure what ignited the interest in Calpine’s several-months-old ongoing feasibility study of Humboldt Bay because there is “nothing new.”

While the attraction of a little-known deep-water port that recently had further dredging done to increase its attractiveness for marine onshore developers, the location is devoid of any major energy or rail infrastructure, Robertson said. Electric transmission lines, natural gas transmission pipelines and rail access would all have to be added in addition to building the receiving terminal, contracting for supplies and finding buyers — beside Calpine — for the terminal output.

“It is very preliminary,” Robertson said.”It is still on the table, but everything (for planning purposes) is on the table right now.”

Financial industry observers have expressed skepticism about Calpine, which has pulled in its once-aggressive development program, since the 2001-2002 merchant energy sector meltdown, noting its $6 billion annual capital budget has shrunk to $500 million next year, and its stock continues to trade about one-tenth what it sold for 30 months ago. “The company’s debt-to-equity ratio is over 400%, and it carries long-term debt of more than $16 billion, while its market capitalization is just $1.63 billion,” Dow Jones reported.

Still, Robertson said, more than 90% of the company’s soon-to-be 30,000-MW power plant portfolio runs on natural gas, so with the nation increasingly turning to LNG imports as a major future source of new gas supplies, Calpine has to review its options in this sector.

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