After being cleared by FERC and the U.S. Coast Guard, the mothballed Cove Point liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on the eastern shore of Maryland received its commissioning LNG shipment Friday.

The Norman Lady tanker laden with 84,000 cubic meters of LNG (1.9 Bcf) from Trinidad docked at around 3 p.m. Friday, said Dan Donovan, a spokesman for Dominion Resources, parent of Dominion Cove Point.

Receiving the commissioning (or test) cargo is one of the last steps before commercial start-up of the facility can get underway. The Cove Point terminal has been mothballed for more than 20 years. Donovan said the LNG from the test cargo would remain in the pipeline system for operational purposes. The LNG pipeline stretches more than a mile offshore into the Chesapeake Bay.

Cove Point expects to start up commercial operation in early August. Donovan estimated it will take the facility about six weeks to reach its full send-out capacity of 1 Bcf/d, with deliveries to go to customers in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast gas markets.

Work at the Cove Point terminal has been taking place around-the-clock so the facility would pass federal inspections and be able to receive the commissioning cargo before the end of July.

©Copyright 2003 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.