Trans-Foreland, owner of the dock and liquefaction facility at Nikiski - the Kenai LNG Plant - has proposed adding a new boil-off-gas booster compressor unit and related equipment to facilitate import of liquefied natural gas to cool down existing LNG storage tanks and associated facilities. (See stories in Petroleum News beginning in issue of May 5, 2019.)
Federal, state and local approvals are required, including authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission under Section 3 of the Natural Gas Act, Trans-Foreland owner Tesoro Alaska Co. said in a June 15 letter to the Alaska State Historic Preservation Office and FERC. The federal authorization requirement triggered a review under the National Historic Preservation Act requiring federal agencies to take into account impacts on historic properties, defined as cultural resources listed or eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Tesoro Alaska said Trans-Foreland and Marathon Petroleum Corp. “have fulfilled their commitment to provide a ‘historic preservation plan’” covering the optimized cascade technology and machinery at the Kenai LNG Plant.
“The Plan is intended to address the AK SHPO’s concern that the addition of new elements, or the removal of existing elements will adversely effect the eligibility of the Kenai LNG Plant for listing on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) while also complying with the confidentiality directives issued by FERC as part of Critical Energy/Electric Infrastructure Information … procedural rules.”
Eligible for listing
Tesoro said Environmental Resources Management did a survey and recommended that the Kenai LNG Plant was eligible for listing on the NRHP for historic significance in development of the oil and gas industry in Alaska and for the groundbreaking design of its optimized cascade technology and machinery.
ERM said it believed the facility would still be eligible for listing with the proposed changes.
The Alaska State Historic Preservation Office disagreed, believing they changes would adversely affect the NRHP eligibility of the facility, and proposed that the optimized cascade technology and machinery be documented with drawings to the standards of the Historic American Engineering Record.
But ERM said machinery and technology at the Kenai LNG Plant “is subject to confidentiality directives issued by the FERC” under rules governing procedures “for submitting, designating, handling, sharing, and disseminating CEII submitted to or generated by the FERC.”
The optimized cascade technology and machinery at the plant have been designed as CEII, are exempt from mandatory disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act and may not be made available where public disclosure of information or records is required.
To satisfy AK SHPO’s desire to document the machinery and technological process, while acknowledging the confidentiality requirements of CEII, a plan has been developed to document prior to modification, change or removal of optimized cascade machinery/technology.
Trans-Foreland/Marathon will consult with FERC and AK SHPO for any actions that would modify, change or remove a portion of the facility’s optimized cascade machinery/technology, and if it is determined the proposed action would affect NRHP eligibility, then a plan will be developed and approved by FERC and AK SHPO to document prior to any changes.
