Joint federal-state open houses and scoping hearings will be held Wednesday and Thursday at two onshore interconnection points for NorthernStar Natural Gas Inc.’s proposed Clearwater Port offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal project.

Wednesday afternoon and evening meetings will be in Oxnard, the coastal city where the regasified LNG supplies will come ashore; and Thursday’s meetings will be about 40 miles inland in Santa Clarita in northern Los Angeles County where supplies will merge into the Southern California Gas Co. transmission backbone pipeline/storage system.

Clearwater Port executives will explain NorthernStar’s plans for converting an operating offshore oil platform into what they call a state-of-the-art LNG terminal. They plan to brief local news media, elected officials and residents of the two widely separated communities.

As part of the scoping hearing, the federal Maritime Administration (MARAD) and U.S. Coast Guard, in coordination with the California State Lands Commission, will outline their plans for the joint preparation of an environmental impact statement/report on the NorthernStar proposal during the next 12 months.

The company’s application calls for the development of a deepwater port more than 20 miles offshore from Oxnard to offload the LNG, then regasify and ship it in a newly constructed undersea natural gas pipeline to connecting transmission pipelines in Oxnard.

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