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Cheniere gets land option for another Gulf LNG site Politicians support second terminal in sparsely populated southwestern Louisiana; region has LNG experience Allen Baker Petroleum News Contributing Writer
Cheniere Energy Inc., which recently announced significant milestones for proposed liquefied natural gas terminals in Texas and Louisiana, now has secured an option for land that could become yet another LNG receiving site along the Gulf of Mexico.
The Houston-based company announced Nov. 23 that it has an option for land at the mouth of the Calcasieu Channel in Louisiana, roughly 30 miles east of the company’s Sabine Pass site, where a federal permit is expected to be issued by the end of the year.
The terminal would essentially be a twin of the Sabine Pass facility, which itself closely resembles the design envisioned for Cheniere’s Corpus Christi, Texas, location.
Each of the plans calls for two docks, three storage tanks holding the equivalent of just over 10 billion cubic feet of natural gas, and a regasification capacity of 2.6 billion cubic feet daily. The terminals will cost in the neighborhood of $700 million apiece.
The company got a ringing endorsement from the local government, which has watched planning for the Sabine Pass facility in the same parish.
“Cheniere Energy is welcome in Louisiana and especially in Cameron Parish,” said Steve Trahan, president of the Cameron Parish Police Jury, in a statement included in Cheniere’s announcement. “Their openness with our residents, pro-active commitment to becoming a good citizen in the community and their credibility in delivering on their promises to work with us as they developed the Sabine Pass LNG terminal has earned our support for any other project they choose to develop.” Region has long LNG experience The region is one of the few areas with long LNG experience. The new site is just a few miles from one of the nation’s four operating LNG import terminals, at nearby Lake Charles. That terminal, which began operating in 1981, is being expanded to double the current gasification capacity of just over 600 million cubic feet daily. It’s owned by a subsidiary of Panhandle Energy Inc.
Cheniere plans to file its initial paperwork for the new project with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in January. Permitting is expected to take a year or so, according to Cheniere’s president, Keith Meyer. The terminal could be operating as early as 2009.
Earlier in November, Cheniere got commitments from both ChevronTexaco and Total for capacity at Sabine Pass, and a notice that it had essentially passed environmental reviews for the Corpus Christi site. The company, which also is a minor player in Gulf of Mexico oil and gas exploration, holds a 30 percent increase in another terminal planned in Freeport, Texas.
The latest site is on protected water near tiny Hackberry, La., population 1,600. The entire parish, now planned as a site for two LNG terminals, has just over 10,000 residents.
The company released few details about the deal. It didn’t disclose the size of the site, the terms of the option, or the current owners.
More than three dozen LNG terminals are in the planning stages around the nation’s coastline. Clearly, not all of them will be built.
But those in the petrochemical heartland of Louisiana and Texas have encountered fewer objections from residents who don’t want the facilities in their back yards.
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