Register

The Department of Energy (DOE) is taking public comments on a proposed change in its gas import-export data collection program. In a Federal Register notice released on Thursday DOE said it is proposing to collect natural gas (including liquefied natural gas) import-export information only on a monthly basis, rather than on a monthly and quarterly basis.

The Maritime Administration (MARAD) and the U.S. Coast Guard issued a notice in the Federal Register requesting comments on a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) on Suez’s proposed Neptune liquefied natural gas (LNG) deepwater port, which would be located about eight miles southeast of Gloucester, MA and 22 miles northeast of Boston. The project would include a subsea pipeline and a submerged buoy system that would surface to connect two cargo ships with onboard regasification. The 11-mile, 24-inch diameter pipeline would bring an average of 500 MMcf/d of regasified LNG to a connection with Algonquin’s HubLine pipeline in Boston Harbor. Construction would take about three years with commercial operation expected in 2009. The DEIS stated that using one pipeline system for the Neptune project and the competing Northeast Gateway offshore LNG project, sponsored by Excelerate Energy, would reduce the environmental impacts of both projects. The agencies considered the impacts of three proposed LNG import terminals: Neptune, Northeast Gateway and AES Battery Rock, which would be built on an island near the entrance to Boston Harbor. Public meetings on the Neptune DEIS will be held later this month in Massachusetts. For more information, go to MARAD’s website at http://www.marad.dot.gov/dwp/index.asp.

Acting on specifications in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Minerals Management Service (MMS) published requests for comments in the Federal Register this week to prepare for proposed rulemakings that would provide royalty relief for gas and oil production using enhanced recovery techniques and for gas production from methane hydrates.

FERC on Thursday finalized procedures to allow for enhanced due process for companies that disagree with the findings of staff operational audits. The new procedures will allow the subject of an operational audit to challenge an audit finding or proposed remedy before the Commission issues an order on the disputed matter in the audit.

FERC on Thursday finalized procedures to allow for enhanced due process for companies that disagree with the findings of staff operational audits. The new procedures will allow the subject of an operational audit to challenge an audit finding or proposed remedy before the Commission issues an order on the disputed matter in the audit.

In an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published Friday in the Federal Register, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) said it is beginning to develop a regulatory program to implement “Alternate Energy-Related Uses on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).” Among other things, the new program would provide access to the OCS to balance competing and complementary uses of offshore acreage and take into “account the evolving nature of the energy industry.”

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) issued a final rule in the Federal Register that would waive several cost recovery fees until Jan. 3 to allow time for the agency to get its New Orleans office back in service. MMS staff have been operating at temporary offices in Houston while repairs were made to the New Orleans offices, which just reopened this week.

The U.S. Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration (MARAD) issued a request for comments in a Federal Register notice Thursday on Suez LNG’s proposed Neptune LNG project offshore Gloucester, MA. The Coast Guard intends to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) on the project, which is being planned about 22 miles northeast of Boston in federal waters. The deepwater port would be capable of mooring up to two 140,000 cubic meter capacity LNG carriers by means of a submerged unloading buoy system. The LNG carriers would be equipped to store, transport and vaporize LNG, and to odorize and meter natural gas, which would be delivered to the Algonquin HubLine system via an 11-mile 24-inch diameter pipeline. The notice requests public participation in the scoping process and provides information on how to participate. Public meetings will be held in Boston and Gloucester on Nov. 2 and Nov. 3, respectively. Material submitted in response to the request for comments for the scoping process must reach the docket management facility by Nov. 18. The facility’s phone number is (202) 366-9329, its fax is (202) 493-2251 and its website for electronic submissions is http://dms.dot.gov. For details contact Roddy Bachman at the U.S. Coast Guard at (202) 267-1752 or rbachman@comdt.uscg.mil.

The U.S. Coast Guard reported in a Federal Register notice Tuesday that it has stopped processing an environmental assessment of Chevron’s onshore work associated with its Port Pelican liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal offshore southwest Louisiana. Chevron had planned to conduct fabrication activities for the gravity-based structure onshore at Port Aransas in Nueces County, TX, but the company has decided not to renew a lease on the site because it has not lined up LNG supply for the project.