Sempra Energy’s Port Arthur LNG LP has filed an application with FERC to build and operate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and associated facilities in Port Arthur, TX, to import up to 1.5 Bcf/d of natural gas, to be expandable later to 3 Bcf/d.

Affiliate Port Arthur Pipeline LP also is seeking approval to build and operate a 70-mile, 36-inch diameter pipeline leg, which would interconnect with Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line, and a three-mile pipeline leg to provide takeway capacity for regasified LNG on an open-access basis [CP05-83, CP05-84]. The three-mile, 36-inch diameter pipeline leg would interconnect with Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America in Jefferson County, TX.

Port Arthur LNG proposes to build the terminal in two phases. Phase I would permit the terminal to send out 1.5 Bcf/d of regasfied LNG on a firm basis by the winter heating season of 2008-2009, the company said. Phase II would allow the terminal to send out an additional 1.5 Bcf/d of regasified LNG on a firm basis as early as 2010, but no later than 2015, it noted.

The company called on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue a final order within nine months of filing the application to permit it to meet its targeted deadlines for the project.

The Port Arthur terminal would be sited on roughly 198 acres within an approximately 540-acre parcel of land in Port Arthur, which lies at the eastern edge of Jefferson County. The land, which is owned by Sempra Energy, runs along the Port Arthur Ship Channel.

The terminal project initially would contain three LNG storage tanks with an approximate capacity of 160,000 cubic meters each, expanding to a total of six LNG storage tanks in the second phase. Two berths would be constructed in Phase I, each capable of accommodating the concurrent unloading of two LNG tankers ranging in capacity from 125,000 cubic meets to 250,000 cubic meters.

Both Port Arthur LNG and Port Arthur Pipeline are subsidiaries of Sempra Energy.

©Copyright 2005Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.