NMFS says Kenai LNG cool down project unlikely to adversely affect inlet habitat

Kay Cashman

Petroleum News

In response to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s request for a thorough review and written opinion on the environmental impact of Trans-Foreland Pipeline’s proposed Kenai LNG Cool Down Project, the National Marine Fisheries Service provided FERC’s environmental staff with a Letter of Concurrence on Jan. 26, agreeing with FERC’s determination to allow the project to proceed.

“NMFS staff concurs that the proposed action is not likely to adversely affect Cook Inlet beluga whales or their critical habitat, western DPS Steller sea lions, Western North Pacific DPS gray whales, Western North Pacific DPS humpback whales, Mexico DPS humpback whales, or sei whales,” said the letter signed by Jonathan M. Kurland, NMFS assistant regional administrator for protected resources.

The March 29, 2019, application was filed by Marathon Petroleum subsidiary Trans-Foreland, which also owns the adjacent Kenai Refinery. Trans-Foreland wants to “bring parts of the Kenai LNG Plant out of current warm idle status by importing LNG and using the LNG to cool existing LNG storage tanks and associated LNG facilities,” as well as minor modifications to prevent environmental and economic waste from boil-off gas. The modifications are collectively referred to as the Kenai LNG Cool Down Project.

The project will allow the Kenai LNG Terminal to import up to four tanker loads of LNG annually and provide up to 7 million standard cubic feet per day of boil-off gas to the refinery.

During periods when BOG generation is insufficient to meet the refinery’s needs, a portion of the LNG would be vaporized and delivered to the refinery along with the BOG.

The existing export terminal includes a pretreatment facility, a 0.2 billion cubic feet per day liquefaction unit, three 35,000-cubic-meter LNG storage tanks, a BOG management system, a marine loading/unloading dock and ancillary facilities. The terminal has not exported LNG since 2015 and has been maintained in a warm idle state since 2018.

Trans-Foreland does not propose to activate the liquefaction portion of the plant.

NMFS noted that the LNG facility upgrades “will occur entirely on land, therefore the construction of the upgrades is not expected to impact water resources, fishes, marine mammals, and/or threatened and endangered species.”

And “because this project proposes no change in vessel operations … no additional adverse effects from vessel operations are expected,” NMFS said.

Since the Kenai LNG plant is not currently generating emissions, this project, NMFS said, “would result in an increase in carbon dioxide equivalents emissions … due to LNG import and venting emissions from LNG ship unloading events. A CO2e is the number of metric tons of CO2 emissions with the same global warming potential as one metric ton of another greenhouse gas.”

This project, which “routes BOG gas to the Kenai refinery, would result in lower emissions than venting and flaring the gas during previous LNG export operations. Venting and flaring emissions from the Kenai LNG Plant during export mode resulted in more than 1 million tons of CO2e/year, compared with CO2e from the proposed project, which is estimated at approximately 52,500 tons/year. Any effects to listed species or critical habitat attributable to these emissions would be insignificant,” NMFS said.

- KAY CASHMAN