Facility

JAX LNG has the remaining engineering and procurement contracts required to begin construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) liquefaction and storage facility in Jacksonville, FL, at Dames Point near the Port of Jacksonville (see Daily GPI,Aug. 31). The facility is expected to be online during the fourth quarter of 2017. It will have a two million-gallon storage tank with capacity to produce more than 120,000 gallons of LNG per day. JAX said it will be the first small-scale coastal LNG facility in the country and will include marine distribution capabilities utilizing North America’s first LNG bunker barge, Clean Jacksonville. In 2015 the JAX LNG joint venture was formed, which brought together Pivotal LNG, a unit of Southern Company Gas; and NorthStar Midstream LLC, a midstream transportation company backed by funds that are managed by Oaktree Capital Management LP and Clean Marine Energy LLC. JAX LNG is the supplier of LNG to the world’s first LNG dual-fuel container ships, the Isla Bella and Perla del Caribe, operated by TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico (see Daily GPI,Oct. 16, 2015).

A Moundsville Power LLC representative told local government officials in West Virginia this week that construction of its 595 MW natural gas-fired power plant is likely to be delayed as it deals with an appeal to its air quality permit, according to reports.

Condensate is flowing on MPLX LP’s Cornerstone Pipeline system, which is designed to move liquids from processing facilities in Harrison County, OH, to Marathon Petroleum Corp.’s (MPC) refinery in Canton, OH.

Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) said a small natural gas leak was discovered and plugged in an above-ground pipeline at the still-closed Aliso Canyon underground gas storage facility along the northern fringe of Los Angeles.

FirstEnergy Corp. subsidiary Mon Power has completed a $5 million project to provide electric service to Antero Midstream Partners LP’s wastewater treatment facility in Doddridge County, WV. Mon Power said the facility is expected to use more than 16 MW of electricity once it’s fully operational, or about the equivalent of what 16,000 homes use. Announced in 2015, the $275 million treatment complex is being constructed on 635 acres (see Shale Daily, Aug. 19, 2015). It will process wastewater from Antero Resources Corp.’s shale wells in Ohio and West Virginia and produce salt and sludge byproducts. It’s expected to be in service by 2017. Mon Power said the project to supply the facility with electricity is part of the company’s efforts to provide the state’s “energy-intensive” shale gas industry with reliable electric service.

Enterprise Products Partners LP said the first cargo of ethane from its Morgan’s Point, TX, terminal has departed. The M/V JS INEOS Intrepid, loaded with about 265,000 bbl of ethane, set sail from the facility Thursday morning en route to the INEOS facility at Rafnes in Norway. The Morgan’s Point facility, which is the largest of its kind in the world, has a design loading capacity of 10,000 bbl/hour. “The driving force behind development of the terminal is the growing international demand for abundant U.S. ethane from shale plays, which offers the global petrochemical industry a low-cost feedstock option and supply diversification,” Enterprise said (see Daily GPI, July 28). Supply for the terminal is sourced from Enterprise’s natural gas liquids fractionation and storage complex in Mont Belvieu, TX, and transported through a new 18-mile, 24-inch diameter pipeline that was completed in February. The Mont Belvieu complex is connected to ethane production from the Marcellus and Utica shales through the ATEX pipeline (see Shale Daily, Dec. 5, 2013).

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin announced this week that startup US Methanol Corp. intends to move a methanol production facility to Kanawha County in the southwestern part of the state.

A small pipeline leak was found last Saturday at Southern California Gas Co.’s closed Aliso Canyon underground storage facility and quickly repaired. The discovery has re-invigorated those calling for the permanent closure of the troubled facility.

The excitement over Shell Chemical Appalachia LLC’s final investment decision (FID) to construct a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker in Western Pennsylvania was palpable at one of the region’s first shale-related petrochemical conferences in Pittsburgh on Monday.